The Andre Bauer solution: Starve the poor, they’ll stop breeding
“My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed! You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that. And so what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to curtail that type of behavior. They don’t know any better.”
– Andre Bauer, lieutenant governor of South Carolina
and candidate for S.C. governor.
It’s hard to know where to start with a statement like that. Apparently, Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer believes that we should try to starve the poor out of existence. Deprive them of food and they will cease breeding: Problem solved, neat as that. (An audio version of Bauer’s remarks with additional context is available here. Hearing the vehemence with which Bauer makes the above statement only compounds its ugliness.)
For the moment, though, let’s set aside the pure viciousness of that statement and address what Bauer claims is his larger point. In effect, his thesis is that government assistance actually causes poverty because it subsidizes and encourages irresponsible actions. “In government, we continue to reward bad behavior,” he said. “Any time we give somebody money we’re rewarding them. We’re telling them to keep doing what they’re doing.”
Cut off those subsidies, in other words, and poverty will decrease.
In some circles, that’s a politically popular explanation for the problems of the underclass. So let’s take it seriously for a moment and try to test that analysis against what we know to be reality.
The first problem is history. Human poverty has existed in every culture and era, without exception. It is a constant of human existence, a pre-existing condition, so to speak. No matter what Bauer chooses to believe, government did not create it. South Carolina, for example, was mired in deep poverty long before school-lunch programs and welfare programs existed.
Second, if Bauer were right, we would expect that poverty would be lowest in those nations that do nothing to “subsidize bad behavior,” and highest in those countries where the government support system rewards such behavior. Yet if you look around the world, the opposite is true. Poverty levels are highest in those societies that make little attempt to address it, and lowest in those that offer some form of safety net.
We can also test Bauer’s thesis here at home, by comparing states that offer varying degrees of support for the poor. A liberal Northeastern state such as Connecticut, for example, offers a more extensive government support system to its poor than does a conservative state such as South Carolina. Mississippi offers even less support to its poor than does South Carolina. Put in Bauer’s terms, Connecticut rewards poverty while South Carolina and Mississippi try to penalize it.
If Bauer’s thesis is correct — if government support causes poverty — then Connecticut ought to be drowning in poor people while Mississippi has relatively few poor people. Yet in fact the exact opposite is true, and Census Bureau figures prove it. In Connecticut, which “subsidizes bad behavior” most heavily, 5.7 percent of families lived below the poverty line in 2007, while 16 percent did so in Mississippi, where poverty was least subsidized. (The figure in South Carolina was 11.2 percent; in Georgia it was 10.8 percent. And all those numbers are undoubtedly a lot higher in 2010.)
That data suggest that poverty is a much more complex phenomenon than Bauer would like to pretend, and is not in the least “caused” by government assistance.
Nor does government assistance encourage “breeding,” as Bauer so cruelly described it. It is demographic fact that in every culture and in every era throughout history, poorer families tend to have more children than affluent families. The presence or absence of government support has nothing to do with it. By the way, Bauer’s dismay is also nothing new; in cultures throughout time, the more affluent have always been dismayed by those “breeders” in the lower classes.
In his speech, Bauer recounts a second-hand tale of a 10-year-old child who supposedly gave birth to a baby of her own. If true, it is a tragic tale for both. Even if that particular story is false, the larger problem of teenage and out-of-wedlock births is very real and must be confronted honestly. However, that honest discussion must begin by acknowledging that the 10-year-old did not “breed” in response to financial inducements offered by the government.
Bauer did offer one concrete suggestion in his speech, proposing that parents be required to attend parent-teacher conferences and take drug tests or lose government benefits such as school lunch programs. If they want government benefits, he said, they should be required to act responsibly.
To any responsible person, that instinctively sounds great, but let’s think it through. The population that Bauer is attempting to target are by definition not responsible. They are parents who abuse drugs or simply don’t care enough about their children to ensure that they get a good education. Is that population going to change its behavior in response to a possible cutoff of free school lunches? Sadly, no. If they responded to that kind of thing, they wouldn’t be in that predicament in the first place.
