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Democrats: Worthless party or most worthless party ever?

The minimum wage argument has widespread acceptance across the economics profession as a completely ineffective tool to fight poverty. Liberal pundits, activists, and even college editors deny academia’s conclusion in order to advance a decidedly Marxist agenda – yet the Democratic Party seems to have abandoned their base:

The Senate late Thursday rejected, 56-42, a bill fusing the cut in estate taxes with a $2.10 increase over three years in the $5.15 minimum wage. The bill also would have revived a host of expired tax cuts, including a business research and development credit and deductions for state sales taxes, college tuition and teachers’ classroom supplies.

Did you read that last line? Political DIE-NO-MITE! Voting against deductions for college tuition also? Gee maybe we could get the USSA on this…

It’s clear that the Democrats agenda is to advance the tyrannical reaches of the state at the expense of their main supporters: college students and poorer citizens. This is not unlike the Republican Party too – but at least the “Bushies” have gotten some bills passed. I’m not positive how one goes about voting Democratic these days when they have been so spineless about their own agenda – would anyone notice if they stopped showing up?

  1. Andy says:

    “This is funny coming from someone who belonged to the CRs. I don

  2. Tyler says:

    Ther numerous times that Andy has tried to convince us that all governments are evil. For example:

    “There is no voting for anarcho-capitalists. I take it to be the equivalent of burning a draft card. But – I believe a moral an-cap will always continue to fight tyranny in one way or another.”

    This is funny coming from someone who belonged to the CRs. I don’t believe that voting is necessary, but you certainly aren’t being coerced into doing it. Apathy is a human right. Right?

    “The thugs cannot move in and grab people to quickly as it will scare the herd – and it

  3. Blaser says:

    Not yet Tyler — he hasn’t questioned your manhood, called you a pussy, and threatened to take you out to the street to prove that he’s a warrior.

    Bring it, Andy!

  4. Timothy says:

    Which time?

  5. Tyler says:

    Man, it’s like the bar all over again.

  6. Andy says:

    There is no voting for anarcho-capitalists. I take it to be the equivalent of burning a draft card. But – I believe a moral an-cap will always continue to fight tyranny in one way or another.

    I see the socialists grabbing everyone’s hands with stories of grandeur and gumdrop meadows – they are so sure of it and just want the best for everyone. But all that is in the direction they are going is a meat grinder administered by the thugs of the state. Their intellectuals and propagandists are the siren’s call. The thugs cannot move in and grab people to quickly as it will scare the herd – and it’s much easier when people run full speed into the jaws of death. When the world moved close to the grinder it was shocked, and many understandably do not wish to talk about the experience, let alone remember the greatest human slaughters during the 20th century. I can still see the grinder though, looming in the distance, and I try to tell everyone to pick up their heads, open their eyes and ears and look at it in the distance. But everyday we keep our heads down and slowly shuffle towards it. Not because people really want to, but we are consumed with what is most important in the short run – our families, friends, jobs, hobbies, etc. The state and it’s cronies incessantly push and prod and preach to not worry about where we are headed – that’s what they are paid to do. They tell us the nightmares we will see if we open our eyes – and we stay in a perpetual state of fear and mistrust for that which isn’t under complete dominance of government. So we obey and get back to living the best we can under the byzantine bureaucracy and perpetual violence the state’s gang inflicts on us – for our own good.

  7. Niedermeyer says:

    goddam, I am gonna resort to using emoticons if I get taken seriously one more time on this blog… um, except for the times I want to be.

    I guess the point I was making was that the only possible “libertarian-anarcho-capitalist” reason for voting Republican rather than Democrat is that the Republican fiscal policies seem to approach the anti-statist at times. Not that I think the government is on the verge of “bankruptcy,” or that it “peddles counterfeit currency.”

    Also, anything that doesn’t come in a can labled “Pabst Blue Ribbon” is not beer, but an imposter. “People mumble, Pabst speaks.”

  8. Timothy says:

    Mr Won The Battle, Lost The War:

    1) Andy is an anarcho-capitalist, they’re pretty big on the gold standard. He’s also a little excitable, but a smart guy with interesting things to say. The start is always rough, but I’d encourage you to engage him at least on some topics of interest. He and I have been ’round and ’round about the gold standard, I don’t think either of us is going to convice the other of anything regarding it any time soon (I am rather not an anarcho-capitalist).

