My Head Hurts
Who knew? Who knew so many people from the same profession can’t fucking agree on anything?!?!?!
I’ve just waded through 2 1/2 hours of economic discussions on the Obama and McCain tax plan proposals. I learned a lot of new vocabulary, I learned that even if you have an Ivy League education you can still use the term “douchebag” to describe someone who doesn’t agree with your political leanings, and I’ve learned that economics is not all about numbers. Its about speculation and differing opinions as to whether lowering or raising certain taxes on certain groups of people is going to help or hurt the economy.
And, as many pointed out, a tax plan is not law and not guaranteed to be law. Its merely a proposal. I never realized economics was so full of theory and conjecture. Maybe that’s why everyone I knew in college who took economics walked around with their eyes glazed over, drooling, and babbling incoherently for entire semesters at a time.
Stranger even, is that I like numbers so much. I crunch numbers at work and I like when my numbers balance, numbers are orderly and operate the same each time you use them. I mean, when was the last time you added 5 + 5 and got 9?
If it were only that simple. I’m going to bed.
Anything Goes 
Jammie J. said,
September 13, 2008 at 12:31 am
Sounds like you exhausted yourself. Have a good night. 🙂
Marie said,
September 13, 2008 at 7:23 pm
I crunch numbers too and dropped out of the economics class…yuck. The basic premise of the tax cuts I understand and favor as presented by Obama – McCains still favors the RICH (would that be elite??) But I take into consideration that Obama’s economic advisor is Paul Vokler – Alan Greenspans predecessor, and one helluva economist. Without going cross-eyed and crazy – the plan appears to be highly workable. Where McCain is getting his figures I don’t know – because he has openly admitted that ECONOMICS is not his forte. Duh – along with other things.
Zelda said,
September 14, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Economics isn’t Obama’s forte either. And his plan involves a massive increase in spending which he is likely to get from a Democrat Congress. I don’t really care who he has advising him, if the advice is to create more government programs (which have, to date, been wildly unsuccessful) at the expense of businesses that actually employ people.
It’s not about the rich, per se, but about business. That business owners tend to be rich because they’ve worked hard and made smart decisions, shouldn’t really be the issue. The resentment and the miscasting this as a struggle between the rich and poor doesn’t make sense. The government does not employ people. They are not a business. They do not generate the economy.
We are already in a massive hole economically, and I don’t discount the fact that we might need to raise taxes at some point (and hopefully temporarily) to get out of it. But we can’t raise taxes without massive spending cuts in every area of government, and massive oversight of where the money we do take in is spent. Taxes and spending are inseparable.
We have been failed for far too long by politicians who care more about bribing as many people as possible to vote for them at the expense of our budget. And this is on both sides of the aisle.
McCain has a very good record on spending and budgetary oversight, and Sarah Palin, like her or hate her, has a great one. And it’s not because she hasn’t spent money. That’s not what this is about. It’s the fact that she spent it judiciously. I have no problem spending money on needed infrastructure, but I have a huge problem spending it on unneeded infrastructure.
Really, one doesn’t need a whole lot of economic data when common sense will suffice.
Inanna said,
September 14, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Zelda, I know your favored part of the election platforms is tax and spend. And in so far as my crash course in economics, it was to be able more fully understand the McCain plan versus the Obama plan but to state that common sense will suffice is underestimating the complexities of the American economic structure and the variables which it is faced with, including the ongoing war in Iraq, the bailouts of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the sinking of Peter Lehman, and the list goes on and on.
Whoever achieves the Presidency is going to have an uphill battle in all areas of the economy, and I feel it is my duty to understand as much as possible how their proposed policies are going to affect America as a whole, not just my own pocketbook.
As far as Sarah Palin, it appears she obtained millions of dollars for the town of Wasilla in Federal earmarks during her term, for a town of 6,300 people, which was the population when she left office, which is almost half the size of the town that I live in, then left Wasilla 20M in debt. Despite the fact Alaska has had windfall due to the increase of taxes on oil companies, she has still requested 450M in earmarks during her first two years in State office.
McCain himself criticized her “objectionable” spending in 2001.
I don’t see her as a reformer. I see her as someone who clears the path before her so she can have her own way. I’m sure to some its okay to leave a town the size of Wasilla that far in debt for a really good reason. Living in a small town, still larger than the Wasilla of today, I assure you, we have a new water sewage treatment plant, we have better roads and services, and I can guarantee you our mayor did not hire a lobbying group to get those for us.
I see her as someone who talks out of both sides of her mouth. No pork? Yeah, right. She may as well say, “Oink, oink.” Its all I’ve seen her do since she was chosen, talk out of both sides of her mouth, back peddle, and wag the dog to cover how her record does not fit the image and platform she wants to project to the American public. If I thought my head was hurting, I can’t imagine how the Republican spin doctors felt after her horrible interview with Charlie Gibson where she appeared to be a moose in the headlights. I guess they forgot to give her an opinion on some things because Governor Palin appears to be woefully under-informed, under-educated, and in over her head.
Do you think the combined 6 million she asked for to research rockfish and sea crab stocks could have had anything to do with her husband’s commerical fishing business? *oink*