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Letter from West Virginia

22 points by samclemens 10y ago

fennecfoxen 10y ago
Loving the color commentary our journalist slips in, just in passing... > His politics were terrifying—he loathed the New Deal A substantial minority of economists (45%ish) suggest that the New Deal helped prolong the Great Depression... mostly through the National Industrial Recovery Act (a nationwide central-planning/price fixing scheme which established a network of government-endorsed cartels which made competition on price illegal and was later declared unconstitutional) or the Agricultural Adjustment Act (which to this day pays farmers to not-farm and is mostly responsible for kickstarting America's modern big-Agribusiness complex which we all love to hate in these parts). And even more economists admit that the New Deal was ineffective. But sure: ooooooh, he was against the New Deal. But since FDR is a saint and his gift of Social Security is delivered in turn from the grace of God himself, this means that our West Virginian is not just wrong, he's a heretic and a monster. Be afraid, be very afraid!!!!1
- jackhack 10y ago
  Thank you for this thoughtful response - like a breath of fresh air! Among the elite, steeped in Federalist politics, and Liberals (often one and the same), it is almost unthinkable that one would question FDR and his big-government socialist solutions (which some would argue have actually increased the problems they claimed to address). Despair, dependency, and poverty are left in the wake of this "solution." The contradiction of the self-proclaimed "proud, fierce, independent Mountaineer" archetype and the reality of the welfare-dependent and drug addicted (especially Oxycontin) culture that exists there today is shocking to behold. The state is a spectacle of wasted lives, like zoo animals pacing their cage waiting for nothing more than the next scrap of food to be tossed in, the population of the WV shuffles aimlessly to pass the time until the next welfare check. How many lives were ruined by these "gifts"? Uncountable. Indeed - the Federalist solution is often worse than the problem.

22 points by samclemens 10y ago

Loving the color commentary our journalist slips in, just in passing... > His politics were terrifying—he loathed the New Deal A substantial minority of economists (45%ish) suggest that the New Deal helped prolong the Great Depression... mostly through the National Industrial Recovery Act (a nationwide central-planning/price fixing scheme which established a network of government-endorsed cartels which made competition on price illegal and was later declared unconstitutional) or the Agricultural Adjustment Act (which to this day pays farmers to not-farm and is mostly responsible for kickstarting America's modern big-Agribusiness complex which we all love to hate in these parts). And even more economists admit that the New Deal was ineffective. But sure: ooooooh, he was against the New Deal. But since FDR is a saint and his gift of Social Security is delivered in turn from the grace of God himself, this means that our West Virginian is not just wrong, he's a heretic and a monster. Be afraid, be very afraid!!!!1

jackhack 10y ago
Thank you for this thoughtful response - like a breath of fresh air! Among the elite, steeped in Federalist politics, and Liberals (often one and the same), it is almost unthinkable that one would question FDR and his big-government socialist solutions (which some would argue have actually increased the problems they claimed to address). Despair, dependency, and poverty are left in the wake of this "solution." The contradiction of the self-proclaimed "proud, fierce, independent Mountaineer" archetype and the reality of the welfare-dependent and drug addicted (especially Oxycontin) culture that exists there today is shocking to behold. The state is a spectacle of wasted lives, like zoo animals pacing their cage waiting for nothing more than the next scrap of food to be tossed in, the population of the WV shuffles aimlessly to pass the time until the next welfare check. How many lives were ruined by these "gifts"? Uncountable. Indeed - the Federalist solution is often worse than the problem.