AtheistNeuxs.org blog post on Fiscal Consevatism

 





Fiscally Conservative
Posted by matthew greenberg on December 23, 2014 at 8:35pm in Politics
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this is not a religious discussion.  although it has to be recognized that when speaking of conservative vs. liberal ideology the vast majority on the conservative side tend to be religious in nature and hence believe in fanciful things.  disclosure over. 

i've found myself thinking about the term "fiscal conservative" over the past few months.  we've recently had a spate of very good economic news.  this comes off the heels of relatively decent economic news for the past couple of years.  when i read an article about economic issues i often peruse the comments section.  it is here that i'm starting to wonder what this phrase really means; more particularly, what it means today. 

fiscal conservatism is most people's default.  i always used to consider myself one.  who wants to say they love being all willy nilly with their or other people's money?  i always assumed it meant lower taxes, less tolerance for fraud and abuse, and low/no deficits.  these are things that are easy to get behind.  maybe this used to be the case.  or maybe i didn't know the depths to fiscal conservative thinking.  but from what i can see, based on the comments sections on the internet, the current crop of fiscal conservatives are flat out batshit crazy. 

and ignorant.  oh so fucking ignorant.  they literally know nothing but what they've read online elsewhere, or heard on AM radio or Fox News.  the stuff i see just boggles the mind.  in recent days the comments have been torrid on the latest jobs report and GDP growth.  all very good news, mind you.  but not to the fiscal conservatives in the comments section.  it's all lie, they say.  the gov't is making up the numbers, they repeat over and over and over again, never remembering how much they used to believe any bad economic data released by the feds. 

it's back to the gold standard in their world, where large numbers (like the size or age of the universe for believers) make it impossible for them to grasp the concept.  and a simple mantra like "small gov't" is easier to understand than "the country is really big, we need a big gov't since gov't does a bunch of stuff".  i hear terms like "fiat currency" spoken by those who don't know what fiat means.  they speak of the "real" unemployment rate, not knowing that the U6 has been tracked by economists for pretty much ever.  there's  much talk about the Labor Participate Rate when such people had never heard the phrase until recently. 

these fiscal cons don't know the difference between debt and deficit.  how the country pays its bills.  what drives interest rates.  what a commodity is and how one works (they should watch Trading Places).

worst of all, they use a ton of misinformation to make their case.  most claim that the gov't has changed the ways they calculate things like jobs or GDP so they're manipulating them upwards.  sadly for them they are the only ones in the world that believes these things.  look at the Dollar - it's on quite a tear.  the rest of the world moves the price of the Dollar.  so that leaves American fiscal conservatives as the lone people in the world to not buy into America's economic resurgence.  think on that for a second. 

finally, onto the "why".  hatred, likely.  tribalism, probably.  lack of education, definitely.  all i know is that if being a fiscal conservative means i need to adapt to that lot i've officially dropped that title.  i'm now a fiscal realist. 

meaning:  taxes can go up or down depending on circumstances.  the Fed is and always has been a good thing and the gold standard is stupid.  fraud and abuse is a minor problem that can never be eliminated in any system, but should be reigned in as much as possible.  my last bastian of fiscal conservatism is deficits - i think small ones are ok but big ones must be eliminated. 

ps - yes, i trust gov't agencies more than i trust Zero Hedge. 






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 Permalink Reply by George Kittrell 1 hour ago

Fiscal realist. I like that. I too have moved from being fiscal conservative (not too many atheists are gonna be socially conservative from my experience.) and it was the only reason for associating myself with the GOP. I grew up in a repub family and I think that has a lot to do with political beliefs. Who to trust more than your parents? They know everything right? Well, as I experience more of the world on my own (with financial help through my parents for right now) I've shifted quite a bit left. Still not prepared to join the democrats, I consider myself more of a moderate and despise the factions present in the US today. Seems like bipartisanship is at an all time low and that disappoints me.
Anyway, it seems so easy to call oneself a fiscal conservative. You want people to keep their own money right? Taxes just needlessly throw money around right? Well, not quite but actually thinking things through isn't high on the list of conservatives. Internet comments have shown how many think and it's really quite sad. So much ignorance. It's really driven me out of the GOP seeing all these poorly educated people posting such ridiculous comments. It's obvious they learned a little bit in the classroom (if at all) and learned very little in the real world. They just stay in their little bubble of life complaining about some random guy named Uncle Sam taking money out of their paychecks. Nevermind everything they benefit from paid for by taxes.
There's also the ugly side of uncontrolled capitalism. Learning that executives and the like really don't care about your well being unless it benefits them monetarily. People love to complain about govt intrusion even though it protects them. All those pesky regulations ensuring that we don't get lead poisoning or have outrageous air pollution like in China.
I don't pretend to know the answer to fixing the economy, I don't think it's an exact science but I would like to see left and right try to work together.



