A Liberal Agenda As Policy?

It seems that the liberals can't let go of the idea of taking from the productive - they want to have everyone succeed at the same rate even if those that have no skill drag the shaker and mover into ruin.

It's all about the 'feel good rating' established by the elite in power - we can not be judged by what we can accomplish by hard work or the accumulation of wealth - it's not fair because it dis enfranchises those without the drive or will to better themselves through education and experience to gain a better living standard.

What this article is about is socialism and how we all can benefit if we change how we evaluate our economic system to make it more fair - or how we can devalue those among us that are smarter than the rest of us. It's the liberal agenda for this country.

America is being all you can be - Keep the faith, the battle is joined!

Making Us All Poorer

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY Posted Tuesday, March 11, 2008 4:20 PM PT

On Wednesday we will be treated to the sight of an assortment of scholars and activists telling Congress that economic growth isn't relevant. Well, we'd like to see them live without it.Related

Topics: Economy

In Monday's Los Angeles Times, Robert Costanza, director of the University of Vermont's Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, claims that the U.S. "has been in a recession since 1975 — a recession in quality of life, or well-being," even as "the U.S. GDP has steadily increased since 1950."In Costanza's view, the gross domestic product "is not an appropriate gauge of our national well-being."

He believes it "ignores activity that may enhance well-being but is outside the market."A better measure, he says, is some type of index that considers subjective inputs "such as the value of household and volunteer work."The problem with such an index is that it assigns a lot of weight to subjective criteria; the GDP deals in objective data.

Costanza's rant against GDP appears to be part of a well-funded and organized hype campaign. A day earlier, Robert H. Frank, a Cornell University economist, wrote a similar column in the New York Times' editorial section.Yet despite a (token?) nod toward the benefits of increased wealth, Frank was out to make the clear distinction that economic growth does not necessarily bring happiness.

He arrives there by noting "that when everyone's income grows at about the same rate, average levels of happiness remain the same.""The pattern is that wealthy people are happier, on average, than poor people. Together, these findings suggest that relative income is a much better predictor of well-being than absolute income."Using the same evidence, he could have as easily concluded that too many people base their happiness on what their neighbors, not themselves, earn. In a more honest time, we'd call that envy.

Frank comes off as thoughtful against the low standard set by Costanza, who complains that an oil spill, for example, "increases GDP because someone has to clean it up." Maybe Costanza should familiarize himself with the fallacy of the broken window, a parable that explains that fixing shattered glass does not create wealth.

Costanza isn't scheduled to be a witness at Wednesday's Senate subcommittee hearing on "Rethinking the Gross Domestic Product as a Measurement of National Strength." But Frank is. We wouldn't expect him to bring reason to a debate that has, as he says, policy implications. That such a hearing will be held at all indicates that many are itching for Washington to issue decrees in the name of equalizing income. It will make us all poorer.