I like to read economics articles on HN because (a) I've been trained as as an economist and (b) I like to read the opinions of other clever people, even (parti

I like to read economics articles on HN because (a) I've been trained as as an economist and (b) I like to read the opinions of other clever people, even (particularly?) those who don't have any background in economic theory. Let me make a few points: 1) Nothing the OP has written has anything to do with economics. 2) Who pays, which is the subject of the current "fiscal cliff" brinksmanship, is almost entirely a political question, not an economic one. That is, economists' insight into the present American dilemma is mostly limited to a determination of how the distribution of tax receipts under whatever bargain prevails will affect future economic growth. All other considerations are political, and economists like Krugman and Mankiw who weigh in vociferously do so as politicians, not economists. 3) Bailouts come in two distinct flavors: (a) those whose purpose is to provide essential liquidity to the capital markets at the core of our economies, while they're in distress, and (b) those that are basically handouts to the politically connected. Almost always (a) and (b) overlap. In a financial crisis, like the one we went recently went through, initially (a) dominates—"Wall Street" bailouts, necessary bailouts, lead off. Sometimes, as recently, (b) soon gain ground. The bailouts of Detroit, as with pretty much all "Main Street" bailouts, are in the latter category. These are politically motivated, not economically motivated, bailouts 3) I stand (hope!) to gain most of my future income from capital gains. I do not believe that there is any strong argument for treating capital gains differently from other other income as a matter of economic policy. There are, of course, political arguments in either direction.† 4) As I've written in reply to other HN submissions, I see little reason to believe that we are meaningfully nearer an economic singularity with respect to robot labor than in times recently past. Capital has always eroded the position of labor and forced workers into more productive roles that are less directly competitive with machines. If the situation changes dramatically, it will be clear in discussions here long before economists catch on, but we're not there yet. Nowhere close. † – I am very much an Internet libertarian (small "L"). I despise most taxes, and I believe that much government spending is wasteful in the sense that the money would be more productive, in net, in other uses. I also (b) realize that taxation is as much about values, our values as citizens and as human beings, as it is about economics. (I also am aware that that "the path to hell is paved with good intentions" is close to being a theorem of public finance.) Lastly, my motivation for studying economics has come more from an interest in the various and common ways in which markets fail than from the ways in which they work.