[BitGeek]

OH MY GOD! I am amazed at the level to which liberals talk about science while rejecting the very foundations of science. (Carbon is not bad. The payroll tax doesn't influence employers, it influences employees-- employees are the ones who pay the tax.)

What we lack is people who understand economics, or have any sense of history-- the "progressive" tax system is what is keeping people poor. A flat tax and no social security would have eliminated poverty in the US 50 years ago, and probably we'd have most of our manufacturing jobs still too...though environmentalist inspired regulation and rampant union violence might have been enough alone to drive it overseas.

The amazing thing to me is how much liberals talk about helping the poor (And conservatives talk about "freedom") while advocating policies that do the opposite, and attacking anyone who actually advocates what they claim to support....

I've long wondered if this was simply because these people have been so deluded that they thinkg up is down and left is right... or if they really actually have another agenda and these causes (poverty and freedom) are just excuses to advocate policies that they know make the problems worse.

The 19th century should have taught you all that socialism and communism will not decrease poverty and will ultimately result in the slaughter of millions of people... and yet you can't turn around without hearing some liberal talk about "global warming" and "externalities" without understanding the first bit of economics... and advocating totalitarian laws to bring about their "dictatorship of the proletariat".

[BitGeek]

And of course, no counter arguments.

Just modding down.

The cowardly way of those who know they cant' defend their position.

[brlewis]

I can't speak for the downmodders, but I can speak as someone who didn't supply counter arguments.

No counter argument is needed when someone claims that to say CO2 emissions are bad is to reject the very foundations of science.

No counter argument is needed when someone says employers don't pay payroll taxes.

No counter argument is needed when someone says taxes paid by employees don't affect employer costs.

These are obviously false. The down arrow is a perfectly good response.

[pg]

Modding stuff down without commenting is perfectly ok. That's why there are separate arrows and reply forms.

[davidw]

You do not seem to have discussed any of the issues yourself, it might be pointed out. I think most everyone here would agree that the ban on light bulbs is a bad idea, but given some level of consensus that CO2 emissions are a problem, what to do about them?

Doubtless your answer would focus on the fact that there is no problem at all because the existence of an externality of some kind disagrees with your ideology.

You might even be right that there is no problem, because it's not an easy subject, but on the other hand, a number of scientists appear to indicate that there is a problem of some kind.

In any case, you started going off about communists and (in another thread) Nazis, so maybe we can call Godwin's law and leave it at that.

Speaking of voting people down, someone seems to have had a go at everything of mine they could get ahold of, including those completely unrelated to this discussion:

http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=davidw