Megan Ardle writes
And as I’ve argued before, deficit-financed government spending is a tax
hike. It may not seem like one, but over the long run, that debt has to
be paid, one way or another. And the way it will be paid is with tax
dollars.
Even though I agree with most of what Megan writes and also identify as a Conservative/libertarian, this isn’t quite true. It may seem that way, but technically taxes don’t have to go up because of the insatiable demand for the US debt, especially as evidenced by the rising dollar. Second, the national debt is perpetually rolled over. The only reason why taxes did go up in 2013 was because of Obama’s refusal to compromise, not because of some economic necessity. Otherwise, income taxes have not gone up a penny sine 1993. But that doesn’t mean we should fritter our reserve currency status on worthless stuff like entitlement spending. Instead, we should use the $ on pro–growth policy like defense, tax cut, a basic income for high-IQ people, and investment in promising start-ups like the next Tesla and the next Uber.
Another common argument is that the fed is artificially propping up stocks with QE.
But the fed ended QE and yet stocks still keep going up. It’s been over a year since the fed began the taper and stocks are up 30% since then, which kinda throws water on the whole ‘QE propping up stock market’ theory. Stocks are surging because of economic fundamentals like consumer spending, exports, profits & earnings…stuff like that.
You see this trend..of a certain political party choosing to go back instead of forward, if it means more employment. We need to come to terms that jobs will be lost, but creative destruction is a net-positive on society and should be encouraged. Traditional gender roles may offer the most hope for women who cannot cut it in STEM, and many can’t. This is where the left fails, by thinking that society should make accommodations for those cognitively incapable of keeping up in today’s hyper-competitive economy.
Wake me up when the crisis happens. Meanwhile people like myself will keep making effortless $ with stocks and real estate. People who wait for the end just end up waiting for nothing. In choosing between ‘we are doomed’ and Pinker’s argument that the world is becoming less violent and more prosperous, the evidence favors Pinker. There’s a lot of problems with America and American society, but relative to population and growth, other places are worse.