Krugman: Spend Now, Save Later

[HappySqurriel]

TheRealMafoo said:

richardhutnik said:

Welfare in the context of the preamble, I believe means "the general state of well being of a nation".  Back in the day, it was believed churches, familes, and communities would chip in.  I spoke on cases where things happen to break down.  If the economy totally melts down, and people are without, the nation won't work.  Third-world nations have issues of property rights, crime, and civil wars, due in part due to economic lack.  What I was saying here is it is important that a nation be well-governed and the general welfare of those in the nation be lifted.  It is key that liberty bears fruit for people.  The pursuit of happiness does also refer to material wealth, according to the context of the time.

It should never be the business of government to chose a group of peoples rights to sacrifice, for the welfare of others. Government does not earn money. Every dollar they give to someone, they first have to take it from someone else.

Redistribution of wealth by the government, is an infringements on peoples rights. There is no getting around that. You can try and justify why it's the "right thing to do" all you want, but in the end, it will go against everything this country was founded on.

For some (like Obama), that's unimportant. For me however, it's very important.

Beyond the principled objection to wealth transfers, it has never been shown that transferring money from one group to another has ever resulted in the beneficiary actually improving their economic standing because of it. An interesting video series I was pointed to the other day has Milton Friedman making an argument that many of the programs designed to benefit the poor in reality help a very different group:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Wx5PYZIWcQ&feature=related

Personally, I would say there is some validity to his argument is (somewhat) flawed because the increased money does not increase availability it increases the cost; and no one ends up in a position where they’re actually better off.