The Economist's Cookbook

Recipes For A More Free Society

  • "The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they know about what they imagine they can design."

    - F.A. Hayek

Okay so I know that a small sample is unscientific but just bear with me okay? I think that this article kind of explains why I find the Tea Party people rather irrelevant.

Washington Post article
. Now lets look at a few things here:

Although united in their hostility to big government, the protesters were ideologically varied. At one end of the spectrum, a purist libertarian wanted to abolish public schools. At the other, a 24-year-old Internet marketing company owner with a spiked mohawk hairstyle strongly opposed the health-care bill but noted, "I love Medicare. That takes care of my grandparents."

Ah ... okay. So the medicare industry (for that's now truly what it is inside the government) is okay because it "takes care of old people". Listen i am not some coldhearted evil genius who is trying to exterminate old people from the face of the earth. BUT THIS IS PART OF THE PROBLEM! Especially given this statement from the article:
I found that I agreed heartily with the tea partiers on what is perhaps their single biggest concern: that America's swelling government debt seriously threatens our long-term prosperity.
So wait ... the Tea Party people are all up in arms about government debt. Which contrary to Joe Biden is a bigger "fucking deal" than any sort of Healthcare reform is. We're in the tunnel and the light at the end of it is probably a bullet train. But no matter, we have to make sure everyone keeps getting their handouts because it makes so-and-so feel good.

Another perhaps?

"We are going toward bankruptcy," Cressy said. "We are on the road to be Greece and California."

Nevertheless, he said he supported the initial bank bailouts, despite their high cost, because they were necessary to stabilize the financial system.

The only conceivable response is this:


























Or this wonderful gem trying to sideline those of us that actually support massive government cuts to FIX THE PROBLEM:
Some participants had far-out views. I heard proposals to repeal the progressive income tax, abolish the Federal Reserve Board and privatize the U.S. Postal Service.
Oh right ... because those ideas are SO FAR OUT THERE! Maybe for a small minded non-economically educated person! The only solution is to shrink entitlement programs and military spending. The only way to do those things is to make people unhappy.

We ... are in deep trouble and the Tea Partiers, while I share their frustration, are not the saviors of America. They more resemble one of those angry mobs from South Park going "RabbleRabbleRabbleRabbleRabbleRabbleRabble!"

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1 Response for the "The Problem with the Tea Party Movement."

  1. VH says:

    While I support their general limited government views and I am happy to see a grass roots conservative protest blooming, I agree with you, Jon. The Tea Party has very main stream views overall. Anybody that thinks Medicare is good is simply deluded. Eventually the ferryman will need to be paid and it won't be pretty.

    I guess the silver lining in all this is that maybe the country will start to breach the possibility of entitlement reform.