And if you nonetheless go ahead and deny a free or subsidized lunch to a kid whose parents are on drugs, what have you accomplished? You condemn the child to hunger and malnutrition, heaping another significant problem on his or her already overburdened shoulders. You reduce the incentive for that child to go to school every day, where at least he or she knew food was available. And you make people like Andre Bauer feel better.
Bauer’s fundamental mistake is his assertion that the poor respond to market signals sent by the government. The real problem is that they don’t respond to market signals at all. Living in poverty ought to be a huge market signal, but for a variety of reasons, the poor are largely immune to it. Many of them don’t recognize what the signals are saying, they lack the education to know how to respond to them, and they have no faith that the market would reward them anyway.
Changing that is difficult; only a small percentage of those born into poverty escape it. Perhaps the best we can do is to champion programs — and the school lunch program is a perfect if small example — that increase the odds of escape for individuals mired in poverty.
One last point: In his speech and subsequent press release, Bauer complained that “political correctness” makes it impossible to discuss such issues publicly. I would suggest that rhetoric likening our fellow Americans to overbreeding stray animals makes it far more difficult to discuss these things rationally than does political correctness.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
404 comments Add your comment
Kamchak
January 24th, 2010
6:55 pm
Reminds me of when I see a film of a coal train running out of West Virginia or wherever.
And daddy won’t you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I’m sorry my son, but you’re too late in asking
Mister Peabody’s coal train has hauled it away.
TaxPayer
January 24th, 2010
7:00 pm
The Bhopal disaster was an industrial disaster that took place at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in the Indian city of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. At midnight on 3 December 1984, the plant accidentally released methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas, exposing more than 500,000 people to MIC and other chemicals. The first official immediate death toll was 2,259. The government of Madhya Pradesh has confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas release. Others estimate 8,000-10,000 died within 72 hours and 25,000 have since died from gas-related diseases. 40,000 more were permanently disabled, maimed, or rendered subject to numerous grave illnesses; 521,000 exposed in all. As of 2009 no one has yet been prosecuted for the disaster.
If we just get with the program, we could bring jobs back to the USofA. Darned those regulations.
ron
January 24th, 2010
7:03 pm
Enter your comments here
Jack Stilton
January 24th, 2010
7:04 pm
The Lt Gov is correct. You can sugar coat it all you want but if you reward irresponsibility you get more of it. The comparison between Ct and Ms contradicts the his theory until you look at the racial makeup of the states and then it makes sense.
ron
January 24th, 2010
7:05 pm
In SC 28% of the population are black but 58% of the children are on food stamps. Bookman uses this fact to make the point that it isn’t about demographics. However, Bookman doesn;t breakdown the demographics % of that 58%.
TaxPayer
January 24th, 2010
7:06 pm
Did someone say sugar coated. That’s just so Imperial[istic]. Unless you’re talkin’ peanuts. Darned those regulations.
Jay
January 24th, 2010
7:09 pm
There’s those liberals again, always trying to make it about race.
C’mon Ron, c’mon Jack. Step up and say it plain.
Hillbilly Deluxe
January 24th, 2010
7:10 pm
I think this song says it better than I can. I often think my part of Appalachia was lucky that we didn’t have coal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C541d1Z3e0
catlady
January 24th, 2010
7:11 pm
Perhaps one solution to the “breeding” problem would be if you accept any “unearned” governmental help (food stamps, AFDC. peachcare, housing) and you are femaile, you have to have depoprovera installed and checked every time you come in to collect. And if you have a child even with the depo in place, you get no further benefit. For the men who collect, I don’t know?
This guy I work with got fired
January 24th, 2010
7:11 pm
He was earning 50 or 60 k…has not even started to look for a job, except for a little online searching.. Guess its been 6 months or so. He has enjoyed collecting unemployment ins. Crazy.
GTJohn
January 24th, 2010
7:14 pm
It continues to amaze me how liberals such as Jay find no problem in taking $$$ from people who work for it and giving it to people who do not. Even though it is stealing, you liberals just feel so good about helping people with other people’s $$$$. Me, I call it stealing – even if the government calls it taxation. And before you comment, I will put up what I give to charity against anyone here.
Mrs. Norris
January 24th, 2010
7:17 pm
Ooh, I like what catlady said. As for what to do about the men: men who are not disabled should not be getting welfare, period.
