Christopher Hitchens on Welfare Reform and Class War - First 100 Days Part 3 (1993)

April 5, 1993 http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww....

Watch the full program: http://thefilmarchived.blogspot.com/2010/08/christopher-hitchens-on-first-100...

Supply-side economics is a school of macroeconomic thought that argues that economic growth can be most effectively created by lowering barriers for people to produce (supply) goods and services, such as adjusting income tax and capital gains tax rates, and by allowing greater flexibility by reducing regulation. Consumers will then benefit from a greater supply of goods and services at lower prices.

The term "supply-side economics" was thought, for some time, to have been coined by journalist Jude Wanniski in 1975, but according to Robert D. Atkinson's Supply-Side Follies [p. 50], the term "supply side" ("supply-side fiscalists") was first used by Herbert Stein, a former economic adviser to President Nixon, in 1976, and only later that year was this term repeated by Jude Wanniski. It popularized the ideas of economists Robert Mundell and Arthur Laffer. Today, supply-side economics is often conflated with the politically rhetorical term "trickle-down economics," but as Jude Wanniski points out in his book The Way The World Works, trickle-down economics is conservative Keynesianism associated with the Republican Party.

Typical policy recommendations of supply-side economics are lower marginal tax rates and less regulation. Maximum benefits from taxation policy are achieved by optimizing the marginal tax rates to spur growth, although it is a common misunderstanding that supply side economics is concerned only with taxation policy when it is about removing barriers to production more generally.

Many early proponents argued that the size of the economic growth would be significant enough that the increased government revenue from a faster growing economy would be sufficient to compensate completely for the short-term costs of a tax cut, and that tax cuts could, in fact, cause overall revenue to increase.

Class conflict refers to the concept of underlying tensions or antagonisms which exist in society due to conflicting interests that arise from different social positions. Class conflict is thought to play a pivotal role in history of class societies (such as capitalism and feudalism) by Marxists who refer to its overt manifestations as class war, a struggle whose resolution in favor of the working class is viewed by them as inevitable under capitalism.

Class conflict can take many different shapes. Direct violence, such as wars fought for resources and cheap labor; indirect violence, such as deaths from poverty, starvation or unsafe working conditions; coercion, such as the threat of losing a job or pulling an important investment; or ideology, either intentionally (as with books and articles promoting anti-capitalism) or unintentionally (as with the promotion of consumerism through advertising).

It can be open, as with a lockout aimed at destroying a labor union, or hidden, as with an informal slowdown in production protesting low wages or unfair labor practices.

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[alexaadap]

holy shit! hichens the moderator

[Hamandchees3]

CH tries to give them a genuine devils advocate but they're so unuse to any intellectual push back that they don't know how to respond.

[benehan]

great left wing rant by Hitch at 4:50 trust, my favourite bolshevik

[Moionfire]

So strange seeing him moderate. LOL

[Moionfire]

@alexaadap lol

[TheConciseStatement]

@iLovePrincessDiana36

Yep, Iraq is the big blot on the record. Wrong time, wrong justification, wrong administration - his intentions are noble but he got into bed with a very bad crowd. He's also a bit pro-life too, which is a little disappointing for a 'bleeding heart liberal' such as myself.

[iLovePrincessDiana36]

@TheConciseStatement- I know exactly how he feels about Diana. But do I have to agree 100% with all of his beliefs in order to admire or support him? I'm more appalled by his support of the Iraq War than his nastiness towards Diana. He says JFK shouldn't be considered a hero because JFK led us into Vietnam, and yet one of his personal heroes is Jefferson, who had hundreds of slaves.

He's brilliant. He's not perfect.

[TheConciseStatement]

@iLovePrincessDiana36

I'm sure you already know this but it bears worth repeating : Hitch thought very little of Diana and the surrounding fanaticism. (Of course, the fact that he finds Maggie Thatcher "sexy" should make us question HIS tastes as well.)

[iLovePrincessDiana36]

Hitchens is so brilliant. Why can't there be more like him?

[qwertypoiu4321]

Class warfare against division of labor diversity is just a criminal tactic to attempt to legitimize criminal mob coercion.