Comments by "wvu05" (@wvu05) on "Libertarian Caller Debates Sam Seder on Libertarian Ideals" video.

@Jack Tharp Unemployment spiked because he tried to balance the budget. The reason is simple: the government is the spender of last resort. When the economy sinks, people cut back, causing a vicious cycle. You have to have some entity to step in, and businesses can't do it, because people aren't buying. By 1945, in part because millions were coming home and in part because price controls were lifted, there was pent up demand, and that's why the economy grew. Having learned the lesson of 1937, budgets in the 35 years after were only balanced in times of plenty (and not necessarily then), and the debt as a share of the economy shrank from 120% to 33%. When supply siders took over (and Democratic Presidents have not fully gone away from that consensus), even before the Great Recession the debt was over 80% of GDP. See, that's what happens when you subscribe to an economic theory based in the real world rather than what you want the world to be: over the long run, your theory actually holds up.
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@Jack Tharp If the private sector can do infrastructure so much more efficiently, why did Indiana roads get so bad 15 years ago?
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@Jack Tharp Well, if you live in an area that doesn't care or doesn't have a tax base sufficient to provide needs (which often happens due to suburban flight) that will happen. I have lived in places with bad roads and with great roads. There are some places where the disparity is so great that I don't have to see a sign to tell me that I have changed cities or states because I can tell by the bumpy roads. If there are enough voters like you who don't want your tax money going to pay for infrastructure, of course your roads and municipal water supply are going to suck. Why private contractors working on the internet counts as a win for my argument: it was still funded by taxpayer dollars because it was not advantageous for any private company to create it. This is the problem with those taking the libertarian tack: you think that those who disagree with you think that the government does everything better, when our point is that government does some things better.
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@Jack Tharp Power to tax, power to raise an army, power to federalize the militias, the Supremacy Clause, Interstate Commerce. Those seem pretty big to me. I'm not saying there weren't limits, but to say that the Constitution was written to limit government power and ignore the fact that it increased power in many significant ways is a selective reading of the events of 1787.
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@Jack Tharp We wouldn't have any sort of modern economy if we were bound by the amount of gold we own. That's why every modern economy abandoned the gold standard and it's more prevalent in Third World countries. Yes, both parties have had debts and deficits, but since people like to throw around the family analogy, going into debt to buy a house is a lot different than going into debt to buy a bunch of stuff on Amazon. You are not getting how the phrase "spender of last resort" is used. It doesn't mean that the government never spends money, it means that there are times that it needs to spend when no one else will. There was also the government as employer of last resort. Not civil service positions, but temporary jobs to help remove the slack in the market. Yes, let us look at the successes: we are having this discussion on the internet (defense project) with products that were shipped via trucks (roads built by the government), trains (tracks built by the government), ships (ports maintained by the government), and planes (air control administered by the government). If you are in a rural area, you have electricity because government stepped in when the free market deemed it cost infleffective. If you went to public school, government again. If your water is not polluted, the EPA made sure it isn't. If you ate food, the FDA inspected it to make sure that it wasn't poisoned. As Sam told another debater, you think you are standing suspended in mid air, but you don't see the building supporting you.
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@Jack Tharp When was Denmark invaded? I could also use Iceland as an example. As far as this idea that the US is unique because it was started to be limited, the US Constitution is the biggest power grab in American history. It was debated in secret because those involved knew that the limited government of the Articles of Confederation didn't work and they needed to increase central power. Also, centrist is a dirty libel that does not apply to me. If you are not a libertarian, I apologize. I saw you arguing against the ability of government to do anything right, and I assumed you were a libertarian.
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@Jack Tharp So, was it the government spending of the New Deal, or the really big government spending of WWII? And if government spending had no effect, why did the 1937 recession correlate so well to his one attempt at austerity?
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@Jack Tharp Example of a government that meets those standards? Well, it seems like you think that government inherently becomes "oppressive," but I'll be your huckleberry: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland. Depending on how you define #3, you could also include Canada, and maybe even Australia and New Zealand.
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@sajfen Do you live in a rural area?
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@sajfen If you were, the fact that you have electricity would, because the Great and Powerful Market decided that rural electricity wasn't cost effective. I could also ask if you drive a car or have food poisoning.
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