Posted on 07/11/2012 1:20:10 PM PDT by DannyTN
...The chart below compares average social spending with adjusted per capita GDP growth since 2000. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
I don't see that is usurping anybody's roll. The mandate is to all three. Does a church usurp the individual's role by giving to the poor? No, neither does a government usurp their role by doing the same.
Government spending is a component of GDP.
Yes, increasing government spending IS increasing GDP by definition.
Drawing the conclusion from this study that social spending is ‘good’ is therefore a well known Logical Fallacy...Begging the Question: the truth of the conclusion is assumed by the premises.
You cannot assume that money will always be available across the board.
Any entitlement is akin to....a bird. If a mama bird builds a nest and lays eggs, the point is to get the baby birds to grow and leave. Do we EVER hear tell of a baby bird who won’t leave and yet continues to be cared for? Is that possible? What are the impacts to the mama bird? Are we to believe that a grown bird can exist and just sit on the nest, waiting for handouts from a mama bird...with her own life and needs?
Welfare queens, other entitlement...work like an adult bird on a nest. It’s one thing to have to go hole up somewhere and lick your wounds. Living your life like an adult baby bird doesn’t cut it.
The next ten years will look nothing like the last ten years. The next decade will be a frightening transition into a world for which the majority of people will be unprepared. There will be many elderly couples with extended families living in the same house.
Those who might have exercised constraint and saved some of their income will be expected to support the younger generation for whom there will be no job prospects. Unable to find jobs flipping hamburgers for each other, millions of "college educated" people will be blaming capitalism for the fact that they produce nothing whatever that is of value to the world.
The government will be buying massive amounts of paper to print money and the resulting currency will buy little or nothing. The price of energy will "necessarily skyrocket", just as Obama has wished. Rolling blackouts will be the norm, so that the few power plants allowed to operate can distribute their electricity most "fairly". There will be shortages of practically everything, but the government will have "five-year-plans" to address the shortages by mandating that somebody somewhere will have to fill the shortages while not being allowed to make a profit.
Atlas will have finally shrugged.
Good point. There are several other holes/observations in the thread too.
That’s a good point. Someone else pointed out that “Trending” needs to be looked at, not simple a single point in time.
Excellent point.
Ergo, the only thing this chart tells us is that there is NO correlation between those two factors. This makes sense, since those countries all have vastly different economies, priorities, needs, and governments. Many of those countries also receive subsidies from other countries (like the billions that Germany saves on national defense since the US bases there provide all the security they'll ever need).
Interestingly, though... if you remove Scandinavia, and Germany and its neighbors (NED, BEL, AUS)... a very clear line does being to emerge. Outside of north-central Europe, the "best-fit" line clearly slopes downwards to the right... indicating that less social spending is correlated to greater growth.
Also interesting that Mexico didn't make the chart, despite it being in North America, and their forbears from Portugal and Spain did get included... Also wondering why Russia, Turkey and Eastern Europe were ignored, despite being part of Europe... The Czech Republic, Austria and Greece were included, but not the rest of the Serbian peninsula located between them... also left out were Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, all of which are EU member states (as are Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia)... what exactly was the criteria for getting included in the chart and more importantly, excluded??
Haven't I heard this before? Oh, yes ... It isn't the fault of socialism that it fails wherever its been tried, it just hasn't been done right.
See post 40.
Personally, I'm in favor of restoring and strengthening the enumerated powers. But it would take a detailed structured plan to grandfather, transition or terminate all the programs that are outside of the enumerated powers.
And then you'd need amendments killing the use of federal matching funds for non-enumerated activities. And another placing limits on taxation.
Great catch
God’s reccomendation of a 20% tax to Joseph for the Pharoah is the greatest example of mercy to the poor from the government.
I wonder if any goverment would reduce their demands to merely 20% today in mercy for the poor LOL!
One personal statement if I may. Nuts to your democracy, restore the Republic.
we don’t have safety nets. we have safety hammocks.
define “poor”. I’m betting the Biblical poor were actually poor. Not American
“poor”.
Prior to the “great society” we didn’t have people starving in the streets
all over the place. If we did, there should be some photographic evidence.
“Surprising Facts About America’s Poor”:
The following are facts about persons defined as “poor” by the Census Bureau as taken from various government reports:
80 percent of poor households have air conditioning. In 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
92 percent of poor households have a microwave.
Nearly three-fourths have a car or truck, and 31 percent have two or more cars or trucks.
Nearly two-thirds have cable or satellite TV.
Two-thirds have at least one DVD player, and 70 percent have a VCR.
Half have a personal computer, and one in seven have two or more computers.
More than half of poor families with children have a video game system, such as an Xbox or PlayStation.
43 percent have Internet access.
One-third have a wide-screen plasma or LCD TV.
One-fourth have a digital video recorder system, such as a TiVo.
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/09/understanding-poverty-in-the-united-states-surprising-facts-about-americas-poor
Gen 41:34. Good point. It was a response to a specific situation. But clearly an example of government authorized to tax and spend on behalf of the poor.
Aside from the lack of clear pattern in the chart, the author seems unaware that correlation is not causation.
A society that assumes it can destroy a significant percentage of GDP by supporting a class of perpetual parasites forever is doomed.
I doubt we spend 20% on the poor. But we do have a lot more complicated society than the farm economies of old.
“Prov 29, especially Prov 29:14 The king that faithfully judgeth the poor, his throne shall be established for ever.
Since when have you confused “judgeth” for “supporteth”?
No one is against private safety nets. The very nature of government is to waste and grow. I have "faith" in fellow man to freely help others in need.
Those who believe that government safety nets are necessary or are good do not have any idea of the destructiveness of government. Government programs can NEVER be efficient.
You seem to have a basic belief that without government safety nets people would fall through the cracks. That is a big lie pushed by those in government.
Do you not see that the Great Society programs of LBJ have utterly destroyed the black families? Private charities would never have purposely carried out such evil.
Everything the government touches, it destroys or corrupts.
Millions of people need safety nets because GOVERNMENT is destroying our housing industry, destroying jobs, debasing our currency, burdening our children with unimaginable debt.
There is nothing moral, Christian or good about government "charity" -- it always destroys in the end.
Really? This is a modern problem? Please, cite a source where this issue has invited the Feds into the field in the last few decades.
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