Reply #16: What works there does not mean it works here. [View All]

[ozymandius]

Germany and the United States have very different economic models. To the uninitiated who engage in public policy debates- ignorance of this concept is a very dangerous thing.

I heard a story on NPR yesterday in which a conservative candidate for Congress (take your pick because I do not remember the name) opined the best way to fight persistent joblessness is to lower taxes (of course) and to reduce government spending.

NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! BAD! BAD! BAD!

Bad--stupid--politician. That is the worst way to address our current circumstances. We should in fact be doing the exact opposite with tax rates targeting those who are able to contribute more to the public fund (i.e. the über wealthy).

You may be able to tell how positions like this and the simplistic reasoning behind them infuriate me. A dummy like the one on the radio will recognize one successful austerity story and consider it a one-size-fits-all approach to every problem because they are in love with austerity. Never do they seem to consider the underlying causes of the problems we face and how one nation's sickness can be different from that of another.