Philosophy Now Forum

Walker wrote: ↑Mon Aug 12, 2019 5:55 pm Your ignorance of causation is thus revealed. You must be a Progressive.

And you must be the one of the idiots of whom I spoke above.

Walker wrote: ↑Mon Aug 12, 2019 5:55 pm Your ignorance of causation is thus revealed. You must be a Progressive.

Everything that is wrong with yanks in a nutshell. Facts are facts, and they don't give a shit about political agendas.

Sculptor wrote: ↑Mon Aug 12, 2019 10:24 pm

Walker wrote: ↑Mon Aug 12, 2019 5:55 pm Your ignorance of causation is thus revealed. You must be a Progressive.

And you must be the one of the idiots of whom I spoke above.

Obviously, you don't know what you're talking about.

Just another moronic Progressive.

Underlining added as a study aid, which you need since you're too lazy to research, and your memory of what was happening is obviously unclear. How could anyone forget Cash for Clunkers, or businesses contracting in a self-preserving hibernation when faced with the inevitable election of Obama?

"Come on, Man."




Forbes, March 2019
Trump's Policy "Magic Wand" Boosts Manufacturing Jobs 399% In First 26 Months Over Obama's Last 26

Quote:

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump consistently promised to revive America’s manufacturing economy.

Trump’s focus on manufacturing brought out high-profile critics who scoffed at the notion. President Obama notably said in June 2016 that manufacturing jobs “are just not going to come back.” He said this at a time when manufacturing job growth had flatlined, falling by 31,000 from January of 2016 to when he delivered his pessimistic comments in June of that year.

While President Obama’s time in office did see job gains, even in manufacturing, it’s important to note that jobs always come back in a post-recession recovery. But comparing the nation’s most-recent economic recovery from the trough in June 2009, the pace of job growth was slower in Obama’s tenure than in any past recovery—except for the rebound from the mild eight-month recession in 2001, following the deflation of the dot-com bubble.

Much of the blame for the weak economy can be set at the feet of two failed economic policies: monetary and fiscal. From the reliance on the Federal Reserve’s easy money—$4.5 trillion of “quantitative easing"—to the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) started under President Bush to Obama’s Cash For Clunkers program, the post-2009 recovery was marked by government intervention at levels not seen since the Great Depression 70 years earlier.

Furthermore, with federal regulatory activity at historic highs under President Obama, investors were scared off from making long-term commitments. As a result, much of the Federal Reserve’s easy money sat safely on the sidelines.

As the shock was settling in less than three weeks after Trump’s election, Paul Krugman, a New York Times columnist and economist, said of President-elect Trump’s manufacturing jobs promises, “Nothing policy can do will bring back those lost jobs. The service sector is the future of work; but nobody wants to hear it.”

Yet last Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics issued its February jobs report. Comparing the Trump administration’s first 26 months of employment data with the last 26 months under Obama is insightful.

Both periods are considered by most economists to be in the mature stage of the business cycle. In Obama’s case, slow economic growth, especially regarding sluggish manufacturing employment, was considered the “new normal.”
The national economy grew by 1.6% in 2016, Obama’s last year.

From October 2014 to December 2016, private sector employment grew by 4.4% as the unemployment rate dipped to 4.7%. In the past 26 months, private employers have grown their payrolls by 4.0% as the job market has tightened considerably, with official unemployment dropping to 3.8%.

While overall employment numbers are comparable, the difference in manufacturing is profound. In the last 26 months of Obama’s presidency, manufacturing employment grew by 96,000 or 0.8%. In Trump’s first 26 months, manufacturers added 479,000 jobs, or 3.9%, 399% more jobs than Obama’s record.

Is it any wonder that President Obama derided then-candidate Trump for needing a “magic wand” to deliver on his manufacturing jobs promise?

On the other hand, federal, state and local government jobs, many of them creators of job-stifling red tape, grew by 1.8% in Obama’s last 26 months compared to 0.8% under Trump.

In fact, over the past 26 months, there were 168% more jobs in manufacturing created than in government, while during Obama’s last 26 months, there were 303% more government jobs created than in manufacturing. This was not sustainable. Government jobs don’t pay for themselves.

