That doesn’t sound like the government is creating anything except indirectly favoring conditions that others might succeed financially. The govt has nothing without our taxes. Come on guys. The stretch is large.
busy until about 4pm mst. But, then I'll show a case where not only does gov create wealth, but it creates wealth that the private mkt cannot. amazing, but true.
You are talking in circles here. Government spending can in some circumstances create net wealth. In some cases the positive impact of the spending exceeds the net negative of the taxes. In other cases the benefits are less than the negative impact, but we do it anyway because we think it is the right thing to do. In some cases the spending is wasteful and the impact is negative with little positive benefit. Some infrastructure, govt funded R&D, defense, education and health care spending creates net wealth. Again some. Not all. It is basically about investment. Successful Investment creates wealth. It can come from the private sector or from government. Some forms of investment can only be carried out by government, not the private sector. Beyond spending, some laws and regulations can create wealth. To the extent laws help the market maintain a level playing field and protect individuals, consumers and businesses, it can have a net wealth creating affect. Again some, not all.
I appreciate your point that investment can possibly help create wealth. My BIG problem however…government doesn’t exist without OUR money. It can’t invest without first taking from the population. You are giving government too much credit for distribution of our money.
Yeah, if the government funds education, and things like nasa which has spun off countless inventions we use, or grants to universities for R&D, or creating a society that makes spending on safety and security less of a concern, the money can be directed toward things that build wealth…at a minimum then it’s contributing to it. But the single biggest driver of wealth creation is education. The second biggest is innovation, and it’s second because in most cases it’s largely dependent on the first. UF has a 5:1 return on investment for the state I think.
Again, of course government can create wealth. How many patents are the result of government-funded research? How many scientific and technological advances are the result of government funding? The government played a big role in the creation of the internet. It originated from the defense department's ARPANET. There's a lot of tech billionaires walking around today because of the internet, which originated as a government project.
I don’t have the time to figure out where this guy got and used his numbers. But Birmingham and Detroit were top 5 for homicides. Michigan has twice the population of Alabama. Easy to see how numbers can be manipulated. I would be more concerned about local leadership than state and federal leadership when it comes to homicides. And the dems are a complete disaster in this reality!
Stats get manipulated all the time. If you can’t figure out the vast majority of homicides happen in communities led by dems… I can’t help you. That is reality!
Ok, but you said 'Easy to see how numbers can be manipulated'. So how are they being manipulated? If it's so easy to see, it should be easy for you to explain it to me.
You still seem to be avoiding this question: If, as you say, "the vast majority of homicides happen in communities led by dems" then why are murder rates much higher in blue states where the majority of communities are run by Democrats? Why are the rates higher in red states where the majority of communities are run by Republicans?
I'll call this the libertarian arg for gov. (libertarians arg that if nothing else, gov is needed to provide public goods, correct for mkt failures & to price externalities) Public goods are wealth creation & they either cannot be provided by the private mkt or provided in suboptimal quantities. this is the case b/c they have 2 characteristics, non-rivaled & nonexcludable. Military & public airwaves & clean air are all good examples. Military is nonexcludable b/c it protects everyone, not just those who pay taxes. It is also non-rivaled b/c my "use" of it does not reduce the amt available to others. Let's say you got 30 people & they each value having a military at $3 & can get it for $60. If each person contributes $2, everyone is better off by $1 & $30 of wealth is created. No one will contribute b/c $3 > $1 & you can't exclude anyone from consuming the military, otherwise it would be a private good like a hamburger. Only a 3rd party can solve the problem by taxing everyone at $2 & providing the good & creating $30 of wealth. Notice, that pursuit of private wealth max makes everyone worse off...this really bothered free mkt economists b/c in so many situations, pursuit of self interest results in a good outcome.
You had a guy try to pin what is clearly a dem problem on pubs. The vast majority of homicides occur in dem led cities.
Are you talking about homicide rates? Or just number of homicides? It seems like the only here who is trying to manipulate numbers is you.
The article I linked was 65 of the biggest cities and their murder rate. I truly think Jacksonville might be the only one that has a pub mayor leading it. We know who leads communities with the most crime. The vast majority are led by dems.
There are a number of Republican-led cities on that list. And of the top 10 highest murder rate cities on your list, 8 of them are in red states. Why is that if Repubs are so much better at reducing crime than Dems? But the real correlation there is mayors of larger cities are more commonly Democrats. And your list includes only cities with at least 100k people in them. So there are going to be a lot more Dem mayors on your list than Republican mayors just by virtue of the fact that mayors of larger cities tend to be Democrats. Looking at Florida, Jacksonville with a Republican mayor has a much worse murder rate than Tampa, Orlando, or St Pete, all with Dem mayors. Miami has a Repub mayor and it also has a higher murder rate than Tampa, Orlando or St Pete. Looking at smaller cities in Florida, Ocala, with a Repub mayor, has a much higher murder rate than Gainesville with a Dem mayor. Ocala for that matter has a higher murder rate than Tampa, Orlando or St Pete. Guess that Republican mayor of Ocala isn't very good at stopping crime.
I’m all for needing govt for military and police protection. In no universe does the govt exist without first taking in taxes from private business. It’s irrational to say govt creates wealth. At best, it takes it and redistributes it. And it’s horrible at doing so because our deficit is embarrassing.
