Monday, April 04, 2011

Vanity Fair's Joseph Stiglitz: Schmuck With a Pen

Joseph Stiglitz, writing at the execrable Vanity Fair (I read it so you don't have to!), regurgitates the old, tired Marxist script in his latest piece of agitprop entitled "Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%."

The corporate executives who helped bring on the recession of the past three years—whose contribution to our society, and to their own companies, has been massively negative—went on to receive large bonuses...

And what of the corrupt politicians and judges, Stiglitz, who violated their oaths of office to create and then rob HUD, Social Security, Fannie Mae, Medicare, Freddie Mac and Medicaid?

Who took sweetheart loans from Countrywide?

Who paid themselves immense bonuses while concealing their own accounting skulduggery?

And, all the while, facilitated the financial crisis through unlawful, unconstitutional governmental policies that had the force of law?

...Some people look at income inequality and shrug their shoulders. So what if this person gains and that person loses? What matters, they argue, is not how the pie is divided but the size of the pie. That argument is fundamentally wrong.

Oh, bullcrap, you fraudulent old Trotsky-ite. Sure, we need less folks like Larry Page and Bill Gates. Hell, Page and Sergey Brin were sitting in a damn dorm room 12 years ago trying to figure out a better way to search the Internet. Now they're worth tens of billions apiece! But in your formulation, that sucks!

Directly and indirectly, they've created hundreds of thousands of jobs, a whole new ecosphere for Silicon Valley, funded dozens of new startups, created massive amounts of wealth around the globe, but in the Stiglitz formula -- they're too rich!

...growing inequality is the flip side of something else: shrinking opportunity.

Yes - more billionaires like Gates, more massive job creators like Page and Brin, more investments, more startups, more innovation... means less opportunity.

What I want to know, Stiglitz, is this: how do you have a freaking job?

...perhaps most important, a modern economy requires “collective action”—it needs government to invest in infrastructure, education, and technology.

Oh, you mean like a "Stimulus" program? How's that working out for ya', Sparky? Or the Department of Education? Working out swimmingly for low-income students? And that solar technology in which Jimmy Carter sunk billions of taxpayer dollars... that revolutionized our energy infrastructure, right?

What a kook.

We've bankrupted the Treasury with this collectivist excrement -- and it's failed like it's failed every other time in history. Central planning works -- if you're a delusional Marxist with a penchant for magic mushrooms. If you're not, the Politburo-style, command-and-control strategy has a perfect track record. Zero-for-Eternity.

Stop with the failed Marxist class warfare rhetoric already. You sound like a freaking idiot.

To paraphrase Milton Friedman: who are these angels on Earth that can redistribute everyone's wealth? Barack Obama? Nancy Pelosi? Barney Freaking Frank?

There isn't a corporation on Earth that can force you to pay it whether you want to or not.

There isn't a corporation on the planet that can throw you in jail for failure to adhere to its hundreds of thousands of pages of laws, regulations and dictates.

There isn't a corporation anywhere that can make you buy a one-size-fits-all health care plan, or a certain kind of light bulb, or low-flow toilet, or a certain size of car, and on and on.

There isn't a corporation anywhere that can command you -- the citizen -- to participate in multi-trillion dollar Ponzi schemes.

Only a giant, enormous, leviathan of a bankrupt federal government can do all of these things. And, then, only because a certain group of power-hungry, easily corrupted politicians, lawyers and judges have ignored our highest law: the Constitution.

Because they wantonly disregard thousands of years of human experience, facts, logic, and reason.

Our Framers created the Constitution to prevent the rise of an all-powerful, autocratic, authoritarian central government. Instead, the modern Statist -- like Stiglitz -- justifies his actions by claiming it will be different this time. If only he can have more of your money. If only he can have more power. If only.

But it wasn't the corporations that ruined the economy: it's the politicians who violate their oaths of office every day of the week. That's what the Tea Party is all about, dunce. And that's why every one concerned with the future of America should support Constitutional conservatism.

It's the only hope we have left.

Schmuck.


23 comments:

Mo. S said...

Doug, you've outdone yourself. I love a lot of your rants and essays and comic photos, but this particular one really hit the nail on the head as well or better than anything I've read by you yet. There is not a false word in it.

I was having a moment today, trying to calmly reason as to how otherwise supposedly accomplished, smart and successful liberals can ignore history and their own eyes? How can they not see how markets and true opportunity-rich free-market capitalism has not been the biggest engine of human freedom and the ONLY thing that has worked to bring millions out of poverty.

I also get very depressed when I realize that if we would devote ourselves just in the US to furthering freedom and the entrepreneurial spirit, rather than toxic redistributionist schemes and socialist claptrap, how much further the world would be? Because we're doing great, as you pointed out using some of the titans of high tech to make your point...but how much further could we go?

I'm convinced we'd be a lot closer to "heaven on earth" than the hell on earth the collectivists have given us, repeatedly.

