Populist Governments / Poverty / Corruption / Comeuppance

Bradly said:
No one in a villa works? The poor do not work? The poor do not pay taxes?
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I don't believe my post mentioned a thing about villas or the poor. Taxes and inflation hurt all, most taxes hurt the middle class a bit more than the rest. (the poor don't pay much they dont have it, the rich have loopholes)
When the government makes handouts they have to get the goods/money from somewhere. It can only come from taxes or printing - both things hurt the people, some more than others, but inflation hurts everyone.
Generally when the government hands out 'stuff' instead of money they bought that stuff from the 'cronies' who get a nice profit too.
 
That's why I wrote "[background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]the crucial part is whether the redistribution makes sense". You cannot just assess whether government spendings are good or bad without talking about a specific program. My point is that every state performs redistribution - it's his intrinsic task. For example most people agree a situation where you don't have good chances in life just because you come from a poor family (e.g., because you cannot afford the required education) is undesirable. Similarly, other spendings like the public transportation subsidy here make a lot of sense to me. Without question there are also programs, that are - in my opinion - just stupid (hello football para todos...). But to have a real discussion about the topic, one needs to specify which programs we are talking about - general statements don't fit the complexity of the topic.[/background]
 
Populism. How do you understand it?
Wikipedia says it is a political movement that represents the interests (and hopes and fears, which may not be genuine interests) of the folk in contrast to the elite's.
I see it as an alliance between the elite and the industrial "masses" brokered by some charismatic character who becomes the only individual in the populist mindscape.

Imagine America under Ross Perot or rather a more charismatic leader than him.

To extrapolate to Argentina change the T for an N, that way we don't even need to resort to Godwin's Law.
 
Chet said:
I don't believe my post mentioned a thing about villas or the poor. Taxes and inflation hurt all, most taxes hurt the middle class a bit more than the rest. (the poor don't pay much they dont have it, the rich have loopholes)
When the government makes handouts they have to get the goods/money from somewhere. It can only come from taxes or printing - both things hurt the people, some more than others, but inflation hurts everyone.
Generally when the government hands out 'stuff' instead of money they bought that stuff from the 'cronies' who get a nice profit too.
Click to expand...

My original post did mention someone from a villa. Many people who live in villas are hardworking, honest folks, and they pay VAT just like anyone else. You deem a social program that promotes painting a home as a handout (again, you responded to my OP, which was about that), but what are we to call government expenditures for public services that benefit the middle class? What do we call the bicisendas and the new water fountains along Figueroa Alcorta? What do we call the "estaciones saludables" in the subways and on street corners? What do we call the centers for victims of rape and abuse? What do we call the universities and public schools? What do we call the new highways and bridges? When it benefits you, it's a necessary public expenditure; but when it's for someone who is poor -- and something that you can afford on your own (presumably you have the cash to paint your house) -- it's a handout. Am I wrong?

Nobody likes taxes, but I think we like having police, firefighters, highways, public schools, etc. So, you can have it one way or the other.
 
Matt84 said:
Imagine America under Ross Perot or rather a more charismatic leader than him.
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Actually voted him way back when. The man made sense but most people do not want what makes sense they want what tickles their ears or address their fears.
 
You can watch some of his youtube videos they are pretty interesting. He definitely made some sense and all these years later much of it panned out like some of his points regarding NFTA.
 
Taxes are much like the law, a truly wonderful thing, so egalitarian. They equally forbid a rich man and a poor man from sleeping under bridges.

Let us speak of painting houses and VAT. A rich man who needs to paint his house will spend x on paint plus % vat, being rich he doesn't care about vat much most likely and it will not likely effect his choice of paint or anything else (he probably has a way to expense it to some company anyway but thats a different issue).
The middle class guy may have to save a bit to buy paint, he may buy a cheaper (lower quality?) paint too because the extra % vat adds up when you are on a budget, chances are he will need to repaint sooner than the rich man now with the lower quality paint.
The poor man does not worry about vat on paint for his house, he has no house to paint.
 
Bradly said:
In the world that you support, this is the case.
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Just a minor nit pick, I did not say I supported or did not support anything. I said was is true as things currently exist.
 
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