TaxPayer
January 24th, 2010
7:17 pm
However, Bookman doesn;t breakdown the demographics % of that 58%.
About half black, half white. Does that help.
josef nix
January 24th, 2010
7:18 pm
hillbilly–
back at ya on what it means….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Wp2cmL-gEM
catlady
January 24th, 2010
7:21 pm
And offer free “snips” for male and females with maybe a $1000 cash incentive.
I speak as a 38 year teacher who has had hundreds of unwanted, neglected kids. I now see the 2nd generation of them. My community has no black folks but 16 % Latino, with many families, especially Guatemalan, with 8+ children. Parents are illegal aliens, but kids are American citizesns.
Southern Comfort
January 24th, 2010
7:22 pm
catlady
Couldn’t that be edging towards forced sterilization? I don’t think we, as a country, even want to head towards that slippery slope.
AmV
I’m curious about one thing with capitalism, though. For all of us who are comfortable or even at the top of the chain, how would we react if the roles were reversed? Something like the movie “Trading Places”…
Suppose that some poverty-dwelling person devised a plan to bankrupt all those with money, and collect that same money for him/her and friends. Would the people who despise welfare now be the same that despised it if they needed it?
Dave R.
January 24th, 2010
7:23 pm
Actually, the Lt. Gov’s premise works in the larger picture in our financial markets. As long as you keep rewarding bad behavior with bailouts that provide safety nets to those who irresponsibly invested and those who irresponsibly loaned, you’ll never teach them to be responsible.
The nanny-statists continue to dream of a world where no one can fail . . .
TaxPayer
January 24th, 2010
7:23 pm
Darned regulations. And where’s that tort reform when you need it.
Dave R.
January 24th, 2010
7:25 pm
Oh, and Bookman? A bit of an exercise in hyperbole on your part maybe? Clearly, you make a conclusion that the Lt. Gov. did not make, especially if he was using a metaphor. You do know what a metaphor is, don’t you?
TaxPayer
January 24th, 2010
7:26 pm
Don’t you just hate those darned regulations.
Dave R.
January 24th, 2010
7:26 pm
Yo, TaxCheat! Maybe you might want to post something a bit more recent than 19 months ago.
And in case you missed it, tort reform being discussed in 2010 is for health care related issues.
catlady
January 24th, 2010
7:27 pm
Mrs. Norris, I can imagine men who are the caretaking parent getting welfare assistance very easily.
Southern Comfort, not cooreced but encouraged to make more helpful choices for the good of the children already in existence.
TaxPayer
January 24th, 2010
7:30 pm
Finally! Something that isn’t constrained by a bunch of stoopid regulations.
@@
January 24th, 2010
7:35 pm
Mr. Bauer’s comments are reprehensible as were Margaret (Planned Parenthood) Sanger’s.
Starve the poor or strategically place PP Centers in poor neighborhoods where the ultimate solution is to abort the future generations of poor.
I see no difference whatsoever.
josef nix
January 24th, 2010
7:35 pm
catlady–
You and I have talked before on the matter of breaking the cycle with the latino population. A bit of good news for you. The other day a young man came in to see me. You know what it’s like as a teacher as you try to recall who he was. It didn’t take but a minute, but what he had to say was really why you teach to begin with and what keeps you going. It turned out that he had gone on to college and was doing quite well in the music industry. He wanted to thank me for “having ridden my b*tt” and particularly for the “money for the school trip to Jekyll Island. It changed my life.” And what did he want to know? If he could do a benefit performance for the kids now who might not be able to afford the spring trip. You never know.
TaxPayer
January 24th, 2010
7:36 pm
We need money more than regulations so just dump it over here and pay by the load.
josef nix
January 24th, 2010
7:38 pm
@@
Your comments at 7:35–
“I see no difference whatsoever.”
And neither do I, but my fellow liberals don’t want to hear it….
TaxPayer
January 24th, 2010
7:41 pm
Don’t worry. He’ll earn his keep for you Imperialists. Just like any good Republican.
Southern Comfort
January 24th, 2010
7:44 pm
@@
There may be no difference to the two you describe, but the abortion issue can be taken care of thru sex education and parents being parents instead of buddies. I think the poverty issue is a little more complex if not impossible to solve.
