Economic Idiocy

Every time I happen to be on Yahoo, I see yet another article from what is actually called Yahoo "News" discussing why the Romney/Republican policies are wrong for America. That this non-stop propaganda is presented as news is sometimes funny and always annoying. Worse, however, is that Yahoo presents its position as if it is just citing economic truth. Today brings a good example of this. Yahoo is running an article headlined "Paul Ryan's Economic Policies are Stuck in the 1980's". The geniuses at Yahoo then cite a former economist from the Obama Treasury Department who also writes a blog to explain why the Ryan policies will not work. (Isn't it interesting that they are now Ryan policies rather than Romney policies?)

The biggest reason that the Yahoo guru cites is that today, unlike in the early 1980's, there is no pent up demand to drive the economy. This is complete nonsense. How many people have put off buying a home in the last five years? How many people have put off buying a car in the last five years? Why is the average age of the cars on the road in America now eleven plus years? It certainly is not because people have been satisfying their demand for homes and cars since the recession began. The truth is that all those people who graduated from college and then moved back in with Mom and Dad represent "pent up demand". All those families with kids living in places that are just too small for them represent "pent up demand". All those folks who want to upgrade their homes also represent "pent up demand". The millions of people with old cars that are barely making it through the month are still more "pent up demand". After five years of terrible times for the American consumer, there is not just pent up demand out there, it is PENT UP DEMAND!!! That is the truth no matter what some hack from the Obama treasury department says in his blog.

But the idiocy does not stop there with Yahoo. These geniuses next quote the same guy who solemnly tells us that under the Ryan tax plan, people who make between $20,000 and $30,000 will not get any tax reduction. That will promote income inequality. Oh, the horror! Let's be honest. The people who make between twenty and thirty thousand dollars do not pay federal income tax. Nothing! Nada! Indeed, a big chunk of them get transfer payments from the government instead of paying money to the government. Only an idiot could tell us that failure to cut the taxes of a person who does not pay taxes is an economic problem.