Explaining The Tea Party To My Son

My son asked me a question the other day: “Hey dad, what’s the Tea Party? I mean what do they want, what do they believe in?”

I said, “That’s easy. The Tea Party believes in lower taxes and balancing the budget. They formed right after Obama was elected. They started holding Tea Party rallies protesting tax increases immediately after his inauguration.”

“So what tax increases were they protesting?”

“Well, the first thing Obama did as president was create a stimulus package to bring the country out of the recession. That included hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts for families and small businesses. This lowered taxes for 95% of Americans.”

http://jeff61b.hubpages.com/hub/Explain ... -To-My-Son

Even when Obama lowers taxes he still can't get the economy going. What a failure. Probably because he is more a whiner looking to cast blame instead of a leader willing to take blame and responsibility.

"Government cannot create jobs"...

Still trying to run on that one?...

Thanks, I needed a chuckle this afternoon...

Mississippi Tea Party says women are too emotional and diabolical to vote

"Our country might have been better off if it was still just men voting. There is nothing worse than a bunch of mean, hateful women. They are diabolical in how than can skewer a person." -- President of Central Mississippi Tea Party

http://www.examiner.com/article/mississ ... al-to-vote

Raees wrote: Mississippi Tea Party says women are too emotional and diabolical to vote

"Our country might have been better off if it was still just men voting. There is nothing worse than a bunch of mean, hateful women. They are diabolical in how than can skewer a person." -- President of Central Mississippi Tea Party

http://www.examiner.com/article/mississ ... al-to-vote

ooooh I like being labled diabolical, and skewering, sounds interesting. The potential is mind boggling
:faint:

:pop

on that note wrote:

Democracy4Sale wrote: "Government cannot create jobs"...

Still trying to run on that one?...

Thanks, I needed a chuckle this afternoon...

I am sorry, let me clarify for those that don't speak internet symbols fluently....

I don't understand why you debate with symbols and sarcasm, I think it makes you look worse than me. This is not apple falling down after it leaves the branch stuff. This is not even as simple as the relationship of the orbits of the third moon of Jupiter relative to the orbit of Haley's Comet.

Could you contend my point with basic facts and prove me wrong or educate me without assuming the position of the govt. creates jobs as a religion (to be taken on faith). Despite direct real proof, even the fundamentals don't support the concept of the govt creating jobs in any way except by allowing free trade and the right of everyone to be not owned to own things.

In order to actually create in net increase in jobs, the government via it's activities must create wealth, and only such activities that would have not happened in the private sector anyway and are in demand (things that meet both these criteria rarely exist). And many forms of wealth creation benefit the few while sacrificing employment - so only some aspect of wealth creation even apply and the rest work against jobs. Despite this, without creating wealth there is no new money with which to pay someone, thus without creating wealth there is no new job, there is only the sacrifice of one job in order to have the money for another.

In the private sector we create wealth by:

mining it out of the earth - the govt does some of this, but nothing that would not otherwise be done more by private sector, they eliminate MANY jobs in this industry, perhaps for good reason, but they do go away, so any other increase would also have to cover this decrease.

adding value by re-manufacturing or re-branding something - Our govt does not generally manufacture things, it contracts to buy things, but that is not making things. The things it buys are not generally used for productive means (guns) and thus kill people which eliminates jobs. If those guns and the use of them piss off enough people, they might come and kill us and destroy our property, this also does not create new jobs (even as we rebuild - let's not do the broken window fallacy). It does restrict manufacturing in countless ways though, some of which even sound good, like labor laws and min wage....these always eliminate jobs in the USA. The govt does rebrand and perhaps does create some value here...energy star for example, but this same standard serves to keep small players out of markets and those that pay more for these rebranded items, could have spent the same money elsewhere creating the same jobs. It depends on things like where alternative products or services are made, how much labor did it take (if any), etc.

growing it (as in a plant or animal that produces less than it costs) -again our govt does not grow much stuff, though they do keep many things from being grown (subsidies and pot for example) and again these may be for good reasons for some (to keep a farm field from turning into a neighborhood), but again, keeping people from growing....or allowing monsanto to have complete regulatory capture, does not create jobs. So this is yet another area where whatever jobs that are created by govt need to make up for. There are so many jobs eliminated by what I have wrote already, I am really curious where your army of new jobs is going to come from, but I will keep going.

increasing the birth rate (more future labor) while keeping the death rate stable or lowering it - looks like we are not doing to well in this area. Perhaps the last govt created bubble/crash made this even worse, I wonder what the next mega education bubble/crash will do as it will be much bigger than the piddly real estate one. We could also allow more people to immigrate, but we hate brown people and people that don't talk our language, or people that did not grow up in our town for that matter.

inventing something - OMG does the govt screw this one up, plain and simple - the govt is real good at encouraging technology, all be it often the wrong kind and maybe not more than the private sector. Look, inventions eliminate jobs, that's why we invent them, so we don't have to pay people. We already have just about all the technology we need, we only want more to get more resources than our neighbor, not to create jobs.

making something popular (stars and royals old toilet seat is worth more $), this does not create new jobs though it does encourage people to take existing real wealth and direct it towards the new item of increased bragging rights value. I guess the people that work at the british gossip papers have cool jobs, but if it were not for the royals, they would focus more on COPS or hollywood, like us, so I contend no new jobs, just more stimulus.

by increasing trade - without govts people would trade freely, govt restricts trade and then grants it back as a right, something we are starting as a trend domestically too. So no new jobs here.

by holding things that increase in value - where is that gold anyway and isn't this the opposite of just printing more money. More jobs lost as people cannot plan and do all the other things they would do without the burden of the spastic monetary policies.

