Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Ron Paul Educates the Talking Heads
Folks, I only post about 10% of the Ron Paul stuff that comes my way. It is my filtering service, for you. The clip below is about 10 minutes but it's really good. Paul fields all the questions fired at him, and not only gives sound answers but usually packages them fairly sleekly as well. There is only a hint of the standard politician's, "Whatever the question, quickly steer it back to your talking points." And in any event, his talking points are awesome. My only objection was that he basically conceded there would be double-digit unemployment for a long time if his advice were followed, and I don't think that is true. (But in fairness to Paul, maybe he thought the question was, "If we don't do stimulus and just 'do nothing,' won't there be high unemployment for years?") (HT2 LRC)
Comments:
The talking heads complain that Dr. Paul doesn't give us a path forward. He DOES. Stop doing bad things and things will work out. People are looking for the magic lever which will fix things without pain if only we want it bad enough.
# posted by 
: January 27, 2009 at 2:21 PM
: January 27, 2009 at 2:21 PM
Well, Ron Paul did his best, but I still don't think they understood what he was talking about. The vast majority of people are like the commentator who said "it went way over my head".
# posted by : January 27, 2009 at 4:34 PM
: January 27, 2009 at 4:34 PM
There are "You Tube" vidoes and articles RP has written where he argues the downturn would be quite quick and last around two years if the govt stepped out of the way and let the market work.
Dont know if he has changed his mind on this given what you say here.
Dont know if he has changed his mind on this given what you say here.
Translation (expanding slightly what anonymous wrote). "RP:We started a fire with cheap credit and by increasing the money supply and discouraging saving and increasing the number of people in unproductive work. Now we're increasing the money supply even further and continuing to encourage spending at the expense of saving. That's like pouring gasoline on the fire. So, first we need to stop doing that."
TH: That's all over my head. Just tell us what SHOULD be done, not what SHOULDN'T be done.
RP: ....! Well, if you're pouring gasoline on the fire, the first thing to do is to stop pouring gasoline on the fire.
TH: I see the ideal world where you're going, but this is an emergency. Tell us what should be done so that we can all do exactly what we like and not suffer any evil consequences: so that everyone can keep their jobs, no firms will go under and we'll STILL have super cheap credit and can go on buying all the Chinese crap we want, and still have a big, daddy government taking care of us all.
RP: ....!!!! I'm talking about freedom.
TH: That's la-la land and anyway it's all over my head."
Terrifying. I admire Ron Paul for continuing to make the effort, even though it's obvious many folks don't (can't?) understand him. Two months ago, I'm not sure I would have understood either. (One month of reading articles on mises.org every day has paid off.) Plus, thanks to the Internet and YouTube and your blog, Dr. Paul IS reaching lots of people who DO get it and/or want to understand it better.
TH: That's all over my head. Just tell us what SHOULD be done, not what SHOULDN'T be done.
RP: ....! Well, if you're pouring gasoline on the fire, the first thing to do is to stop pouring gasoline on the fire.
TH: I see the ideal world where you're going, but this is an emergency. Tell us what should be done so that we can all do exactly what we like and not suffer any evil consequences: so that everyone can keep their jobs, no firms will go under and we'll STILL have super cheap credit and can go on buying all the Chinese crap we want, and still have a big, daddy government taking care of us all.
RP: ....!!!! I'm talking about freedom.
TH: That's la-la land and anyway it's all over my head."
Terrifying. I admire Ron Paul for continuing to make the effort, even though it's obvious many folks don't (can't?) understand him. Two months ago, I'm not sure I would have understood either. (One month of reading articles on mises.org every day has paid off.) Plus, thanks to the Internet and YouTube and your blog, Dr. Paul IS reaching lots of people who DO get it and/or want to understand it better.
# posted by : January 28, 2009 at 7:31 PM
: January 28, 2009 at 7:31 PM
Hi Marc,
Anonymous here (forgot to sign). Great example. I think I'll use that. :)
Jim O'Connor
The Colony, Texas
Anonymous here (forgot to sign). Great example. I think I'll use that. :)
Jim O'Connor
The Colony, Texas
# posted by : January 28, 2009 at 7:52 PM
: January 28, 2009 at 7:52 PM
And Rush goes off on the deep end -- let's spend huge amounts of money and cut taxes on corporations so we're inflating more and stealing from savers!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123318906638926749.html
The only saving grace of taxes is at least you can account for what the government is stealing/spending.
And there is no way recovery comes in a few months if the recession is allowed to do its work. We have decades of misdirected capital and labor to reshuffle. Not going to happen in a few months.
Jim O'Connor
The Colony, Texas
Post a Comment
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123318906638926749.html
The only saving grace of taxes is at least you can account for what the government is stealing/spending.
And there is no way recovery comes in a few months if the recession is allowed to do its work. We have decades of misdirected capital and labor to reshuffle. Not going to happen in a few months.
Jim O'Connor
The Colony, Texas
# posted by : January 29, 2009 at 9:34 AM
: January 29, 2009 at 9:34 AM Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]