Anyway, thanks for this essay, in particular. It struck me as being as illuminating as any out there, trying to explain not just Joe Stiglitz's idiocy, but where we've gone wrong in allowing the liberals to push and push for power and not to really help anyone.

Jim - PRS said...

BRAVO!!!

Anonymous said...

"Yes - more billionaires like Gates, more massive job creators like Page and Brin, more investments, more startups, more innovation... means less opportunity."

What a fool - it's the protection racket that is crony capitalism that squashes opportunity!!!

Anonymous said...

Cripes - I meant to quote: "...growing inequality is the flip side of something else: shrinking opportunity."

NOT what you responded with

"Yes -... means less opportunity."

Anonymous said...

Your blog just made me sick. Its incredibly easy to bitch and offer no suggestions.

Of course, its all Obama's fault too. Nice pictures... heh. Bush totally had the constitution in mind.... hahahaha

Anonymous said...

doug, you are an f'ing idiot. the middle class and the poor have been raped by the top 1% for the last 30 years.

the data show it, but as with everything, you right wingers never let data, or science, or facts get in the way of your ideology.

directorblue said...

"the data show it".

Right. What data?

Over the last 30 years, how much more government regulation, bureaucracies, taxes, fees, dictates, and measures have been passed into law that affect everything we do?

Could it be that government -- not the top 1% -- is the problem?

Could it be that crony capitalists -- like GE who paid no taxes last year, in league with the all-powerful central government -- are the problem?

Could it be that history, facts, logic, and reason are on OUR side?

Where has a society this magnificent ever been created in the history of the world?

A society based on private property and individual liberty, the rule of law and God-given rights?

Stop coveting what your neighbor has. The millionaire down the street doesn't affect me a bit, other than perhaps he spends a little more in my corner store.

The millionaire doesn't affect my life -- the all-powerful, out-of-control, unconstitutional central government affects me and all of us.

It's time to start enforcing our highest law and stop worrying about what someone else has.

Anonymous said...

trillion dollar, unnecessary wars, and tax cuts for the rich is what tanked the treasury.

if stiglitz is a schmuck with a pen you are a schmuck-squared with a keyboard.

Anonymous said...

who just tanked this economy? wall street, the top 1% and above.

who went to jail for it? no one.

sounds like maybe bin laden had the right target in mind.

Anonymous said...

"society this magnificent"?

sounds like you've been drinking from the kool aid cup of American Exceptionalism.

directorblue said...

"American exceptionalism"

It's obvious you haven't done much traveling abroad.

Tell you what -- visit Zimbabwe where the top 1% is in the same boat as the other 99%.

Or Cuba. Or North Korea. Or Venezuela.

Gawd, you're dumb. Here's a quick history lesson. Learn it and then report back with an 8-page summary:

Anonymous said...

Wow! Well aren't we so lucky to have such a smart (a$$) like you to do our reading and interpreting for us.

we are so magnificent that with only 5% of the world's population we consume 30% of the world's resources, which we take at the point of a gun or with economic blackmail, to maintain our fat, dumb and happy lifestyle.

directorblue said...

"5% using 30%"?

Gee, I wonder how all of the magnificent advances made by humans were accomplished over the last three centuries?

So you want someone to enforce 5% using 5% to keep everyone equally poor, unhealthy and miserable?

We want societies to advance (or, at least some of us do), which implies that fast-moving countries will utilize more resources because they are GROWING.

The rise of the U.S. economy has fed more people, liberated more from enslavement (e.g., Nazism and Communism), saved more lives through scientific advances, etc. etc. than ANY OTHER SOCIETY IN HUMAN HISTORY.

What made that possible?

The United State Constitution.

Now, go read Liberty and Tyranny, you dweeb -- and don't let the blog's door hit you on the ass.

Anonymous said...

5% using 30%.

How does that hold down the standar of living of the other 95% that have to get by on 70%?

oh yes, marvelous society.

how many native americans did we kill stealing this continent from them?

how many slaves died in slavery?

tell me about jim crow? did you ever go to segrated schools?

how many southeast asians did we kill duing out vietnam war?

how many iraqi deaths are on our hands due to the iraq war?

one third of the global warming and all the havoc that will cause is due to US emissions over the last 100 years?

directorblue said...

You're useful only as comic relief.

America raises the standards of living throughout the world, schmuck. Where do you think Africa gets its vaccines from, dumbass?

Who used aircraft carriers to get fresh water to tsunami victims in Indonesia and Japan, moron?

How many American Indian tribes wiped out other tribes in wars before colonists ever appeared on this continent?

How many hundreds of thousands of Americans died freeing the slaves?

Why are you talking about Jim Crow and ancient history when there are a million people in slavery today, around the world, not because of the United States, but because of an infernal political system wrapped in a religion.