    2) I was so fucking high when I wrote that, but I definitely lean more toward lighter and wheat-based ales during the summer time. I tend to reserve the darker stuff for the dark pit of winter. Not that winter exists in South Texas, mind you.

  9. Andy says:

    SA,

    More asinine than proclaiming the federal debt will lead to the collapse of the state? I my point was proper because inflation and deficits were brought up.

    It seems the majority of your critcism of my points question their strength, but not their validity.

    What DO you have to say? Do you have a good justification for the Democrats actions? Are you just agreeing with me? Should I post about beer? I just made a Fat Tire clone…it’s on tap out of my fridge!

    Best beer of the moment: Bridgeport IPA

  10. Santa Anna says:

    “I never thought Blackwatch was a good summer beer, never did. It is a good beer, though, yes

  11. Santa Anna says:

    Andy… You do realize that it took you only two responses to: a) effectively demonstrate Godwin’s Law (in this case, the Soviet version); and, b) present a polemic which is so inherently asinine (“the federal reserve is a private corporation printing counterfit money”) that it is embraced by both Posse Comitatus and the green anarchist movement.

    If this is where the conversation is going to begin, I, for one, do not want to stick around for the conclusion.

  12. Andy says:

    The federal reserve is a private corporation printing counterfit money which I’m pretty sure the government has no intention of buying back. But I am worried about taxation and backdoor taxation in particular.

    Yea, I don’t know how many people hold gov’t securities and if they could see default comming – I know I’ll never buy notes. I wish I didn’t have to use dollars, and I frequently buy intrest bearing assets with them to counteract the incessant inflation.

    The gov’t existed on the gold standard for centuries – so I’m pretty sure the collapse of the dollar, by itself, will have little effect on the the oppression of our government from means other than fiat.

  13. Niedermeyer says:

    Andy- if you’re worried about the “advance (of) the tyrannical reaches of the state” my suggestion would be to worry less about what little the democrats are capable of actually doing, and even less in increases in the minimum wage. On the other hand, the republicans are running the kind of deficits that will eventually lead to the collapse of state oppression and the rise of a privatized free-market utopia.

  14. calmnsense says:

    Depends solely upon how cold it is, doesn’t it? I never appreciated Guinness Stout, served warm in England, either…somehow they messed up even the best gift from Ireland but drunk cold & creamy in Dublin it became a religious experience!

    Of course, neither beer is affordable with today’s minimum wage. But I’ll bet the multi-millionaire “estate babies” the Rs have been trying to help aren’t exactly crying in their beer

  15. Andy says:

    SA,
    Of course there is inflation – that’s the effect of fractional reserve banking. You know that wasn’t my argument.
    Pragmatism isn’t a moral code – I want to know your philosophy as to why the minimum wage is a good thing to you.

    Did you know the soviets had more efficient health-care than us? They just shot people! Much more efficient. No min-wage or expensive socialized medicine. But why do you think free-market health-care is better? I’m glad to hear you think so – but why not also in labor markets?

    Isn’t a tax break anti-pork? Wasn’t the issue to raise the minimum wage? Is egrigous taxation not tyrannical?

    I do realize their agenda could be interpreted in a different way – but that’s the conclusion I’ve come to.

  16. Timothy says:

    I never thought Blackwatch was a good summer beer, never did. It is a good beer, though, yes…but not for summer.

  17. Santa Anna says:

    Well, it was actually MacTarnahan’s Blackwatch (Cream Porter), but, if it wasn’t for the heat, you would have been right… No worries, though… Come September, the Imperial will be back in stock, and it will stay in stock–at least until I have the cash to emigrate.

  18. emily says:

    Santa Anna,

    The beer, is it perhaps a Russian Imperial Stout this evening?

  19. Santa Anna says:

    “The minimum wage argument has widespread acceptance across the economics profession as a completely ineffective tool to fight poverty.”

    Yes, well, “poverty” is not the only issue at stake here. Your beloved neoliberalism certainly has its benefits, but only a fool would argue that certain personal costs have not increased (dramatically) since the minimum wage was last raised. If you’re going to consider the lesser of two evils, well, I would argue that raising the minimum wage is a better solution to rising health care costs for the poor then, say, socialized medicine. Then again, we could all just continue to let John Q. Public pick up the tab for all of those unpaid emergency room bills. That would be practical.

    “It

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