Man Of Jackistan: Reason and Truth's Time and Place

Government Gift Card Rant #22 ( Opinion ) April 3, 2020 Automatic stabilizers for recessions makes the most sense as a policy in order to smooth out economic slowdowns. That concept means that basically as soon as the markets show signs of slowing, the federal government automatically disburses checks of a set sum until a recovery begins. It would not replace things like unemployment insurance, but rather serves as a way to put extrra capital in the pockets of Americans. Then, when the economy gets going again, the Federal Reserve would take the training wheels off, so to speak. Failing that (or even as a way to augment it), I have an idea for future US stimulus checks. We should send people gift cards, essentially, the value of which expires at the end of the fiscal year, or 365 days later or something. Maybe people get one every month and the value goes down by 10% each month it is unused, expiring entirely at the end of one year or 18 months. In a scenario with no autom...

On China; Also, Venting About Misconceptions From The Right Rant #16 ( Opinion ) Originally March 20,2020; Posted March 23, 2020 A Trump supporter recently criticized me for what he perceived to be my stance on relations with China. Initially, the man mentioned how if Biden wins the upcoming presidential election, despite the coronavirus revealing the weakness of over-relying on China for goods, the US will not move its supply chains away from there. Whereas under Trump, our country will apparently relocate its source of manufacturing. The man boasted about how Trump has already accomplished so much with that country, and then proceeded to attack my rejection of that assessment by saying that my view (or what he believed to be my view) was some "hippy Green Party crap, opposed to the 'evil corporations,' and naive like the last 50 years of presidents."  First off, I never said anything about business owners being evil or Green Party bullshit. I am saying...

Right Wing Hypocrisy #101: Immigration and Laissez-Faire Rant #15 ( Opinion ) Originally March 1, 2020; Posted March 20, 2020 While conservatism has many strains and sub-strains, a common right wing standpoint goes something like this: the market will decide for itself the best things for a society, and regulations only hinder the arrival at equilibrium, which ultimately suits us all best. Free markets and only free markets make our country free, taxes are bad, businesses can do what they want and it will in the end benefit workers as well when they are allowed to operate this way (providing more benefits than government-run programs which require higher taxes ever could). Another extremely common conservative stance, having only gained credence with the election of Donald Trump: we need strong borders. This is America, everything inside of it belongs to Americans; other people from other places come here and take jobs away from hardworking Americans, leach off of our coun...

Trump Needlessly Squandered Our Economic Relief Toolkit Rant #14 ( Opinion ) Originally March 19, 2020; posted March 20, 2020 Remember all those tax cuts enjoyed primarily by the rich and large corporations, which would supposedly create trickle-down growth, even though growth was almost exactly the same after Trump's tax bill as it had been before? You know, all those tax cuts that increased the federal deficit despite an already robust economy? Collecting money for tax revenue when we have a bustling economy--nah, not important. Increase the deficit and public debt. Many Americans stomached this, thinking that they would somehow benefit from the tax cuts when most did not or only did so slightly. Ironically, the average American will end up paying later for the money that the rich and big businesses didn't today. Lower taxes leads to lower tax revenue; assuming the budget doesn't change, this means the government needs to borrow money to pay for what ...