Newt- Winning GOP nomination? I hope not

[Hasbinbad]

Originally Posted by Hasbinbad [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Bronson, you're way over my head with all that economics jibber jabber dude, I can't even pretend to keep up.

I do have a couple of honest, basic questions for you, and one observation about the first sentence in your last post. First the questions - mind you these are not meant to be snide or rhetorical, and I would appreciate it if you could use your education and knowledge to give me real answers, but please do dumb it down for the lay person:

Is it "A-OK" with you that millions of hard-working middle-class Americans are actually or very close to actually losing their retirements and homes, which they have spent their entire lives working for?
Is it "A-OK" with you that simultaneous to the above scenario, 2 huge stimulus packages went to bail out banks and auto companies to "stop them from going bankrupt," and came out of that deal with billions of dollars in profits, while we got basic low interest payments in return for it? They made huge profits off of the money we gave them which was just supposed to keep them afloat long enough that they could make their own money. Isn't there something wrong with that?
What does "7.7 trillion dollars" mean to you? Is that scandal true? Because those loans would make both stimuli packages seem like chump change, and nobody was ever consulted about it. Don't we have starving / sick / homeless / working poor / mentally ill people in this country that money could have helped? Don't we need to buy asphalt and better ways to create energy?
Do you think it's cool that we live in a system where I can go find a dumb person, have them sign a contract I know they won't be able to fulfill, and then make bets for them to default on the contract, making a huge profit where no service was provided? Shouldn't that kind of stuff be best left in vegas?
What about all of those people now being able to give unlimited amounts of money to politicians, ensuring that US policy reflects their interests?
Do you know what the tax rate on the richest bracket was in 1954? What else do you know about the achievements of this country during that era and the years immediately following? Weren't there rich people then regardless of their taxes? Wasn't that the era of Sinatra and the high life? What has happened to this country as tax rates on the rich have been eroded over time (hint: wealth concentration and disparity)?
Why were 23 million jobs created during the Clinton administration?

Now for an observation:

My observation is that just because you can't quantify something doesn't necessarily imply that it doesn't exist. For instance, if I asked you to quantify all the stars in the universe, you wouldn't be able to do that, because our understanding of the universe is limited. In the same vein, our understanding of how "saving jobs" works is limited.

Mind you, I'm definitely not defending Mr. Obama or agreeing with the empty rhetoric "created or saved X # of jobs," I'm just saying that concept can't be discounted out of hand simply because you don't have the proper metric to quantify it.

Carry on.

Please Bronson, I'm looking for actual insight from someone with your background, and not being snide.