@@
January 24th, 2010
7:44 pm
josef:
I haven’t read any of the comments. I’ve been baybeeeeesitting all day!!! a 2 y.o. and a 1 month old.
Awesome way to spend a rainy day.
mike
January 24th, 2010
7:46 pm
“If Mike and John believe this is somehow about race rather than about poverty, it says more about the mindset they bring to this discussion than about anything written here or implied here.”
LOL. So says the pundit who turned “uppity” into a scandal worthy of two columns. You are one step above Olbermann in the business of accusing those who dare not share views as being racist.
Do you ever get tired of being such a hypocrite?
Mrs. Norris
January 24th, 2010
7:47 pm
Another great idea by catlady. I would support a program to offer $1,000 for sterilization. I speak as a 45 year old law enforcement officer who has seen the pain and sorrow suffered by unwanted children and the pain and sorrow those unwanted children cause when they grow up.
Catlady for President!
TaxPayer
January 24th, 2010
7:47 pm
State Rep. David Ralston will keep his committee chairmanship despite getting hit with a $347,318 late tax bill from the Internal Revenue Service, House Speaker Glenn Richardson said Tuesday. The IRS says Ralston, chairman of the Non-Civil Judiciary Committee, owes individual income taxes, penalties and interest from as far back as tax year 1996…
Wow! What a tax cheat. By the way, who is this Ralston guy.
catlady
January 24th, 2010
7:53 pm
josef–thanks for the happy story. I get choked sometimes when my former students throw me bouquets. One who is a postmaster of a small town near here asked me what i was doing now. I told him “still teaching” but with a different demographic, and he told me, “Well, I am glad you had not switched yet when I was in school.” It took my breath away.
I feel very discouraged when it appears that the most fertile families are frequently the poorest, least educated, and frequently neglected, and that when these kids grow up they will likely continue the cycle, although they certainly experienced “doing without” when they were growing up. I think we need to break the cycle with incentives and disincentives.
I know some on this blog think I am extreme, but I really am liberal. It’s just that my thinking has been shaped by the 1000 or so kids I have taught.
Gordon
January 24th, 2010
7:53 pm
Jay writes “I would also point out to Gordon and others that most of the piece deals with the larger “gov’t causes poverty” argument rather than Bauer’s “breeding” comment.”
Then why even bring up Bauer? Government causes poverty (or not) is an interesting topic that deserves debate. Bauer is not. He is an idiot. Most on both sides know that. He is just red meat for left leaning bloggers.
catlady
January 24th, 2010
7:53 pm
taxpayer, there are many other “interesting things” that will be revealed when someone does some investigative reporting. Frying pan into the fire.
jt
January 24th, 2010
7:55 pm
On August 14, 1768, the anniversary of the first protest against the Stamp Act, Sam Adams and his fellow patriots gathered under the “Liberty Tree” and sang this song. The Torys claimed that taxes went to the poor too.
I like to think it was sung to the tune of Tom Petty’s “I won’t back Down”.
In freedom we’re born and in freedom we’ll live.
Our purses are ready. Stead,friends,steady.
Not as slaves, but as freemen our money we’ll give.
Swarms of Placemen and Pensioners soon will appear
like locusts deforming the charms of the year.
Suns vainly will rise, showers vainly defend,
if we are to drudge for what others shall spend.
All ages shall speak with amaze and applause
of the courage we’ll show in support of our laws
to die we can bear—but to serve we disdain
for shame is to freemen more dreadful than pain.
Dedicated to Taxpayer and the other Torys.
josef nix
January 24th, 2010
7:56 pm
A personal vignette…
I was in school Up North and my friend, the lesbian-separatist-black nationalist-radical feminist, etc calls me up. A do-good lawyer come back to the colonies to work for the advancement of the poor and oppressed, she was telling me she had a problem. It turns out that the state’s university hospital was performing involuntary sterilizations on women giving birth to their second “welfare baby.” I exploded, and commented. “of course you’re filing class-action….” She answered, “…of course…that’s not the problem.” I asked, “what is.” Her answer was, “I’ve got to figure out how to get MD down there before I do.” MD was a friend of ours who already had five babies by five daddies and was a grandmother at 28. Gallows humor, for sure, but it spoke volumes for what we, the educated elite with a moral compass are up against….
