SilverBoat
Posts: 257
Joined: 7/26/2006
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"TX-14? It's in the bottom 4/5th or 5/5th on just about every stat that's kept, except for being midline on median income."
Even if it was "all about money" (which is often a last-resort of libertarian zero-sum so-called 'reasoning'), Paul has been at best mediocre at boosting his consituents' fortunes. And if he's somehow arcanely justified accepting bribes from outside his electorate on the basis that those further national 'interests', the record of his influence at that scale is even worse.
Much of the conflict in actions, if not also in (dis?)honest perceptions, between left, right, etc, has to do with externalized burdens and costs, for which some people (and businesses) insist they have no responsibility. Who pays for the socioeconomic infrastructure, environmental sustainability, international monetary stability (or predictability ar least), etc, that every person and every business depends on as context for their existence?
Without centuries of technical development and infrastructure investment, you'd be digging roots instead of tapping keys. Sure, there are still some places where might-(and-'wits')-makes-right, like Sudan, Somalia, etc. Those are your libertarian law-free pinnacles of personal freedom.
Frankly, I much prefer a mature recognition that this nation's investment in education, transport, and industry exists as a socioeconomic resource that may be of incalculable value, on the order of $100Trns. And as such, the costs to sustain and expand that resource are reasonably allocated in some proportion to the usage incurred and the profits derived. And yeah, that might have to have non-linear scaling, such is the nature of control-theory.
The bottom line, however, is that keeping the whole mess running at a level where a conscientious workweek nets a comfortable standard of living, then the costs of everything from roadways to retirements add up to something like 30-50% of GDP. The US etc operate at the bottom end of that, Denmark etc at the top, Sudan etc well below. The US, Euro, etc have, though, been printing money to operate in the red, which results mostly in inflated values with only the wealthiest having enough disposable income to acquire.
And the other important point is that taxed monies don't disappear from the economic flywheel, they just go back into it differently than the taxees night have preferred. Does the US need its roads, bridges, and space program in good and improving condition, or has it been better for the overall or just a few individuals to subsidize speculation in CDO-swaps leveraged from $10Trn into $500Trn in face-value that nobody really had?
So, sure, deregulate everything, undo all the common good, let the 'markets-decide' ... That's what Ron Paul proposes .... Would you rather the US look more like a giant Somalia or a gaint Scandanavia in fifty years hence?
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RE: What is it about Ron Paul? - 
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