Thom Hartmann: 'The Job Creators Are the People on Welfare' By Tim Graham | June 22, 2011 | 06:41 Sometimes, it can be heartwarming to listen to the radio and hear the sound of the Seventies. That's not true for the Thom Hartmann radio show. On Friday, Hartmann parlayed some classic 1971 socialist economics about who should get credit for the economic recovery: It's not so nice to hear a scratchy little record from John Maynard Keynes and the Pump-Primers. Hartmann chided a liberal caller on Friday who complained about partisanship and lack of compromise in the nation's capital. He questioned why should there be compromise when the "insane" GOP wants to take food out of the mouths of infants: Currently, the Hartmann website also features a poll that equates âAmerican exceptionalismâ with capitalist meanness, featuring the somewhat mangled tale of James Verone:
The government should let ME run the welfare system. I'd make sure EVERYBODY was fed, had shelter, clothing, and basic medical care. I'd also make sure the welfare recipients didn't spend other taxpayers' money of tobacco, alcohol, and drugs... nor would they have subsidized housing, transportation, utilities.. and be able to redeem their food stamps for gambling chits.
This guy is a loony toon, simple as that. I don't think he understands the most basic fundamentals of economics, or if he does, he doesn't really care. I'm not a republican, like this guy is a democrat, so i don't have a dog in this partisan fight. They seem very similar to me, regardless of which of these two groups are in power, the exact same things happen. Obama has been in power for how long? What's the difference between his rule and GW Bush's rule? It's the exact same. Is the war against our civil liberties any better? Is Obama decreasing wars? Nope, not a bit, in fact, he is increasing these things. The creators of the economy are people PRODUCING. Production is what creates the demand for OTHER products that other people are producing. Don't trust me, just think of a small island with 10 stranded people on it. The economic realities of that island are the same as the basic economic realities of an advanced state, albeit more complicated for the latter. If a guy on that island does not fish or hunt or PRODUCE things of value, but instead just begs for food, is he the engine of the economy? The engine of the economy is a guy making a net and catching a lot of fish. Another guy wants some of those fish, he isn't a good net maker or fishermen, so he finds a way to procure clean drinking water. He trades some of that drinking water to the guy with fish. That's a transaction, both parties are better off. The guy who procures drinking water, trades that drinking water to a women who has found berries on the island, etc. A man who is too lazy or incompetent to create or produce anything of value, adds NOTHING to the economy of the island. Assume that they feel bad for the guy and they give him some water and fish and berries, this does technically increase the demand for these items, but does that drive the economy? Of course not, the other people need to work harder just to benefit the same as they would have without this lazy/incompetent fellow. The increase in demand simply dilutes the economy, unless it corresponds to an increase in production. If that guy finds something he can produce then that drives the economy even further as it adds a new item or an increase in the quantity of an already existing iteam (assume he learns how to fish).
I always wondered.... Americans have far less vacation then Europeans, yet the US economy relies very heavy on internal consumption. How can people consume when they always work?
Your comment reminded me of a conversation I had back in the late 80's with a personnel director. The company I worked for at the time had just starting doing business in the UK. I was told that the first question asked by virtually every job candidate was how much "holiday" do they get. Almost no one seemed to care how much money they made.