Thursday, October 20, 2011

My contribution to all these "I am the 99%" things floating around

Posted by dkuehn at 9:06 AM

10 comments:

  1. Bob MurphyOctober 20, 2011 at 10:27 AM

    I had a similar take, Daniel.

    ReplyDelete
  2. DanielOctober 20, 2011 at 11:01 AM

    OK - although I'm not trying to be ironic. I do think one can be in the 1% and be for policies that help the 99%.

    TARP is tough - I support it in a qualified way (similar to Krugman, I think). Ideally there would have been some resolution along the lines of the Swedish approach. This was Krugman's position of initial opposal to TARP. But when that's not on the table and your options are do nothing or do TARP, of course you do TARP.

    Would that satisfy OWS? I don't know. I think it would satisfy some of them.

    Your preference ordering is:

    "Nothing" > "TARP" and "Resolution"

    My preference ordering (and I think Krugman's too) is:

    "Resolution" > "TARP" > "Nothing"

    I would wager that OWS is closer to Krugman and me - and that OWS is more willing to make the perfect the enemy of the good. I do not think OWS is opposing TARP for the same reasons you are opposing TARP.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Silas BartaOctober 20, 2011 at 11:27 AM

    I just hope nobody crashes as they try to read that while driving by... ;-)

    (Btw, I'm still willing to put you on the Do Not Kill List if you want. My disagreements with you do not motivate me to deny you such a courtesy.)

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousOctober 20, 2011 at 12:43 PM

    I finally figured out Hayek: The best of all possibly worlds is when everybody has the liberty to act in their own rational self interest about everything, except for poor people voting.

    Invisible Backhand
    http://www.reddit.com/r/CafeHayek/

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mark BahnerOctober 20, 2011 at 8:56 PM

    "The best of all possibly worlds is when everybody has the liberty to act in their own rational self interest about everything, except for poor people voting."

    "A government which robs Peter to pay Paul, can always count on the support of Paul." -- George Bernard Shaw, 1944

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousOctober 20, 2011 at 9:43 PM

    @Mark Bahner

    "Votes are more evenly distributed than income...Voters with incomes at the median income or below gain by transferring income to themselves."

    --Allen Meltzer

    ReplyDelete
  7. Gary GunnelsOctober 20, 2011 at 11:01 PM

    "Envy is the basis of democracy." - Bertrand Russell

    "Imagine if all of life were determined by majority rule. Every meal would be a pizza. Every pair of pants, even those in a Brooks Brothers suit, would be stone-washed denim. Celebrity diet and exercise books would be the only thing on the shelves at the library. And — since women are a majority of the population — we'd all be married to Mel Gibson." - P.J. O'Rourke

    ReplyDelete
  8. Gary GunnelsOctober 21, 2011 at 2:03 AM

    Well, the OWS movement has picked up the official endorsement of North Korea! ;)

    http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2011/10/20/occupy-wall-street-gets-pyongyangs-backing/

    ReplyDelete
  9. Blue AuroraOctober 21, 2011 at 9:25 AM

    Would the General Theory be any different if Keynes had cited Pareto's "Manual of Political Economy", if he somehow got it translated into English back in the day? XD

    (Yes, this goes back to the 1% versus 99% thing.)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Mark BahnerOctober 30, 2011 at 1:42 AM

    "Voters with incomes at the median income or below gain by transferring income to themselves."

    George Bernard Shaw said it much better: "A government which robs Peter to pay Paul, can always count on the support of Paul."

    ReplyDelete

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