Merry Munson
January 24th, 2010
8:02 pm
and when the aint’s, go marching in.
oh when the aint’s go marching in.
who dat?
josef nix
January 24th, 2010
8:07 pm
catlady–
Ours is a perspective not shared by the masses. They feel free to judge us without having the vaguest notion of what it is we’re dealing with. Yes, we are idealists, but we are also realistists. We have to be pragmatists in order to find a balance. And, yes, I weep inside when I see the really bright child I had in the fifth grade registering her own offspring and she not yet out of her teens. And then, there’s the young man who wants to do the fund raiser…and I feel better…it’s all in a day’s work, but it’s a day’s work I challenge those with simple solutions and off the cuff criticism to go through…
Midori
January 24th, 2010
8:09 pm
I’m back among the living!!
What’s up with this wacky weather? Maybe this is why I can’t get rid of this cold!!!
@@
January 24th, 2010
8:10 pm
Southern Comfort:
Comprehensive sex education is in our schools. We cannot FORCE parents to be responsible.
Poverty is a state of mind. I’ve known too many people who grew up dirt poor and went on to make a decent living for themselves and their families.
Did you ever read that article I linked regarding the legal steps The National Organization of Women will take to keep fathers out of the home? Young girls without fathers go lookin’ for love elsewhere. NOW is a big advocate of a woman’s choices…even when they harm the women they “supposedly” wanna help.
Throw into the mix the entertainment industry, and a generation is lost.
A vicious cycle to be sure.
RW-(the original)
January 24th, 2010
8:13 pm
Gordon,
If Jay B really meant to have his piece centered around the “government causes poverty” angle the headline would have been The Andre Bauer solution: Get rid of government to ease poverty rather than The Andre Bauer solution: Starve the poor, they’ll stop breeding.
Keith
January 24th, 2010
8:13 pm
People are natural survivors. Cut off the food stamps, section 8 housing allowances, and welfare payments and I guarantee you 95% of these parasites will find a way to support themselves without government assistance.
Midori
January 24th, 2010
8:17 pm
what makes them “parasites”, Keith?
NRB2
January 24th, 2010
8:19 pm
Midori: the government does. They’re parasites too. And they will be stopped by any means necessary.
josef nix
January 24th, 2010
8:20 pm
midori–
Welcome back to the living. Had it and it ain’t no fun…but drugs, sister, drugs! Thank G-d for big pharma and cadillac insurance!
@@
Not being a breeder myself, I’ve got some real problems with how straight men are let off the hook in all this and, even though they don’t want to hear it, no small part of all this is due to the “don’t need no man” ideology of the feminist movement of the mid to late 20th Century.
TaxPayer
January 24th, 2010
8:20 pm
I gots me a dedication. What’s a Tory.
Southern Comfort
January 24th, 2010
8:21 pm
@@
I missed that artice, somehow. Sounds like something interesting to read. You’ll have to post that link for me.
I’m a pessimist when it comes to poverty. I know it “sounds” wrong, but this is how I see it. Capitalism exists because of the differences in the distribution of money. There’s always going to be some with more than they could ever use, and there will be some that will not have enough just for basics. Even if you try to limit the extremes, those differences have to exist in a capitalistic economy. Once you try to even things out, you begin to morph towards communism and away from capitalism.
If you beat the system and move up economically, there’s going to be someone else who moves down. The problem we have now is mobility. There’s not much mobility in our economy now. The system is gamed so that the top stays on the top and the bottom stays on the bottom. The only movement is in the middle. The only way to break that cycle is to remove those at the top and change the rules of the game. The problem is, those at the top have control of those who make the laws, and I doubt it would be anywhere near easy to remove them from their seats at the top of the economy.
jt
January 24th, 2010
8:22 pm
Not as slaves, but as freemen our money we’ll give.
Sam Adams
Gordon
January 24th, 2010
8:22 pm
Jay,
While I agree that the poor are oblivious to market signals, could it be that government programs do cause things that indirectly cause poverty? Isn’t there a correlation between the Great Society and the breakdown of the family, particularly the African American family, in America? And isn’t that one major cause of poverty?
