Comments on: Voting With Economic Interest http://politicalcartel.org/2008/06/26/voting-with-economic-interest/ An International Online Editorial Magazine ■ Pittsburgh, PA, USA ■ Seoul, ROK Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:21:28 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Zu http://politicalcartel.org/2008/06/26/voting-with-economic-interest/#comment-3664 Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:35:41 +0000 http://politicalcartel.wordpress.com/?p=413#comment-3664 The NRO article was obviously biased but it piqued my interest all the same. I knew I could count on someone here to put some light to it without assuming that I agreed with the article. Much appreciated.

Looking forward to the upcoming post.

]]> By: David M. Manes http://politicalcartel.org/2008/06/26/voting-with-economic-interest/#comment-3663 Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:20:41 +0000 http://politicalcartel.wordpress.com/?p=413#comment-3663 I want to talk more about Social Security, the payroll tax, and Obama’s plan, but that will come later in a separate post. Stay tuned…

]]> By: David M. Manes http://politicalcartel.org/2008/06/26/voting-with-economic-interest/#comment-3662 Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:20:01 +0000 http://politicalcartel.wordpress.com/?p=413#comment-3662 If the arguments in that article were applied to my question about economic self-interest, they would have to be framed as “enlightened self-interest,” since the writer does not argue that typical individuals would benefit directly as much from McCain’s tax policies, but that the economy overall would be better and that would tend to help everyone out.

First of all, I don’t think that the writer’s arguments are that enlightened. Obama’s tax plans come close to the kinds of tax structures we had in the 90s, but still aren’t that high. The economy overall was pretty good in the 90s. McCain’s tax plan is even more irresponsible to the overall economy and even more beneficial to the very few at the extreme top of our country than Bush’s, which have not quite brought about the overall economic success of the 90s.

Second, even if it were enlightened, people typically are not. Even highly educated economists have difficulties interpreting and predicting macro economic trends and applying them to policy. Average people have no idea about how tax structures really affect the overall economy, and many of them can barely spell GDP.

Third, even if it were enlightened, and people were enlightened enough to see it, they would choose self interest over enlightened self interest almost every time. Individuals, politicians, companies, and nations all look out for Number One first and ignore enlightened self interest whenever possible.

]]> By: Zu http://politicalcartel.org/2008/06/26/voting-with-economic-interest/#comment-3661 Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:35:41 +0000 http://politicalcartel.wordpress.com/?p=413#comment-3661 Just wondering how would you answer this?

http://tinyurl.com/4b2yll

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Found this article interesting.

http://www.slate.com/id/2194208/?from=rss

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