Stimulus is just job redistribution, everything the government does is just redistribution - even if we want it and like it - it does not mean a job was created, until the govt owns the factories and the businesses, we still make the wealth, they just tell us where to put certain portions of it, like your stimulus jobs. Beyond what is written here about the only ways you can create new jobs, there are countless ways the govt eliminates jobs domestically or in general, by regulating. Again, I think it is OK to admit that the cost of some of the beneficial regulations is jobs, everything costs something, but to go on to pretend with no proof that it creates jobs, is just propaganda, part of how one can tell is the lack of words you used to support your point. Even the bible uses words.

Seen any private truck stops, that have been in business for decades go out of business when they built all those new govt truck stops and rest areas? No new jobs, just moved jobs and idle properties. Jobs at small companies replaced by more burger king and shell jobs. Easier to control. This is the same tale where ever stimulus $ is found. I paid less taxes for two years because of the personal stimulus (you guys likely did too), what did you do to create a job with those $100s? Did you create more than the person that will have to pay for that in the future and how do you know?

Any response with words and reasoning would be welcome. I have outlined the elimination by the govt of millions of jobs if not tens of millions. Could you please outline how things I have overlooked not only cover all these lost jobs, but also create new ones worth talking about. What jobs are created that would not have been created or had alternatives if the govt did not restrict? Please consider the alternative paths of the money that the govt is redirecting via regs or outright taxation.

One of the tools you can use and I really suggest people try this with their political concepts is to make a little society and run it a few rounds of trade using your principals. Take a group of ten people, give them jobs, have more govt, less govt and just do it on a spread sheet. Do one group with 9 private people and 1 govt person and do another with 5 and 5. Show some sequence of events (trades) considering the policy you favor and the alternative. Could you use this simple tool and example to show me how the version with 5 and 5 will create more jobs? Simplify it as much as you can, this should be far easier than explaining why it works in all of society.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PxUHanjoyw again, orbits are even simpler than the govt ordering our lunch.

Now I am just thinking of this poor kid thinking about the tea party when his parents likely barely understand the govt they are under and that he should not need to know this crap, we have even politicized our children. Childhood is over for many before it really gets going. Indoctrination prevents a child from being a child, whether this be turning them into a socialist or a tea/kool aid drinker.

Best post I have ever read on this site.

on that note wrote: Stimulus is just job redistribution, everything the government does is just redistribution - even if we want it and like it - it does not mean a job was created, until the govt owns the factories and the businesses, we still make the wealth, they just tell us where to put certain portions of it, like your stimulus jobs. Beyond what is written here about the only ways you can create new jobs, there are countless ways the govt eliminates jobs domestically or in general, by regulating. Again, I think it is OK to admit that the cost of some of the beneficial regulations is jobs, everything costs something, but to go on to pretend with no proof that it creates jobs, is just propaganda, part of how one can tell is the lack of words you used to support your point. Even the bible uses words.

Seen any private truck stops, that have been in business for decades go out of business when they built all those new govt truck stops and rest areas? No new jobs, just moved jobs and idle properties. Jobs at small companies replaced by more burger king and shell jobs. Easier to control. This is the same tale where ever stimulus $ is found. I paid less taxes for two years because of the personal stimulus (you guys likely did too), what did you do to create a job with those $100s? Did you create more than the person that will have to pay for that in the future and how do you know?

One of the tools you can use and I really suggest people try this with their political concepts is to make a little society and run it a few rounds of trade using your principals. Take a group of ten people, give them jobs, have more govt, less govt and just do it on a spread sheet. Do one group with 9 private people and 1 govt person and do another with 5 and 5. Show some sequence of events (trades) considering the policy you favor and the alternative. Could you use this simple tool and example to show me how the version with 5 and 5 will create more jobs? Simplify it as much as you can, this should be far easier than explaining why it works in all of society.

Nailed it. I don't always agree with you but this was a great post. This is the kind of posts we should all attempt to make instead of the normal bashing of each other and the people we support. I'm guilty of not doing this enough and have let certain people get under my skin. It takes thoughtful reasoning to make a post like this whether the left, right, or center agrees with it or not. You made a lot of great points but I just quoted the ones that hit me the hardest. I appreciate your thoughts and hope more people actually read them all instead of just ignoring them as soon as they realize they don't agree with everything.

If more people on this board took the time to explain their ideology instead of emphisizing their hate and anger, this would be a more constructive site. Well done OTN