I agree the problem is complex and requires serious debate. I agree that entitlements for the poor aren’t near the problem that the right makes them out to be. But entitlements for the elderly are because we cannot afford them. I do have to say your Connecticut/South Carolina example is weak because Connecticut is a wealthy state and South Carolina is a poor one. Poor people don’t live in Connecticut because they can’t afford to, and the state can afford a more robust public assistance program. The opposite is true in South Carolina.
bob
January 24th, 2010
8:23 pm
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Obamas-science-czar-suggested-compulsory-abortion-sterilization-50783612.html
I think Obo’s science czar and Andre do not hold human like in high regard.
Midori
January 24th, 2010
8:24 pm
thanks Josef – antibiotics and Mucinex are now part of my standard diet.
TaxPayer
January 24th, 2010
8:24 pm
jt,
I’ll let you know when that time machine is safe to try. It still still has a few bugs in it.
Kamchak
January 24th, 2010
8:26 pm
I’ll let you know when that time machine is safe to try. It still still has a few bugs in it.
Whatchootalkinbout?
Sherman and Mr. Peabody perfected the Wayback machine in the mid 60’s.
Jenifer
January 24th, 2010
8:26 pm
I couldn’t even keep reading. I got halfway through. Whoever says republicants are for “less government” needs to read this guy. What a effing nightmare.
How the eff does that help a kid’s test scores?
Oh my God.
Oh my God.
Oh my God.
He wants to be the overbearing parent instead of show compassion and love. He doesn’t know the circumstances behind why these test scores are low.
Oh my God.
This is insanity.
Corridor Of Shame: Neglect Of South Carolina’s Rural Schools
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjY69hO0fxk
Southern Comfort
January 24th, 2010
8:27 pm
“antibiotics and Mucinex”
You’re not getting the good stuff. Try antibiotics and Robitussen w/codeine.
TaxPayer
January 24th, 2010
8:28 pm
Is 17 percent too much to ask.
Midori
January 24th, 2010
8:28 pm
Southern Comfort,
do they sell Robitussen w/codeine over the counter, or do I need a prescription?
josef nix
January 24th, 2010
8:29 pm
Keith–
Parasites, you say? Let’s get real for a minute here, Pombo. I have a nice, comfortable standard of living from investments. I don’t do a thing for that. Now I could sit on my b*tt and do nothing but be a parasite if I so chose. However, I work in the school house, sort of my payback. Call it guilt, bleeding heart liberalism or what have you…but the fact of the matter is I can do that because elsewhere I am one of your parasites…
RW-(the original)
January 24th, 2010
8:29 pm
If you beat the system and move up economically, there’s going to be someone else who moves down.
SoCo,
I was pretty much with you until you had that train wreck. Why does somebody have to fail if someone different succeeds? We aren’t a board game with a a fixed amount of capital.
C. Heston
January 24th, 2010
8:30 pm
Soylent Green!
TaxPayer
January 24th, 2010
8:30 pm
Oh how some must yearn for the good old days of tea parties. jt, this one is dedicated to you.
Hillbilly Deluxe
January 24th, 2010
8:33 pm
The system is gamed so that the top stays on the top and the bottom stays on the bottom.
Those on top are going to do everything they can to see that they stay on top. That’s as old as mankind.
Southern Comfort
January 24th, 2010
8:33 pm
Midori
Got it by prescription.
RW
I don’t see it as someone else failing. If everybody ends up rich, who’s poor? I’m not saying that someone ends up in the poor house, but wealth would still be relative. If the richest has $50 billion in capital and the poorest has $1 million, the low end is still the poor end. Even if we maxed out our economy and everybody in the US was wealthy, how would we attain that wealth? It would have to come from somewhere. Maybe another country, but it wouldn’t just materialize out of thin air.
Jenifer
January 24th, 2010
8:36 pm
This reminds me of the mantra of the anti-choice crowd:
Let’s make ‘em be born and then starve ‘em.
Midori
January 24th, 2010
8:36 pm
thanks, SC
TaxPayer
January 24th, 2010
8:38 pm
Did someone ask who pays the taxes. Why, those that make the money, of course. Pay close attention because there’s a lot of information in those graphs.
