Countdown: Worst Person Feb. 8, 2008

[IoEstasCedonta]

...lucky Democrats.

[indysuperdave]

Olberman got it right again of course many could see it comming anyway when Olberman said Michael Steele was the RNC Chairman for now he got it right a little over thirty days and now the racist right is asking Steele to step down LOL! RNC foiled again fucking loosers

[tracer740]

Bravo Keith!!!

[dylanfloyd420]

micheal steele is a fucking tool

[xhagast]

Where in HELL is the cutthroat world of Wall Street? Cutthroat? Everybody above a certain level seems to be assured of pay and bonuses and will not lose their jobs no matter what! Darwinism is needed to make sure the strongest survive. This is not business but nonsense. If Obama doesn't fix this these guys will starve. Because they will lose their stock options, the dollar will lose its value, they will have no jobs and their houses are morgaged.

[McCainThedivider]

The sad thing is they have us all beating up on the wrong people right now.The peanut bvutter company President-yet Rove and Bush and Cheney still remain free of any wrong doing.Enjoying the sunsetb while we are all fkd!

[zzzxxyy]

BRONZE: Not a good start  for Mr. Panetta.

SILVER: Michael Steele is both confused about his race and stupid!

GOLD: The audacity of this son of a bitch to boo-hoo about missing a six or seven-figure bonus. Fuck you, you rich prick!

[vivwritten]

stooge, why come back godless, well ? stooge

[billiefan2000]

one of obama's friends aka panetta

is on keith's list

hell must have froze over

[vivwritten]

get an education godlesscapitalist...

your ignorance is astounding

[godlesscapitalist]

vivwritten,

I notice that you can't counter my point. That's because I am right.

[godlesscapitalist]

"Taxing the rich" hurts all of us.

Many wealthy citizens and corporations employ, and taking their capital leaves them with fewer opportunities to create jobs.

Moreover, those who ignore the future need no assistance. Spoiling them ruins their lives.

Employment is good.

Think of those who work, support themselves, and save.

In so doing, our duty emerges.

REJECT BARACK OBAMA!!!

BTW1—Socialism is impotence; capitalism is hope.

BTW2—Jealousy and laziness are destructive.

[pantha266]

luckily, more and more of the citizenry are realizing the idiocy behind this ideology.

[godlesscapitalist]

pantha266,

Yes, more and more people have been turning away from this ideology. This movement that you are celebrating began in the early 1990s.

Hence, the situation we are in today.

[pantha266]

No, sir. You are mistaken. We are in the situation we are in due to the failed economic theories implemented by your heroes, Reagan and his ilk, in the 1980s and were allowed to continue under watered down so called liberals.

[godlesscapitalist]

pantha266,

You make my point better than I do.

Your assertion here can not be correct, because the economic theories of Reagan and his ilk were abandoned not too long after he left office.

Thus, they can not be responsible for the mess that we are in today.

Thanks.

[pantha266]

You apparently do not have a grasp on the economic ideas you worship. Ever hear of Supply side economic AKA VooDoo economics AKA Reaganomics. Please look it up

[godlesscapitalist]

Actually, the economic ideas I worship are much older than Reagan was. Adam Smith was probably the author.

In modern times, these ideas stem from President Kennedy's "paradoxical truth."

[DrBardo]

Progressive taxation and wealth redistribution are effective at keeping an economy afloat. What good is having a business when all the potential clients are too poor to buy luxuries? A higher percentage of the capital stays flowing in the economy if its distributed amongst lower earning brackets as they tend not to sit on large amounts of money in the way the wealthy do.

And as for the threat that the rich will leave if you tax them? Why would they? redistribution creates a stronger market.

[godlesscapitalist]

LOL!!!

DrBardo--wealthy people hardly have a reputation for "sitting on large amounts of money."

Rather, they expand for the purposes of growing their own wealth. This is what creates jobs and investment opportunities for the rest of us.

I made no mention of a "threat" on the part of rich people to leave if you tax them. However, I'm happy you brought that up.

After all, it would be gullible to suppose that high tax rates haven't had a role in pushing companies to China and Mexico.

[DrBardo]

Supply side economics works fine during an economic "boom" -its hardly a fair system and people on the very bottom suffer immensely. I'm not gonna say its not a functional system. However in a slump like this Keynesian economics are the only realistic solution.

Besides, not all the rich "create" jobs, that's a fallacy. Also the rich sit on a much larger portion of their wealth than the poor. Its a fact. The poor need to keep spending to sustain themselves, the rich don't, they save instead.

[pantha266]

"Wealthy people hardly have a reputation for sitting on large amounts of money"

You are really confused. They are not known for distributing the wealth.

[godlesscapitalist]

We may have a semantic problem. To me, when you say people are "sitting on wealth," you are saying they put it in a bank and forget about it.

Again pantha266, rich people DO NOT do this. They invest their money for the purposes of growing their wealth. This can't be done without job creation. This is what creates employment opportunities for the rest of us.

[Xorinite]

You can tax the rich or you can tax the poor.

The problem is broadly, the poor don't have any money to tax. Now peoples income can be divided into two sections, required income, and disposable income. Flat rates push up the basic cost of living, thus you end up with a greater welfare burden and/or other opportunity costs.

Bluntly if you want to increase government spending, you need to get money. The rich have money, the poor don't.

[Xorinite]

Also one must consider the social impacts of increasing economic and social stratification. It is often quite easy to see as a form of unsustainable development, in that it causes increasing diminishing returns.

However all these points aside, theres a big black hole in the economy that needs to be fed. The rich have the money to feed it, the poor do not. Sucks but its true.

[Xorinite]

Oh, and if Adam Smith is your man, you probably would recommend a pulling back of both government spending and taxation, to allow the invisible hand to do all the work.

Perhaps this is a good idea, government spending to stay off hysteresis only appears to work in the short term.

Of course there would need to be a way that would prevent all this reckless lending from occurring again, free markets do occasionally fail especially when hyperbolic spending and short termism rule.

[godlesscapitalist]

Xorinite,

Hyperbolic spending and short termism are economic vices in and of themselves.  They are not products of free market capitalism. Rather, they undermine it.

[Xorinite]

"They are not products of free market capitalism. Rather, they undermine it. "

They are however products of the human brain and human behavior, thus while these human aspects undermine the free market they are inevitable products of human behavior.

[Xorinite]

Which is my exact point, you got it, although you didn't apparently get that was the point I was making.

[Xorinite]

To get more into it; We want things sooner rather than later.

Often that effect means that we will undercut our long term productivity and survivability, however human beings think in terms of their life spans, and their immediate goals. This is one explanation for environmental damage.

Banks for example lent money which was a bad deal in order to get returns sooner rather than playing a long term game.

Bacteria do this too, its common. Bacteria will breed until their waste destroys them.

[jlassie]

This may be the first ever black-and-white worst person ever. Clearly, all the many years spent building up such a ludicrous sense of entitlement have taken the color and substance out of his soul, if he had one to begin with. What a dick...