{"id":3812,"date":"2011-02-24T16:46:22","date_gmt":"2011-02-24T16:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com.108-166-28-151.mdgnetworks.com\/wordpress\/?p=3812"},"modified":"2013-04-01T16:48:34","modified_gmt":"2013-04-01T16:48:34","slug":"homer-economics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/homer-economics\/","title":{"rendered":"Homer Economics"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n

Advancing a Free Society<\/em><\/p>\n

The showdown between public employee unions and cash-strapped state governments on display in Madison should be bad news for President Obama and the Democrats. While millions of Americans are unemployed, and those lucky enough to have jobs pay for their retirement and benefits, what they see on their televisions are for the most part Wisconsin school teachers \u2014 nine-month employees who pay a pittance for their healthcare and nothing for their retirement, all the while they earn on average around 100K a year in salary and benefits \u2014 carrying hateful signs, ditching school, shanghaiing students to swell the crowd, faking doctor\u2019s notes, and trying to undo a recent election by physically occupying the state house while their Democratic legislators skedaddle like deadbeats avoiding a process server. Whatever legitimate complaints the protestors might think they have are being lost in these provocative images going out to the rest of the country.<\/p>\n

And what many Americans are going to make of this spectacle bodes ill for the Democrats. The resort to bullying tactics in response to the recent Republican takeover of the governorship and the legislature confirms the notion that Democrats and progressives love democratic \u201chope and change\u201d only when they win. Otherwise, majority be damned. They seem to forget what President Obama said about elections and consequences. Then there\u2019s the hypocrisy of those who squeal \u201chate speech\u201d whenever anyone lays a metaphor on one of their own, and now are parading with hyperbolic placards calling the governor Hitler or, even more objectionably, equating their free, prosperous selves with the Egyptian protestors in Tahrir Square.<\/p>\n

And let\u2019s not forget Obama\u2019s signature tin-eared politics, calling the governor\u2019s attempt to rein in spending an \u201cassault on unions,\u201d and then unleashing his old campaign outfit, Organizing for America, to help orchestrate the protests. The President seemingly has forgotten that he runs the federal government, not the states, and his intrusion confirms the suspicion that he favors further expanding the reach of the feds into the states\u2019 business in order to reward the unions that helped get him elected, and to achieve his statist dreams of income redistribution, \u201csocial justice,\u201d or whatever utopian nostrum is used to camouflage a naked power-grab.<\/p>\n

Worse than all this is the utter indifference to economic realities any village explainer understands. Many liberals talk as if money is something the government creates and lets rich people keep too much of. Of course, people create wealth \u2014 the government just confiscates it. Thus the liberal solution to economic straits is to \u201ctax the rich,\u201d as a sign in Madison has it. But we alreadytax<\/a>\u00a0the \u201crich\u201d: the top 5% of tax filers in 2008 paid 58.7% of all federal income taxes, more than the bottom 95% combined. The bottom 50% paid 2.7%. As many have pointed out, our problem isn\u2019t that we tax too little but that we spend too much. Increasing government spending, as Obama has done over the past two years on pork and entitlements, at the same time he has piled more impediments and disincentives on the entrepreneurs and businesses that create the wealth in the first place, is a recipe for the sorts of fiscal problems troubling the economies of several countries in the EU.<\/p>\n

One doesn\u2019t need a degree in economics to understand this dynamic of capitalist wealth creation, the best economic system mankind has found for expanding and distributing wealth. But many liberals still don\u2019t get it. In fact, their economic thinking reminds me of that episode of\u00a0The Simpsons<\/em>\u00a0in which Homer discovers he can earn money from recycling grease, and so starts frying up bacon to create more grease:<\/p>\n

Clerk: Four pounds of grease. That comes to\u2026 sixty-three cents.<\/p>\n

Homer: Woo-hoo!<\/p>\n

Bart: Dad, all that bacon cost twenty-seven dollars.<\/p>\n

Homer: Yeah, but your mom paid for that.<\/p>\n

Bart: But doesn\u2019t she get her money from you?<\/p>\n

Homer: And I get my money from grease. What\u2019s the problem?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This sort of economic magical thinking has characterized the unholy alliance of public employee unions and state legislators, including at times Republicans. State functionaries can lavish generous benefits on state workers because it isn\u2019t their money, and because in the short-term there are no market forces to punish their improvidence with financial ruin. So why not buy political supporters and donors? Just keep on fleecing the taxpayers to pay for the binge. It\u2019s moral hazard on steroids, and eventually must end where all Ponzi schemes end.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a92011 Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Bruce S. Thornton Advancing a Free Society The showdown between public employee unions and cash-strapped state governments on display in Madison should be bad news for President Obama and the Democrats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[22,47,619],"tags":[12,165,129,1020,1052,67],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-Zu","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2534,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/its-the-philosophy-stupid\/","url_meta":{"origin":3812,"position":0},"title":"It’s the Philosophy, Stupid","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Advancing a Free Society The Democrats\u2019 position in the negotiations to raise the debt limit and deal with runaway government debt can be summarized in one mantric phrase: the rich must \u201cpay their fair share\u201d in taxes. White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer, for example, said\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6606,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/bruce-thornton-on-secure-freedom-radio-with-frank-gaffney\/","url_meta":{"origin":3812,"position":1},"title":"Bruce Thornton on Secure Freedom Radio with Frank Gaffney","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Seth Jones, Bruce Thornton, Peter Pham, Diana West October 9th, 2013\u00a0\u00b7\u00a0Comments SETH JONES, Associate Director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the RAND Corporation, joins guest host DAN BONGINO, to help explain the terror threat from and historical background of the terrorist organization al-Shabaab. BRUCE THORNTON, a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":843,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/class-warfare-the-last-refuge-of-a-failed-presidency\/","url_meta":{"origin":3812,"position":2},"title":"Class Warfare the Last Refuge of a Failed Presidency","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Media Now that Mitt Romney will be Obama\u2019s opponent in November, the Democrats are rolling out the false narrative they will use to demonize Romney and obscure four years of failed economic policies that have created the worst recovery from a recession since the Great\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":360,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/explaining-the-democrats-success-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":3812,"position":3},"title":"Explaining the Democrats’ Success","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thornton FrontPage Magazine The election postmortem has identified all manner of causes for the Republicans\u2019 defeat, from the \u201cwoman problem\u201d and the \u201cHispanic problem,\u201d as Peggy Noonan put it, to Romney\u2019s fat cat persona and his inept campaign. But there\u2019s a simpler reason, one consistent with the critics\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":335,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/explaining-the-democrats-success\/","url_meta":{"origin":3812,"position":4},"title":"Explaining the Democrats’ Success","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thornton Frontpage Magazine The election postmortem has identified all manner of causes for the Republicans\u2019 defeat, from the \u201cwoman problem\u201d and the \u201cHispanic problem,\u201d as Peggy Noonan put it, to Romney\u2019s fatcat persona and his inept campaign. But there\u2019s a simpler reason, one consistent with the critics of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Political Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Political Culture","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/political-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":171,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-nation-of-takers-hurtles-toward-the-fiscal-abyss\/","url_meta":{"origin":3812,"position":5},"title":"A Nation of Takers Hurtles Toward the Fiscal Abyss","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thornton Frontpage Magazine The on-going negotiations over avoiding the tax hikes and spending cuts we call the \u201cfiscal cliff\u201d are simply the latest act in a farce of self-serving political denial. For decades now both parties have overseen and nurtured the expansion of the entitlement state all the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3812"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3813,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3812\/revisions\/3813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}