Comments on: David Frum shows us the Reagan years were not good for the average American Family

By: Freedom Reign

Freedom Reign — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 01:25:12 +0000

Isn’t the average American family better off without the Soviet Union?

Also, how did average Americans fare under Reagan’s predecessor, Jimmy Carter? Carter’s skyrocketing gasoline prices, double-digit interest rates, stagflation, and national malaise, were a handful for Reagan to address.

By: Jeffrey Kramer

Jeffrey Kramer — Tue, 29 Jun 2004 17:44:42 +0000

Look, it’s very simple: The government in Canada took 18% of GDP in 1990, and then took 16% in 2003, so if you add them together you get 34%. A 34% tax represents an 88.8% increase from the previous level of 18%, but just to be generous we’ll call it an 88% increase. When you add that 88% increase to a gas tax of over 40%, it’s clear that the government in Canada is now not only confiscating every penny of income, it is pre-emptively confiscating the income of its unborn children. And that’s why we need a right-to-untaxed-life amendment.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 29 Jun 2004 15:58:03 +0000

If we want to compare the two economies we have to add the cost of health care to both the income and tax side for Americans. Given that Canadians get health care for their taxes it has to be calculated for both sides.

To do a decent comparison you have to equalize both sides or you end up with more footnotes than report. The concept is called “comparing apples to apples”.

By: Robert McClelland

Robert McClelland — Tue, 29 Jun 2004 14:02:54 +0000

I think Frum’s worst nightmare has just come true. A Liberal minority that needs to form a coalition with the NDP (the far left party) to stay in power. Bwahahaha! I hope the right whingers in Canada are all crying themselves to sleep tonight.

By: glenstonecottage

glenstonecottage — Tue, 29 Jun 2004 13:07:31 +0000

You can add my name to the list of Canadians who think David Frum should make the Assholes’ Hall of Fame.

By: (: Tom :)

(: Tom :) — Tue, 29 Jun 2004 10:10:40 +0000

It might be a genetic thing – most Canadians hate Ronnie Ray-Gun. But Frum certainly doesn’t qualify as one of the more polite Canadians… he sort of reminds me of that South Park Canadian character, Dick.

By: renato

renato — Tue, 29 Jun 2004 10:03:11 +0000

Your income is $100, and your tax rate is 40%, which means (we think) that you pay $40 in taxes. Your income goes up by 40% to $140. Your tax rate remains the same, and you now pay 40% of $140, i.e. $56. So your taxes also went up by 40%. Does this mean that the government took all of your pay raise away? Sadly, No!

My father, a fucking engineer for fuck’s sake, asserts the following all the time:

“I pay 8.5% sales tax, 39% income tax, property tax of about 2%/year, about 3% gasoline tax. That means I pay over half of my income in taxes!!!!”

Sadly, no! That could only be true if you spent all your income AND didn’t take any deductions to your income when figuring the income tax AND spent all your money on gasoline.

I’ve tried explaining this to him but he is not only a conservative Gooper, he’s stubborn as the day is long. In summer. In Antarctica.

Yet he, a Cheney-ing engineer, thinks he can add up all the percentages and figure that’s how much he pays in taxes.

By: Modulator

Modulator — Tue, 29 Jun 2004 06:22:45 +0000

Dim Future?

Sadly, No! hammers David Frum and then Brad Delong piles on and regarding Frum’s discussion of Canadian economic growth asks:Why does Frum think–as he appears to–that increases in the government have consumed 2/3 of economic growth–45 as a share of …

By: dmm

dmm — Tue, 29 Jun 2004 05:18:02 +0000

I should also point out that the federal deficit in 1993 was approximately CAD40 billion, and the surplus in 2003 was approximately CAD5 billion. That means that 75% of the increased federal revenues over the period went towards not spending money that the government didn’t have.

By: Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal (2004)

Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal (2004) — Tue, 29 Jun 2004 04:35:10 +0000

The Lion’s Share, National Review Style (Why Us? Department)

Crossing my desk this morning. We really do need a much better press corps. All I can say is that we must all have been very, very, very bad in a previous life to have to suffer this in our current one… It is, however, at one level, quite funny: Sadl…

By: dmm

dmm — Tue, 29 Jun 2004 03:01:29 +0000

What a maroon. GDP went up by 67%, so all things being equal, federal revenues should go up by the same amount. If they only went up by 45%, that means that 22% went somewhere else.

I don’t have the raw numbers at hand, so maybe Frum is correct and the real point is obscured by the fact that he’s such a bad writer, but it looks to me like this is some of that National Review-style economic innumeracy that makes Brad Delong cry himself to sleep every night.

By: idiotatthewheel

idiotatthewheel — Tue, 29 Jun 2004 02:49:21 +0000

Dickweed and stain upon the earth are two others I use in conjuction with ‘ass’ when speaking of that dickweed ass David Frum, what a stain upon the earth.