Why are you talking about Jim Crow when Muslims are killing Muslims around the world? Slaughtering those of a different skin color in Darfur, Rwanda?

How many tens of millions of lives has Americans saved in freeing the world from the Soviet Union and Nazism, putz?

What global warming? You buy into that UN scam? It's a scam, a grift, made up?

And, why aren't you singling out China, which has 16 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world right now?

America is imperfect, as all human inventions are, but it is the most perfect society ever created on the face of the Earth.

Your idiocy us useful, as I said, only as comic relief.

What are you doing to save a million people from slavery right now, schmuck?

Anonymous said...

what's the matter pu$$y?

got an ego problem?

Have trouble looking at yourself in teh mirror unless you can say "I live in the GREATEST SOCIETY EVER"?

You right wing conservatives have been feeding the american public bu11 sh1t for 30 years. you and the heritage foundation, aei, cato, and all the right wing noise machine (see david brock).

the greats society ever? who just took down the us economy and the world economy? the us right wing wall street white collar thugs.

how many unemployed?

how many without health insurance? spend twice as much per person on health as any other developed nation, and rank 37th in health car outcomes.

spend as much as all the rest of the world on military stuff while people go hungry, lose their jobs, lose their homes, have their retirement funds stolen.

all the while ripping off the poor and the middle class and delivering it the the top 1% just like stiglitz has written.

you guys are suckers. I can always get you on global warming. you obviously don't know any science, have never had any science training and never researched or studied the issue.

you just put out the standard right wing claptrap of the deniers inc. just like on the economics stuff.

have a nice week mother f'ker. in your land lies deceit, and distortions.

just because you have a key board and a blog doesn't mean you know jack shit about stuff.inessiez

directorblue said...

No ego problem. Just fact.

Name the society that has done more for mankind than ours, dimwit.

You can't.

You're so focused on trivialities like who makes more money -- the cheap envy that the Soviets and Nazis used to corrupt the masses -- that you've lost sight of the biggest corporation of all.

An all-powerful federal government.

Now, if you hate this place so much, tell you what. I'll pay for your one-way ticket to a third-world hell-hole where wealth inequality won't be a problem for you, dunce.

Anonymous said...

i can always tell when i've got you right wing sh1t heads by the ba11$.

it's always the same old, same old. go somewhere else. total lack of imagination. of course that's why were in the f'ked up situation we are. once you get beyond stealing from the poor and the middle class, you don't have any imagination.

you know soft targets.

and even if I wanted to go some where else, the gov't wouldn't like it because of my clearances.

directorblue said...

Oh, that's rich. You have a clearance?

Please, send me your contact info via email and I'll be sure to let the DSS know.

You need a CI poly ASAP.

Anonymous said...

thanks for the offer to help. but my DSS rep already knows me. she was just out for a facility check a couple months ago.

i've been doing military work for over 30 years. i have a son who has done six tours in iraq. we do our part.

i will indeed stipulate that you know how to run your mouth, as do all the right wing nut jobs. but what else have you done?

Anonymous said...

Hi directorblue,

I value the counter-arguments you make against Stiglitz's article, but you often come off as ignorant and rude. I think your comments would be more effective if you took the time to refute points without turning to personal attacks. But it's good to hear objections - it keeps the conversation going, which is the most important thing.

Stephen said...

Why is it that those without the facts and evidence, but full of the talking points, come across so angry? I guess Doug Ross isn't the first ideologue to get worked into a lather by his inability to make his world view overcome stubborn facts and reality.

This crazy actually blames "collectivism" for us being broke? What "collectivists" used falsified evidence to trick the nation into the two most expensive wars in history? Was it "collectivists" that passed Medicare D and banned the government from negotiating drug prices? Was it collectivists that gave taxpayer to the bankers that killed the economy in the first place?

Look whackadoos, we get it. You hate homosexuals, you hate blacks, you hate Mexicans, you hate books, you hate you hate you hate.

But leave economic alone please. The GOP track record on economic is dismal. Big Spending combined with tax cuts for the uber-wealthy have NEVER worked (right Harding? right Hoover? right Bushes?). Now they seek to deny market forces in order to protect the top 1%.

Look, you don't get it. Tax exemptions and corporate subsidies KILL small business and jobs, and, obviously, shrinks the tax base. End entitlements and restore market forces. That is REAL fiscal conservatism.

Admittedly I don't hold out hope for my comment making this board as I see no other posts remaining not in complete agreement. Typical actually.

Anonymous said...

"Sure, we need less folks like Larry Page and Bill Gates."

Doug, that should read: "...we need fewer folks..."

You must have missed that lesson in 7th grade English.

This is my first (and last) time visiting your blog. I find the level of discussion incredibly sophomoric to say nothing of all the venomous name-calling.

Our Constitution was framed by slave owners who wanted to be free.

A system without controls will spin out of control. It all comes down to one word: GREED.