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"Fiscal conservativism" is the equivalent of a household not purchasing any insurance, not going to the doctor or dentist, and saying "look how affordable every
by bongodongobob 3y ago
"Fiscal conservativism" is the equivalent of a household not purchasing any insurance, not going to the doctor or dentist, and saying "look how affordable everything is if we cut out all those stupid things? It's wasteful spending!" Then you get into a car accident, go to the hospital, lose your job, and cry about the inefficiency of the market because you now have a huge bill that you can't pay. It's short sighted at best. True fiscal conservatism would be all about social safety nets and free education to grow the economy, but y'all just want to save a few hundred bucks on your property taxes, everything else be damned.
- bugbuddy 3y agoYou are using a straw man. The reason we have a democracy and freedom of speech is so that each of us can voice our opinions and vote for those that share them. Unfortunately, nothing is perfect.
- bongodongobob 3y agoI'm using the term as it's used 9/10 times it comes up. I've never in my life met a self proclaimed fiscal conservative that didn't just mean "I want lower taxes". The way to lower taxes is a healthy and intelligent population. That is seen as a cost but is actually an investment that pays massive dividends. That's what a fiscal conservative would do, invest at the societal level. Otherwise they're basically just a libertarian.
- latency-guy2 3y agoSo a strawman. You set up the premise, you set up your misunderstanding, and then expect everyone else to follow your misunderstanding. You've even redefined what a "fiscal conservative" would actually do (if you were the one defining it). Then you pulled in "libertarian" out of nowhere. Which is an obvious set up for another strawman, so lets lean into it. Whats a "libertarian"?
- ben_w 3y agoI have no skin in this because I don't live in the USA and don't want to, but no, everything in the comment you replied to falsifies "So a strawman". You can be wrong without being a strawman. When every example you have of X is Y, it's not a "strawman" to say "all X are Y" — when you're wrong like that, it's a black swan.
- mistermann 3y ago> You can be wrong without being a strawman. Sometimes yes, but not always. > but if every example you have of X is Y Is that actually true though? Are you not assuming perfect rationality on behalf of the poster, and that they have an adequate sample size, which tends to be subject to who the individual associates with. > it's not a "strawman" to say "all X are Y" That depends on the truth of the matter. >when you're wrong, it's a black swan. Only if the initial guess was correct. You may be describing appearances. That which cannot be seen does in fact exist, it just doesn't seem like it because it exists in a different realm, and how our culture is trained to think about such problems spaces.
- latency-guy2 3y ago> everything in the comment you replied to falsifies "So a strawman". No it doesn't, user exclaims their ignorance and your follow up emboldens their ignorance does not make a QED.
- ben_w 3y agoDoes your understanding of reasoning consist solely of the dichotomy "every position is either a QED or a strawman"?
- latency-guy2 3y agoDoes yours? > When every example you have of X is Y, it's not a "strawman" to say "all X are Y" — when you're wrong like that, it's a black swan. Either way, I don't appreciate you putting words in my mouth, I hope you don't go around proclaiming you're the arbiter of all that's right in the world.
- xedrac 3y agoI only want lower taxes if I see my current tax money being spent very irresponsibly, like "forgiving" student loans...
- gumby 3y agoWoah, you sound like Adam Smith (the real one, not the one worshipped by alleged acolytes who clearly never read a word he wrote).
- Terr_ 3y agoI often like to observe that there is capitalism and then there is Capitalism with a an uppercase--dare I say "capital"--letter C. The first is a kind of economic engineering with trade-offs and conditions and acknowledged edge-cases, the second is a brand supported by some rather culty dogma.
- rayiner 3y ago> True fiscal conservatism would be all about social safety nets and free education to grow the economy Which is why Italy and France have such strong economies, right? What’s really standing in the way of economic growth is that the government isn’t paying for people to get free degrees in left wing studies.
- tossandthrow 3y agoor the Scandinavian countries that generally have higher spending power than the us. remember not to conflate a strong economy with an economy that is worth living in. you can possess minimum paid jobs in order to make profits for shareholders and never see a dime of that wealth yourself, but alas, you live in a strong economy.
- fvvybfbfbyg 3y ago> or the Scandinavian countries that generally have higher spending power than the us. Do they? PPP they all have lower disposable income than the US and they are not even at the top in Europe (including social transfers). Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands are above Norway and Sweden is even lower than France.
- hollerith 3y agoAlso, Norway's PPP is as high as it is only because of North-Sea oil revenue.
- tossandthrow 3y agothat is used for a sovereign wealth fond. Norway produces less oil than the us.
- hollerith 3y agoRight, but the US has 60 times as many people. Norway's per capita oil revenue is very high.