And here’s where President Trump’s pro-growth policies come into play.

The current stretch in increased manufacturing employment started in November, 2016—the month of Trump’s election. Employers, especially those faced with making long-term investments in physical plants and equipment, anticipated regulatory relief under Trump.

They got the relief they hoped for.

By October 2018, the Trump Administration cut 2.7 major regulations for every one added, greatly reducing regulatory cost and risk. *

In addition, the tax cuts signed into law in December 2017 not only reduced corporate tax rates, encouraging investment, they also incentivized U.S.-based multinational corporations to bring home profits held overseas.
In the first nine months of 2018, these firms repatriated $571.3 billion—money needed for job-creating investment at home, but had been held in foreign countries because America had the highest corporate tax rate in the industrialized world.

Trump’s pro-growth policies appear to be all the magic the manufacturing sector needed.

End Quote

Clearly, President Trump caused the economic growth, not Obama. Trump refused to accept Obama’s “new normal.”

* The ratio is now about 13-1.

vegetariantaxidermy wrote: ↑Mon Aug 12, 2019 10:46 pm

Walker wrote: ↑Mon Aug 12, 2019 5:55 pm Your ignorance of causation is thus revealed. You must be a Progressive.

Everything that is wrong with yanks in a nutshell. Facts are facts, and they don't give a shit about political agendas.

It's not Yanks.

Progressives are Morons Without Borders.

Anyway, enough of indulging the thread-derailing.

Walker, you are not good at estimating risks. I'd not be advised by you if I wanted to put a bet on a horse.

Walker wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2019 2:23 am Just another moronic Progressive.

Walker wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2019 2:26 am Progressives are Morons Without Borders.

Does this mean you self-identify and pride yourself on being Regressive?

regress. verb. return to a former or less developed state.
"they would not regress to pre-technological tribalism"
synonyms: revert, retrogress, relapse, lapse, backslide, go backwards, slip back, drift back.

Going backwards seems like a rather peculiar thing to promote.

Skepdick wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2019 11:55 am

Walker wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2019 2:23 am Just another moronic Progressive.

Walker wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2019 2:26 am Progressives are Morons Without Borders.

Does this mean you self-identify and pride yourself on being Regressive?

regress. verb. return to a former or less developed state.
"they would not regress to pre-technological tribalism"
synonyms: revert, retrogress, relapse, lapse, backslide, go backwards, slip back, drift back.

Going backwards seems like a rather peculiar thing to promote.

Opposites only exist in words, not in nature, not in reality.

Don't you know that?

Progressives are not progressive.

They're morons.

Belinda wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2019 11:01 am Walker, you are not good at estimating risks. I'd not be advised by you if I wanted to put a bet on a horse.

Fact is, never had a car wreck and spent a good chunk of time working in literal high places where a misstep could cause serious injury and death. Early on went for years without health insurance because of confidence in risk assessment, and actually trained and worked for some years as a financial risk assessor of contractors. Also have walked the fine line between sustainability and ruin. There's a good chance a guardian angel watches over me. If you're betting with your own money you're wise to be cautious about squandering solely on the advice of others.

Walker wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2019 2:35 am Opposites only exist in words, not in nature, not in reality.

Opposites do exist in Mathematics/numbers, though. Do you know that?

And so if we can measure progress on a number line we can also measure regress...

Walker wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2019 2:35 am Progressives are not progressive.

They're morons.

Oh look! We have some pretty pictures. They are called charts, and they have axes. On a number line, no less.
https://ourworldindata.org/a-history-of ... n-5-charts

So I can only assume your anti-progressive stance is PRO less literate people, PRO higher rates of child mortality, PRO lower rates of freedom, PRO higher rates of poverty.

It's very difficult to tell you are supporting the wrong team, isn't it?

Walker wrote: ↑Mon Aug 12, 2019 10:00 am Obamanites credit the savior they worship...

Wow, just noticed this. Fascinating that you would say this, and then say all that you said (in the FOUR HORSEMEN topic) to paint Trump as the savior you worship! Don't you see it, Walker? You're projecting your own extremist mentality... and not seeing it in yourself.

There are positives and negatives to everyone... including Obama and Trump. If you can't see that, you are being an extremist.

