There have been several comments/posts that I have left hanging.
Minion S asked the Maximum Leader about tax policystrong>.
The Maximum Leader has it partially correct. As usual. The part about which his opinion overlaps with mine.
Tax cuts for the wealthy can lead to long-term economic growth by generating additional investment. However, if the tax and economic scales are tipped too far towards the Thurston Howell Yacht Club, the economic growth will fail to materialize because of a reduction of consumer demand.
Tax cuts for the middle class and lower class are generally acknowledged (even by the Great Guru Greenspan) to generate a short-term boost to the economy because common folks are more likely to go spend their tax refund on a new computer or a nice vacation. Some might argue that trickle-up works better than trickle down - the rich will benefit in the long term because the new consumer demand will fuel the expansion of business and drive job creation.
You can guess where your progressive Smallholder comes down: Middle-class and lower-class tax cuts give a more immediate boost to a lagging economy AND also drive long term growth.
A post for a later date will be a discussion of how discussions of tax policy and the Laffer curve often erroneously assume that economic calculus is the only (or even primary) influence on corporate chieftans’ work ethic.
The BigHo asks about the right-left continuum.
I find that it is better to think of the right-left continuum as a horseshoe rather than a straight line. The ends of the horseshoe almost touch at “dictatorship.” It seems to me that the further a political position gets from the natural inclinations of man, the greater the government authority required to force him to conform. Moonbat leftists looking for the dictatorship of the proletariat are pretty similar, when you get down to brass tacks, to the right wing theocracy nuts. The only real difference between their visions of 1984 are the color of the drapes.
And, just so you don’t think I’m ducking the second part of the question: Darth Vader is a right-wing fascist. Ordnung im der Force!
