Re: Gruber
 

Look, I understand that you're probably one of the vote-with-my-pocketbook types. In your and many other cases, voting against tax increases, in whatever form, is not quite linked to stupidity.

But for you to argue that the average voter--who you simply cannot argue is not stupid--is not too stupid to understand that the only fucking hammer that can be applied to make any system of expanded insurance work is some form of tax penalty, and that such voter doesn't realize that they automatically vote against any law that has the word "tax" in it no matter how beneficial to them, is not stupid for doing so, is just ridiculous.

TM

Re: Gruber
 

Classic libertarians are all about the free market, though. No barriers to entry.

Re: Gruber
 

2

Cue the villagers with pitch... ah... automatic weapons
 

Re: Gruber
 

I thought classic libertarians were fine with barriers to entry, as long as those barriers were set up by the private sector, which is obviously the only force for good in the universe.

Classic libertarians = anarchists with money.

Re: Cue the villagers with pitch... ah... automatic weapons
 

Link won't open but I am anticipating utter havoc in Missouri today.

Re: Cue the villagers with pitch... ah... automatic weapons
 

Assuming there will be no indictment, and disorder will ensue, I'm initially inclined to think, "Is this the straw that breaks the camel's back? Is this tragedy, which is almost as much about class as race, the thing that causes radical action on inequality?"

Then I remember, there is no real fix for inequality, just silly talk about tax redistribution that wouldn't even dent the problem. And so even if this thing did start some huge dialogue, it wouldn't go very far. There'd be a lot of media attention for a time, but inevitably, things would return to stasis, the poor being subject to harsh law enforcement, the rest of us temporarily concerned, but our attentions quickly diverted by the rat race. And as we have more inequality, and with it more incidents like Ferguson, we'll all get numb to it the same way we're numb to school shootings.

I can live with turning into Brazil, I guess. But at least expand Mardi Gras into a full blown national Carnival.

Re: Cue the villagers with pitch... ah... automatic weapons
 

Hmmm, some of these ideas sound so familiar. If only I could remember where I first heard them.

Re: Cue the villagers with pitch... ah... automatic weapons
 

It's a link to an article in the Israeli press about how the Mayor of Jerusalem and the Police have asked everyone with a license to carry to bring their guns down and join the security forces.

Marvelous idea.

Re: Cue the villagers with pitch... ah... automatic weapons
 

Hell, this is in Missouri. I do more business with and have more reason to spend time in Sao Paolo than St. Louis. In America today, the red states ARE the third world, more than so much of what we used to call the third world.

At some point maybe we'll be shamed into action. Or, alternatively, maybe they'll find their JLaw to lead them in rising up against our little carnivales.

Re: Cue the villagers with pitch... ah... automatic weapons
 

Ridiculous. What kind of pussy country requires people to have a license to carry a gun?

Re: Cue the villagers with pitch... ah... automatic weapons
 

I'm sure if Alabama could just license whites to carry guns there would be a lot more gun control fans down there.

Re: Cue the villagers with pitch... ah... automatic weapons
 

You know this is racist bullshit that white people tell themselves so they don't have to think about things like this, right?

Yes, "silly talk" about policies that unequivocally work when implemented, both here, historically, and abroad.

We've been there. Policy, in part driven by fear of actual leftist revolution, led us toward something better and then led us back as that fear receded.

Re: Cue the villagers with pitch... ah... automatic weapons
 

No, I think that's your simplification of my point. Race is a primary issue here, of course. But so is class. The police don't treat minorities badly solely because they are minorities. They treat them badly just as much because they assume or know they're poor, and for that reason, the police can get away with doing so.

The only cure is to create demand. Redistribution does not do this. More stimulus could, but that's off the table. (Yeah, that's right -- I agree with Krugman.) For some dumb reason, we've decided the only cures for inequality to be debated involve increased taxes.

We haven't been there in a Citizens United world. The govt is a wholly owned tool of big corporate America.

Re: Gruber
 

True, a guy who'd gain more from the ACA than the cost of his tax increase is irrefutably stupid. But equally true, a guy who looks at the cost/benefit and concludes that it probably is not going to be a net gain for him is not stupid. He falls in the selfish bucket. I think there's a lot of the latter out there being lumped in with the former.