Nick Hanauer

Here is the much-talked-about TED talk on inequality given by Nick Hanauer. We (TED) are posting it here to promote public discussion on an important issue. For more background on this, see this blog post from TED Curator Chris Anderson: http://tedchris.posterous.com

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[Peter Carter]

@eddiequest4 is right though. TED talks do tend to lean to the left, but then, as a great man once said: the truth has a well-known liberal bias.

[1984Astral]

which is why the speaker said that job creation is a positive feedback between capitalists and consumers; to say that capitalists alone are "job creators" is to ignore the fact that without the consumers to buy their goods, their "capitalist infrastructure" would fail miserably and they'd be at the poor house asking for hand outs. The only reason business owners go into businesses is to LURE CONSUMERS. So consumers are the driving force of the economy and job creation.

[55jmcc]

It is easy to see why it was not posted. It is economically ignorant and waste of time.

[kuroiya88]

Except it isn't. Look at healthcare: Myriad of providers, many options in hospitals, doctors, etc. If you want to talk about loot, look at how much people get ripped off when paying their medical bills. Look at the federal budget, where about a third goes to health care expenses.

There's a market failure there due to inelastic demand of health care services. Private sector doesn't always work best for the majority. Anarcho-capitalism (what you're advocating) is nonsense and will never happen.

[Government4People]

Hanauer did not use "hard facts" in a syllogism to prove something.  He made repeated emotional pleas, which is quite effecting at convincing the masses for sure.

NOTE: I am not arguing for the GOP version, which can equally well be argued for via playing to emotions and deceptively cherry picking data that had a myriad of causative factors.

[Government4People]

I didn't use the word "evil". Taxation is always unjust!

You fail to understand how monopoly providers funded via coercive levy work. There is no incentive whatsoever to please the customer...in fact, the bureaucrat is likely to find the customer annoying and distracting him from enjoying his tax loot.

Acquiring revenue by offering services people willingly pay for in competition with a myriad of other providers, serving many different customer segments, is always superior economically.

[kuroiya88]

what's a youtube dialogue without ad hominem? I was just giving the exchange some flavor haha. Joking aside, you have a fancy vocabulary, too bad it's wasted on your philosophy. So you prove my point, if government isn't providing a service adequately due to lack of funding, you give it funding. Taxation isn't always evil, especially when it increases overall real revenue over time. It really is that simple...

[Government4People]

I see you can't form a cogent argument and repeated your fallacious one, along with some meaningless ad hominem nonsense in lieu of a thoughtful response.

Potholes and quality issues in general are endemic with Govt services. Of course public scorn is well deserved.

[kuroiya88]

Haha oh please, see? That's what I'm talking about when I say some people here are living in lala-land. So basically just because things have been done one way since the beginning of time means they're not necessarily correct. TRUE.

But I'm gonna guess the second there's a pothole in front of your decrepit house you'll go crying to your local government asking them to do their jobs. I'm guessing your age hovers around 15 or 16 and you're probably literally on something.

[Government4People]

1. Legal does not imply ethical. Blacks were "legally" property less than two centuries ago.

2. Similarly, slavery predates the bible and was the law of the land in many countries.

Try a syllogism that can stand some scrutiny next time.

Meanwhile, there is no way to define taxes that is fundamentally different from the common law definition of Larceny, Theft, Extortion. Just because those who write the laws say it is "legal",or habituation by people, does not change its ethical nature.