Today's Ricochet Essay Assignment
Peter Robinson ·
August 20, 2012 at 8:43pm
From "Why We Can't Cut Government Spending," a column in today's Washington Post by economist Lawrence Summers, the former Clinton Treasury secretary and former president of Harvard:
[O]n almost any reasonable view of the state’s responsibility, large increases in inequality such as those observed in recent years should call forth increased government activity.
Discuss.
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Nov '11
Re: Today's Ricochet Essay Assignment
Peter Robinson
Discuss. · · 2 minutes ago
I suspect that my "reasonable" view of the state's responsibility and Dr. Summers are quite different, rendering a discussion moot. You have to have a common basis in at least theory to discuss something rationally after all.
If you ask me the only reason we can't cut government spending is because some people never got over the fact that they didn't have all the same toys as their friends when they were children.
Edited on August 20, 2012 at 8:51pmSep '10
Re: Today's Ricochet Essay Assignment
When Harvard's endowment fund is wiped out by a massive redistribution of wealth to ease the student debt burden and bring racial harmony through extensive cuts to the severance payments and speaking fees of its former President then we can talk:
Aug '10
Re: Today's Ricochet Essay Assignment
So, Larry Summers gets to say which views are "reasonable" and which ones are not? Why can't I do that? I'm a pretty smart guy. Nice, too. I stay out of trouble and I keep my yard in decent shape.
Who the heck made Larry Summers arbiter of reasonableness?
The smugness of guys like him really irks me.
Sep '10
Re: Today's Ricochet Essay Assignment
"[O]n almost any reasonable view [so anyone thinking otherwise is unreasonable?] of the state’s responsibility [which includes wealth distribution why?], large increases in inequality [what is inequality and why is it bad?] such as those observed in recent years [why are these econometric models not flawed in measuring inequality?] should [why?] call forth increased government activity [how can the government actually decrease inequality?]."
How can one person pack so many highly contentious assumptions into just one sentence? The man is living in a bubble of groupthink.
Jul '10
Re: Today's Ricochet Essay Assignment
Well, then I guess we're screwed. 'Cause we can't tax our way out of this mess.
Didn't Summers get in a lot of trouble a while back for suggesting that other people weren't good at math?
Aug '12
Re: Today's Ricochet Essay Assignment
"large increases in inequality such as those observed in recent years should call forth increased government activity."
Is there anything which doesn't prompt a liberal to demand increased government activity.
To paraphrase Reagan regarding big government advocates:
If it moves tax it, if it keeps moving regulate, if it stops moving subsidize it.
Jan '11
Re: Today's Ricochet Essay Assignment
It is not in America's mainstream tradition to have one of the responsibilities of government be to ensure wealth equality. It has been since the founding, a primary responsibility of government to ensure personal freedom and the right of all to pursue happiness. On almost any reasonable view of American government policy, the latter should always supersede the former.
From a practical point of view, government spending has skyrocketed "in those recent years" that he is referring to, so reason should rather make one conclude that government spending doesn't decrease inequality, even if that were the proper role of government. Which it isn't.
Aug '12
Re: Today's Ricochet Essay Assignment
When government "fixes" income - or any - "inequality" it does not have the effect of producing prosperity that larger numbers of people enjoy but rather the effect of creating more dependency shackling those who strive to create general prosperity.
Jun '12
Re: Today's Ricochet Essay Assignment
Peter Robinson
From "Why We Can't Cut Government Spending," a column in today'sWashington Post by economist Lawrence Summers, the former Clinton Treasury secretary and former president of Harvard:
Discuss. · · 20 minutes ago
I am sure that in view of such large increases in inequality Mr. Summers will gladly donate enough of his fortune to the poor for his household to be firmly in the middle of the "middle class."
Until he does, however, this is just more "do as I say, not as I do."
May '12
Re: Today's Ricochet Essay Assignment
Peter Robinson
You quoted it backwards I think.
There, fixed it.
Aug '12
Re: Today's Ricochet Essay Assignment
What about the "fairness" of straddling my young kids with debt they will spend the rest of their lives trying to pay off?
If I were a parent who lived way beyond my means - buying a large house, expensive cars, computers etc claiming it was to provide a better life for my kids then died and left them with enormous debts to pay back I'd rightly be called a bad parent. When the government does this same thing we're told it's benevolent and compassionate.
Jan '11
Re: Today's Ricochet Essay Assignment
Our current "inequality" is not a result of rich people hoarding money out of greed. It's a result of investors who calculate that they can't make enough money to justify the risks of investing. So when government experts start recommending more taxes, more regulation (i.e., more "government activity"), they unwittingly make investors less confident of investing.
As a result, these "helpful" experts exacerbate the problem they claim to be trying to solve.
Edited on August 20, 2012 at 9:16pmSep '10
Re: Today's Ricochet Essay Assignment
New Archbishop of Denver, Sam Aquila
Sep '10
Re: Today's Ricochet Essay Assignment
I'd like to point out that there is (at least) one government activity that should be encouraged: Adoption of tax policies that will encourage re-shoring.
Dec '10
Re: Today's Ricochet Essay Assignment
You should probably macro that. It's applicable to every instance of government activity.
Jan '11
Re: Today's Ricochet Essay Assignment
I thought of this, too.
Pseudodionysius
New Archbishop of Denver, Sam Aquila· 0 minutes ago
Aug '10
Re: Today's Ricochet Essay Assignment
Lawrence Summers is the very definition of a pointy headed liberal academic - in other words, someone who has no connection to the real world and shouldn't be within a 1,000 miles of any government position.
Jun '12
Re: Today's Ricochet Essay Assignment
William F. Buckley once said:
Lawrence Summers just proved the wisdom of WFB.
May '12
Re: Today's Ricochet Essay Assignment
Like Paul Krugman, Larry Summers has made so many comments that are bizarre it has become impossible to catalog them all. More often Summer's comments reveal his intellectual and moral bankruptcy;
The following was the best response to Mr. Summers;
Edited on August 20, 2012 at 10:04pmMar '11
Re: Today's Ricochet Essay Assignment
to be fair: this was not the thrust of his essay at all, it was really sort of a footnote to a four-part argument as to why it'll be difficult, and perhaps ill-advised, to reduce spending.
that said: having recently finished (finally, after years of inexcusable delay!) Thomas Sowell's "A Conflict of Visions", I can see how he thinks his view of the state's responsibility is "reasonable".
you could call it an irreconcilable difference of opinion. I prefer "he's wrong".