Monday, August 22, 2011
Some fast thoughts
1. This is actually from a talkback comment on Frontpage Magazine
about something else but I think it sums up the Israeli tent
protesters deliciously::
'My favorite part is when "Anarchists" who are too historically
illiterate to know that Anarchism means to be AGAINST having a
government, commit violence to show how much they want state
benefits.'
2. The tent protesters are demanding a "solution" that results in
dramatically lower housing prices. Allowing unlimited rockets to be
fired into Israel from Gaza may be the most effective such "solution."
As Haifa saw after it was blanketed wit Hezb'Allah rockets, housing
prices drop when housing units are being bonmbarded. Hamas and
Hezb'Allah rockets can now reach Tel Aviv.
But there is another problem. If the Israeli government really found
a way to lower housing prices dramatically, this drop would seriously
hurt the prospects of many of the protesters to purchase their own
home. The reason? The real estate equity of their parents (and
grandparents) would be cut dramatically if housing values drop,
lowering the ability of those family members to raise money for a down
payment for junior's flat and to assist their kids in getting housing.
True, the really poor would not be so affected because their own
parents are probably not in a position to raise capital to help in the
first place. But the protesters keep insisting they demand a solution
for the "middle classes," to which college students and young yuppies
belong.
3. Speaking of the "middle classes," just who do the protesters think
will be bearing the burden for any tax increases the government
decides upon in the name of financing social justice? The protesters
think the rich will be soaked and cover the costs. But there is a
problem with that assumption. First, there just are not that many
multi-millionaires and billionaires walking about. SO even if these
were hit with outrageously high tax rates, we are not talking about
all that much money collected in total. The rich are already paying
higher tax rates than the rest. Yet the bulk of actual government
revenue comes from the middle class, not the rich, cause there are so
many members of the middle class and not all that many of the
super-rich.
Second, soaking the rich with high taxes assumes that the rich will
not respond to those high taxes by reducing the amount of their
taxable income or shifting their taxable income into investments and
tax havens where the income will be safe from those high taxes. Give
the rich some credit. If they are rich, they can afford to hire good
tax consultants. The bottom line is that not only will the amount of
additional tax revenue collected from soaking-the-rich taxation not be
anywhere near what the protesters think, tax revenue might not even go
up at all. If those rich being so soaked are on the "wrong side" of
their Laffer Curves, raising tax rates for them will actually LOWER
government tax revenue. A simple solution for an overtaxed rich
person would be to retire and stop exerting effort to generate income
altogether.
So since the rich are unlikely to provide much more milk for the tax
office dairy, most additional tax revenue will really come from the
middle classes. Those same middle classes the tentsters claim to want
to protect and benefit.
(For more on this, go to
http://www.jewishideasdaily.com/content/module/2011/8/17/main-feature/1/whats-behind-israels-middle-class-revolt
)
4. Most of the tent protesters make little effort to hide the fact
that they are well to the Left on questions like "the occupation" and
"settlements," and quite a few are open communists. They mix "end the
occupation" banners and tee shirts with "social justice" slogans.
So here is a question for them. Suppose, just suppose, that tomorrow
all the "settlers" were to be evicted en masse from the West Bank and
marched back across the Green Line at bayonet point by peace-loving
social-justice-seeking leftists. Just what do the protesters think
would then happen to Israeli housing prices inside teh Green Line from
this massive jolt to demand?
5. As already noted, but worth repeating, today anyone who insists
that the occupation be ended and that the occupation is the source of
all evil is really a person who seeks to duplicate Gaza in the West
Bank.
6. A leftist for converting Gaza into a parking lot:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4112001,00.html
7. The Blitz vs the Blitz
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4111960,00.html
