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Department of Yikes
In a frightening inversion of satire into reality, European candlemakers are petitioning for protection; here is Bastiat's take on that. This time it's against -- can you guess? -- the Chinese.
Thanks to Tim Worstall for the pointer.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on February 6, 2008 at 01:02 PM in Economics | Permalink
Comments
About time they caught up with us.
http://www.senate.gov/~clinton/news/statements/record.cfm?id=256080
Posted by: Marc at Feb 6, 2008 1:40:27 PM
Funny, and a little scary.
Posted by: Chris Meisenzahl at Feb 6, 2008 2:04:31 PM
You have to click through 4 links to get the original FT story about the candles. I have pasted it below
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6686517e-d413-11dc-a8c6-0000779fd2ac.html
Posted by: Sam at Feb 6, 2008 2:14:59 PM
Hey, only paleos are allowed to cite EU-skeptics. That's a deduction of 5 cosmopoints.
Posted by: TGGP at Feb 6, 2008 2:50:54 PM
If I am not mistaken, the post you link to is illustrated with a picture of a Nazi death camp (Auschwitz, I believe). I, for one, find that a bit tasteless.
Posted by: LemmusLemmus at Feb 6, 2008 3:06:35 PM
"Chinese producers are selling below the costs of their EU rivals, (the candlemaker's union) said."
Yeah, we wouldn't want "gains from comparative advantage" (i.e. relatively low cost for unskilled Chinese labor) to be a reason for trade, now, would we?
Posted by: Sean at Feb 6, 2008 3:08:20 PM
The point of Auschwitz is that Eurocrats have a lot in common with the efficient types running those death camps. (I was impressed by the Nazi's paperwork and thanked Gott in Himmel that they didn't have access to modern databases. (The CIA does, but we can trust them.))
Posted by: David Zetland at Feb 6, 2008 9:17:57 PM
"The point of Auschwitz is that Eurocrats have a lot in common with the efficient types running those death camps."
Come on, I think that is stretching it a great deal. I am a EU skeptic myself, but these types of comments are just hard to stomach and certainly do not lead to a healthy discussion on the topic.
Posted by: Martin at Feb 7, 2008 4:00:34 AM
thanked Gott in Himmel that they didn't have access to modern databases.
I seem to remember a book from a few years back claiming that back thenIBM was selling its punchcard machines to the Germans to facilitate their, um, businesses. I never found out how serious the book was.
Posted by: greatzamfir at Feb 7, 2008 5:08:49 AM
"The point of Auschwitz is that Eurocrats have a lot in common with the efficient types running those death camps."
So it is o.k. to illustrate anything that's run efficiently with pictures from Auschwitz? Are you serious?
P.S.: It's "Gott im Himmel".
Posted by: LemmusLemmus at Feb 7, 2008 7:16:16 AM
No nation has ever taxed nursing home patients , or cancer surgery, or kidney dailysis. Strange as it sounds -- Fiartax is trying to do just that.
If Fairtax ever passed -- for the first time in US history -- probably the first time in world history -- people with cancer would be taxed on their treatment.
In fact, all health care would have to pay a 30% tax. People who rent, will taxed on their rent. People who pay insurance premiums, will be taxed on that, too.
One cancer patient could get a tax bill of 40,000 dollars on their surgery, chemo, and rehab. One nursing home patient could pay 30,000 tax, just for staying in a nursing home.
The parents of one childhood leukemia could get a sales tax bill of 50,000 dollars for trying to keep their child alive.
In fact, people who get medical care would have to pay a combined 460 billion in "sales taxes" under the proposed "Fairtax."
America would have 15 million really upset cancer victims, 2 million really upset nursing home patients, and 50 million really upset other patients.
What will happen when millions of these people find out out the Fairtax wasn't so fair after all ?
They will scream bloody murder --- mostly at their Congressman and Senators. Plus, they will demand the people who sold them on Fairtax answer a few questions.
Neal Boortz could be interviewed on "The No Spin Zone" with Bill O'Reilly. Their discussion could go something like this ......
See my blog for the discussion between OReilly and Boortz.
Posted by: Mark Curran at Feb 11, 2008 12:14:48 PM
Posted by: 深圳翻译公司 at Feb 23, 2008 9:40:09 AM
