It’ll be businessmen and businesses that’ll be scapegoated, bear the brunt of the anger and (on the Left) faux outrage, and harmed or destroyed …

ShainS on January 2, 2013 at 2:23 PM

Disagree.

It will be white people:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEqa90XpPw0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnCBNho9Kak
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Popzl9_DAq0

Also the popularity of the “knockout game”, as the popularity of government mandated discrimination against whites, especially males.

mikhail1973 on January 2, 2013 at 2:18 PM

Yep, you are correct, sir!

The relative metric is Taxation & Govt Spending as a % of GDP.

Latvia does far better (lower) than the US i both categories.

Norwegian on January 2, 2013 at 2:06 PM

Good point. On tax rates I can argue as Latvian taxes are not low: 25% income tax, 15% capital gains, 35.09% social security tax of which 24.09% is the employer’s rate and 11% is the employee’s rate, property taxes are 1.5%. Corporate tax is 15% and that is lower. However, everyone pays and that is what matters.

Austerity is coming here. The choices are controlled austerity measures, or forced from bankruptcy and collapse.

I’m afraid people here are too stupid and selfish for the controlled austerity … no doubt in part to the media and the constant barrage of lies from democrats.

I’d hate to be a politician when the crap hits the fan.

darwin on January 2, 2013 at 2:07 PM

Controlled austerity measures here? Not a chance … it will be either collapse from recognition by creditors that we are already totally insolvent (especially considering unfunded liabilities) or hyperinflation that destroys all but the very wealthy.

Politicians won’t fare so badly — in fact, they’ll have tremendous leverage in their bribability power as well as participating in authoritarian statutes/crackdowns.

It’ll be businessmen and businesses that’ll be scapegoated, bear the brunt of the anger and (on the Left) faux outrage, and harmed or destroyed …

“Every movement that seeks to enslave a country, every dictatorship or potential dictatorship, needs some minority group as a scapegoat which it can blame for the nation’s troubles and use as a justification of its own demands for dictatorial powers. In Soviet Russia, the scapegoat was the bourgeoisie; in Nazi Germany, it was the Jewish people; in America, it is the businessmen.”

– Ayn Rand

I’d hate to be a politician when the crap hits the fan.

darwin on January 2, 2013 at 2:07 PM

This is why Jim DeMint left the Senate. I don’t think he sees any hope for the situation and doesn’t want to be there when the situation falls apart. To be quite honest, if I was a politician, I’d take my ill-gotten gains and run. Probably the reason government’s been so bad in the past few years is that the smart ones are seeing what’s coming and fleeing to some place like Panama or the Caribbean, leaving only the idiots in charge.

Under Obama, federal spending for 2011 alone was $3.6 trillion. Did that move the US economy?

/Rhetorical question

ShainS on January 2, 2013 at 2:12 PM

Trust me, I am with you on this. Bailout money would be on the top of that. And it is more of a generic thought as we know that whatever funds are available would be poured down the same rathole where the rest of federal spending went.

… it would equate to a $3.4 trillion bailout for US. Would that infusion move US economy?

mikhail1973 on January 2, 2013 at 1:34 PM

Under Obama, federal spending for 2011 alone was $3.6 trillion. Did that move the US economy?

/Rhetorical question

Was’t their prime mister on twitter a couple of months ago telling everyone to stuff it?

Blake on January 2, 2013 at 1:38 PM

No, just Krugman and his pals.

I’m afraid people here are too stupid and selfish for the controlled austerity … no doubt in part to the media and the constant barrage of lies from democrats.

I’d hate to be a politician when the crap hits the fan.

Unmentioned in the article – unexpectedly – is Latvia’s flat tax.

Rebar on January 2, 2013 at 1:31 PM

Also unmentioned went 22% VAT.

mikhail1973 on January 2, 2013 at 1:37 PM

The relative metric is Taxation & Govt Spending as a % of GDP.

Latvia does far better (lower) than the US i both categories.