The benefit from our collective brains and our collaborative effort can be realized if we are clearer and stronger than any particular agendas. Agendas and stories can OWN us and distort our thinking. Then we are like mice running through a maze for the cheese – and fighting each other for the cheese. That is NOT all that we are capable of, and that is not what our lives must be. As Albert Einstein said: “Problems cannot be solved with the same mindset that created them.” We have to step outside of the mindset that is owning us, in order to see new, broader options/possibilities.

Being afraid of the unknown and the unconventional... and labeling that as evil... is small-thinking. Discovering broader possibilities removes fear and is empowering. I think the biggest thing actually to get over is our self-criticism for being wrong or limited in our past. We want to believe we were right, even if we die with it. But it's not making the most of ourselves and life to keep doubling-down to ridiculous extremes in order to save face. We can move forward when we can love ourselves/others for doing the best we knew how at the time... forgive ourselves for being so small and fearful... see the humor in it and LAUGH about it... and embrace the ever-widening possibilities of moving on.

We don’t have to stay in a bad marriage... or a bad job... or a rigid mindset... the Universe of potential is so much bigger than all of that! By stepping out of our cages and off of our platforms, and working collaboratively, we can have the capability to create/experience whole new worlds from our combined ingenuity. Why wouldn't we want to explore that capability during our brief moment in history? If not for ourselves... for the evolution of all humans.

Lacewing, how might human cultures of belief get up to speed? Religions as they are are useless or worse than useless.

Walker wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2019 3:13 am

Belinda wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2019 11:01 am Walker, you are not good at estimating risks. I'd not be advised by you if I wanted to put a bet on a horse.

Fact is, never had a car wreck and spent a good chunk of time working in literal high places where a misstep could cause serious injury and death. Early on went for years without health insurance because of confidence in risk assessment, and actually trained and worked for some years as a financial risk assessor of contractors. Also have walked the fine line between sustainability and ruin. There's a good chance a guardian angel watches over me. If you're betting with your own money you're wise to be cautious about squandering solely on the advice of others.

How is it a man with your experience, education, and resourcefulness is a climate change denier? Do you tell the lie for a political purpose? Did you stop taking in useful information after you retired? I am not being unpleasant I don't understand. In your professional life you must have taken advantage of the experience and knowledge of carefully selected others.

Belinda wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2019 6:56 pm How is it a man with your experience, education, and resourcefulness is a climate change denier?

Survivorship bias. You only even heard the stories of those who got lucky.

Belinda wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2019 6:53 pm Lacewing, how might human cultures of belief get up to speed? Religions as they are are useless or worse than useless.

This first sentence represents my most direct response to your question: I'm guessing it is happening naturally as more people continually question their beliefs (their own and others). It seems that humankind is evolving very quickly right now in how it thinks -- some of our most archaic ideas and rules are no longer quietly accepted and supported. Everything is being questioned, and accountability/truth is being demanded. It's rippling throughout us like a river, and it's like humankind's mental reckoning on a grand scale.

It appears that Donald Trump has served a valuable role of demonstrating how excess, small/self-serving thinking, and lack of personal responsibility and compassion devolves us down to a very low bar -- which some people find a way to defend because it somehow critically validates/protects their own perceived identity/agenda. Of course, releasing old beliefs won't be a quiet process... as people's egos and ideas of existence are tangled up in them. It may feel like a matter of life or death for them. It's difficult to speak to that because the resistance is so great.

Hopefully this cautionary fork in the road will inspire a springboard for a quantum leap far above and beyond what the current political and religious platforms cling to. Surely we are capable of much greater, and can achieve it! We all pretty much want the same things, we just have different ideas about the paths. I think we have to get our agendas and stories out of the way, and truly recognize the divine in all...rather than believing in contrived, self-serving notions about particular groups of people. That's a game that creates a mad world. I think we have to move beyond belief (owning us) in the way we've used it -- and use it as a conscious and flexible tool for fashioning and manifesting our world consciously in an ever-evolving/expanding way.

In our current climate, speaking boldly and honestly seems like the right thing to do, where and when appropriate. I trust that there is something within all of us that understands and hears, even if we outwardly deny or don't see. I think we are geared to evolve despite ourselves.