RW-(the original)
January 24th, 2010
8:38 pm
Marion Berry, no not that one, the Democrat from Arkansas is going to retire from the House. Since Repugs are dead and Dems control the world you’d think a few less Dems would be packing it in.
Unless the dead little regional party that needs to get in touch with their inner moonbat isn’t really dead after all.
josef nix
January 24th, 2010
8:38 pm
midori, SoCo
Codeine! Life is beautiful!
Need a script…it’ll also get you past the random drug screening…
RW–I wouldn’t agree with you on SoCo’s analysis…if we’re not producing the goods then we’re riding on the backs of those who are…yes, I know it’s Marxist, but it’s the reality of the matter nonetheless…
Jack Stilton
January 24th, 2010
8:39 pm
Just remember that Democrats have a need to be needed, so keeping people poor gaurantees loyal voters who vote for a living. That war on poverty in the 60’s really worked didn’t it? We now have 4 generations of people breeding for a living and filling up the jails.
RGB
January 24th, 2010
8:42 pm
Yeah, lets go after all the rich people with pitchforks. That’ll automatically, er, help make the, uh, poor folks….uh, what was I talking about?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121659695380368965.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Can you say Zimbabwe?
RW-(the original)
January 24th, 2010
8:42 pm
SoCo,
Our economy doesn’t max out, although the federal cut of it needs to.
But leaving aside the snarkiness what I’m saying is that if I have a great new idea/product tomorrow and make millions from it it’s not going to bankrupt someone else. I may acquire some of the wealth that someone else had acquired, but my idea/product will enrich their life and most likely ancillary businesses will also grow out of how to put my idea/product to other uses.
Southern Comfort
January 24th, 2010
8:43 pm
josef
The past few nights have been the best sleep I’ve had in a long, long time. All my dreams have been in 1080p with bright and vivid colors.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
January 24th, 2010
8:47 pm
Writing in Sunday’s Washington Post, Mr. Plouffe said Democrats need to quickly pass a broad health overhaul, get serious about job creation even as they tout the impact of last year’s stimulus package, turn up the heat on Republicans over the deficits incurred in the Bush years, and stop grousing about the political climate.
More of the same!
He’s a blooming idiot just like the rest of them are.
Excellent!
jt
January 24th, 2010
8:48 pm
TaxPayer and Kamchak-
No time machine necessary. History books will suffice.
After singing that song, and copious amounts of rum punch, these sons of liberty went and plundered the fruit orchards of the british customs agent in Boston.
Paul Revere officially joined these patriots after this night by crafting a huge silver punch bowl which can be seen at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It weighed 45 ounces and held “45 gills of rum punch, the beverage preferred by colonists during the boycott of government-taxed tea.”
History will smack deniers up aside the head for those that don’t know it.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
January 24th, 2010
8:48 pm
ABM- You’re a junkie?
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
January 24th, 2010
8:48 pm
When are the wheels gonna come off of old man purple’s walker?
josef nix
January 24th, 2010
8:50 pm
RW–
Your point is well taken, but let’s say your product does take off an make you millions, you’re still, nonetheless, making it off the work of others and not your own sweat…and, no, I’m not being snarky myself, but, well, welcome to the parasite class at the top rather than the bottom….
Southern Comfort
January 24th, 2010
8:51 pm
” I may acquire some of the wealth that someone else had acquired”
That’s what I meant by saying that one moves up/one moves down. I may not have used the best terms to describe it, but that’s the point I was trying to reach. Capitalism is all about the mobility. If there’s no mobility, then there’s no reward for creating new products or ideas. That, in turn, dulls the desire to create or think.
josef nix
January 24th, 2010
8:52 pm
IR/YW
Of course he’s not a junkie. He has a script. Junkies don’t…
Southern Comfort
January 24th, 2010
8:53 pm
Whiner
Nah, not a junkie. I don’t have one of those addictive type personalities. Meds taste nasty, but they help me breathe better. Right about now, I need the lung capacity.