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Fiscally Conservative
Posted by matthew greenberg on December 23, 2014 at 8:35pm in Politics
View Discussions
.



this is not a religious discussion.  although it has to be recognized that when speaking of conservative vs. liberal ideology the vast majority on the conservative side tend to be religious in nature and hence believe in fanciful things.  disclosure over. 

i've found myself thinking about the term "fiscal conservative" over the past few months.  we've recently had a spate of very good economic news.  this comes off the heels of relatively decent economic news for the past couple of years.  when i read an article about economic issues i often peruse the comments section.  it is here that i'm starting to wonder what this phrase really means; more particularly, what it means today. 

fiscal conservatism is most people's default.  i always used to consider myself one.  who wants to say they love being all willy nilly with their or other people's money?  i always assumed it meant lower taxes, less tolerance for fraud and abuse, and low/no deficits.  these are things that are easy to get behind.  maybe this used to be the case.  or maybe i didn't know the depths to fiscal conservative thinking.  but from what i can see, based on the comments sections on the internet, the current crop of fiscal conservatives are flat out batshit crazy. 

and ignorant.  oh so fucking ignorant.  they literally know nothing but what they've read online elsewhere, or heard on AM radio or Fox News.  the stuff i see just boggles the mind.  in recent days the comments have been torrid on the latest jobs report and GDP growth.  all very good news, mind you.  but not to the fiscal conservatives in the comments section.  it's all lie, they say.  the gov't is making up the numbers, they repeat over and over and over again, never remembering how much they used to believe any bad economic data released by the feds. 

it's back to the gold standard in their world, where large numbers (like the size or age of the universe for believers) make it impossible for them to grasp the concept.  and a simple mantra like "small gov't" is easier to understand than "the country is really big, we need a big gov't since gov't does a bunch of stuff".  i hear terms like "fiat currency" spoken by those who don't know what fiat means.  they speak of the "real" unemployment rate, not knowing that the U6 has been tracked by economists for pretty much ever.  there's  much talk about the Labor Participate Rate when such people had never heard the phrase until recently. 

these fiscal cons don't know the difference between debt and deficit.  how the country pays its bills.  what drives interest rates.  what a commodity is and how one works (they should watch Trading Places).

worst of all, they use a ton of misinformation to make their case.  most claim that the gov't has changed the ways they calculate things like jobs or GDP so they're manipulating them upwards.  sadly for them they are the only ones in the world that believes these things.  look at the Dollar - it's on quite a tear.  the rest of the world moves the price of the Dollar.  so that leaves American fiscal conservatives as the lone people in the world to not buy into America's economic resurgence.  think on that for a second. 

finally, onto the "why".  hatred, likely.  tribalism, probably.  lack of education, definitely.  all i know is that if being a fiscal conservative means i need to adapt to that lot i've officially dropped that title.  i'm now a fiscal realist. 

meaning:  taxes can go up or down depending on circumstances.  the Fed is and always has been a good thing and the gold standard is stupid.  fraud and abuse is a minor problem that can never be eliminated in any system, but should be reigned in as much as possible.  my last bastian of fiscal conservatism is deficits - i think small ones are ok but big ones must be eliminated. 

ps - yes, i trust gov't agencies more than i trust Zero Hedge. 






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Views: 13
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 Permalink Reply by George Kittrell 1 hour ago

Fiscal realist. I like that. I too have moved from being fiscal conservative (not too many atheists are gonna be socially conservative from my experience.) and it was the only reason for associating myself with the GOP. I grew up in a repub family and I think that has a lot to do with political beliefs. Who to trust more than your parents? They know everything right? Well, as I experience more of the world on my own (with financial help through my parents for right now) I've shifted quite a bit left. Still not prepared to join the democrats, I consider myself more of a moderate and despise the factions present in the US today. Seems like bipartisanship is at an all time low and that disappoints me.
Anyway, it seems so easy to call oneself a fiscal conservative. You want people to keep their own money right? Taxes just needlessly throw money around right? Well, not quite but actually thinking things through isn't high on the list of conservatives. Internet comments have shown how many think and it's really quite sad. So much ignorance. It's really driven me out of the GOP seeing all these poorly educated people posting such ridiculous comments. It's obvious they learned a little bit in the classroom (if at all) and learned very little in the real world. They just stay in their little bubble of life complaining about some random guy named Uncle Sam taking money out of their paychecks. Nevermind everything they benefit from paid for by taxes.
There's also the ugly side of uncontrolled capitalism. Learning that executives and the like really don't care about your well being unless it benefits them monetarily. People love to complain about govt intrusion even though it protects them. All those pesky regulations ensuring that we don't get lead poisoning or have outrageous air pollution like in China.
I don't pretend to know the answer to fixing the economy, I don't think it's an exact science but I would like to see left and right try to work together.



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Well, I certainly wouldn't want to be socially conservative because there are some changes in society that I would like to see.  I'm not politically conservative either.  It is a bit hypocritical when you hear so many political conservatives complain about government programs, but there are plenty of government programs and services that they use like public schools, gas stations, libraries, grocery stores etc.  Many political conservatives don't like government intrusion on themselves, but they don't seem to mind it when the government regulates the lives of everyone else.  Political conservatives are more likely to be religious it seems. It's interesting to see how many of these politically-conservative religious fundamentalists deny climate change but turn to the idea of a decaying planet as a sign of that Jesus is going to "return" soon.  The idea of not wanting the government to intrude upon your life, but not minding if it interferes in the lives of other people,  that sort of reminds me in a way of how dictatorships function.  I'm sure some people didn't care about how the Nazis treated "non-Aryan" minorities as long as they themselves benefited or thought that they could benefit from Hitler's odd propaganda and his idealistic idea of what a "perfect" German society should be.






As for myself, I'm quite liberal in the social and political sense, but I have my limits as well.  I will say that I'm not exactly thrilled with Communism or anarchism either.  I think that they can sometimes be quite fanatical.  Theocracies are pretty bad.  Think of the harm that Christian Dominionists could do if they got a hold of these highest positions in office in this country.  I doubt that that would happen and I sincerely hope it never does. Freedom of thought and the freedom of expression as long as you aren't hurting other people are important, but not to controlling and extremist political or religious individuals and/or groups.