Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post

filtherton · 10-22-2007, 01:23 PM

I don't think that economic growth is necessary automatically and/or significantly better for everyone in the economy. Supply side econ is why we have only three (or four) cops on the sex crimes squad in minneapolis, while the number of unsolved rape cases has been increasing. It's why the minnesota department of transportation tried to "front" a major, multi-year highway construction project from construction companies. It's quite possibly at least partly responsible for the 35w bridge collapsing.

I'm all for people having money to in invest and save, but i don't think that either of these things should always be the number one priority. GDP becomes less and less important when you don't have enough cops on the street, the public school system is doing less and less in the way of actual teaching, the people in charge of maintaining infrastructure don't have the money or the political will to do maintain the infrastructure, and the cost of attending public universities is sky-rocketing.

I think that supply side is often just a clever code word in reference to starve the beast policies that seek first to underfund important government programs, and then second, to point to the ineffectiveness of these programs that become ineffective because they're underfunded as evidence that we need to underfund them even more.

Supply side should be one option. Anyone who thinks it's the only way to go is a snake oil salesman.

10-22-2007, 01:23 PM	#2 (permalink)
filtherton Junkie Location: In the land of ice and snow.	I don't think that economic growth is necessary automatically and/or significantly better for everyone in the economy. Supply side econ is why we have only three (or four) cops on the sex crimes squad in minneapolis, while the number of unsolved rape cases has been increasing. It's why the minnesota department of transportation tried to "front" a major, multi-year highway construction project from construction companies. It's quite possibly at least partly responsible for the 35w bridge collapsing. I'm all for people having money to in invest and save, but i don't think that either of these things should always be the number one priority. GDP becomes less and less important when you don't have enough cops on the street, the public school system is doing less and less in the way of actual teaching, the people in charge of maintaining infrastructure don't have the money or the political will to do maintain the infrastructure, and the cost of attending public universities is sky-rocketing. I think that supply side is often just a clever code word in reference to starve the beast policies that seek first to underfund important government programs, and then second, to point to the ineffectiveness of these programs that become ineffective because they're underfunded as evidence that we need to underfund them even more. Supply side should be one option. Anyone who thinks it's the only way to go is a snake oil salesman.