RW-(the original)
January 24th, 2010
8:56 pm
josef,
But I’m providing an opportunity to make a living for many others so even though the dollar amount is different everybody along the way gets their standard of living upgraded so it doesn’t mean someone has to fail for me to succeed and any of those people could have been the one that came up with the idea/product in the first place or they could come up with one of their own and lift up another set of lives.
josef nix
January 24th, 2010
9:03 pm
RW
Which, to be honest, is the reason that I come down on the side of capitalism. Not perfect and probably the best going, but let’s not lose sight of its flaws, either…
Southern Comfort
January 24th, 2010
9:06 pm
Enjoying the econ discussion, even though I hated the subject in school. Gotta call it quits though. Meds kicking in and the alarm clock will still go off in the morning regardless.
See y’all later.
jt
January 24th, 2010
9:06 pm
That custom agent, Governor Bernard, wasn’t a denier and he wasn’t dumb. He left Boston soon after. Writing to his majesty “they did indeed plunder my fruit my fruit trees. ……………………no gentlemen of any political party should suffer his orchard or fruit gardens be robb’d by liquorish boys”.
Ha Ha.
He also wrote “Damn that Adams, every dip of his pen stung like a horned snake”.
He got out lucky.
getalife
January 24th, 2010
9:09 pm
These cajuns are going crazy down here
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
January 24th, 2010
9:09 pm
I took the wheels off old man purple’s walker and I don’t even get any thanks from gitmo.
This game is ova.
TaxPayer
January 24th, 2010
9:10 pm
I was thinking about buying up one of those cheap mansions down in Dunwoody and converting it into a manufacturing facility for cast urethane parts. I’ve already located a cheap source for my isocyanide over in China. I just need to get a few regulations out of the way so I can make an affordable product.
getalife
January 24th, 2010
9:13 pm
Thanks Andy but it ain’t over. !2 minutes left
The late hits on precious is ruining the game.
josef nix
January 24th, 2010
9:15 pm
barney miller’s on…g’night
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
January 24th, 2010
9:17 pm
The Vikes are gonna be coming after Brees like a dummycrat after your hard earned money.
Better hope he survives.
RW-(the original)
January 24th, 2010
9:18 pm
getalife,
I just told Honu on email that the Saints are playing just as dirty as her beloved Steelers did last year so they should be a cinch to win the Super Bowl.
Just make sure they don’t give up the roids after they win like Pittsburgh did or you’ll be has beens next year.
Dusty
January 24th, 2010
9:22 pm
Well, as far as I can read this blog subject has succeeded in only one way..
Bookman introduced a little known politician not primed to be politically correct but capable of inciting numerous posts. Thus we get the rabid and less reasonable retorts in a beaucoup banquet of blather. Thus Bookman got HIS ill gotten gain of “popular” blog numbers. Congrats!!
If anyone thinks this discussion led to great thoughts, please name them. Nothing about sterilization, starving, simpletons or the government as a personal supporter.. When you lose your incentive to care for yourself you become slaves again no matter the color of your skin. Someone else controls you.
Now let us rest awhile until Bookman finds another small time Republican who does a “booboo”. Meanwhile, Bookman ignores the big “booboos” in Washington that damage all citizens, not just the poor. Waiting…waiting..
getalife
January 24th, 2010
9:26 pm
RW,
Precious is not having fun out there slapping butts and singing pants on the ground but with all the fumbles, this game should be over.
truth
January 24th, 2010
9:28 pm
Take a look at demographics for the states you’re comparing. Apples to oranges my friend.
jt
January 24th, 2010
9:30 pm
Not as slaves, but freemen our money we will give.
Sam Adams
It’s peach pickin time.
RW-(the original)
January 24th, 2010
9:35 pm
getalife,
In the circles you and I have traveled we’ve both met lots of people inexplicably named Precious, but none of the ones I’ve met have looked like Favre.
Gordon
January 24th, 2010
9:36 pm
What does everyone think of this solution?
$2,000 to anyone (not just poor, any woman of child-bearing age, and men of all ages) who has a vasectomy or their tubes tied. 3 conditions:
Must be 21. Must wait 6 months after signing up. Must receive counseling beforehand (early in the 6 month period), where everything is explained.
What do you think?
Midori
January 24th, 2010
9:40 pm
Gordon,
what purpose could your suggestion possibly serve?
Why would you want mass sterilization of citizens?
I have one child, and had my tubes tied shortly after turning 40. No one promised me 2 grand, but I knew that I didn’t want any more children.
Adults can think for themselves, you know.