Fair enough, davelj and Allan. I understand both your points.
Nevertheless, my hackles are raised when I see BB, Larry S, and others lying to me, relying on my being very stupid. My gene for favoring honesty and fairness over “maximizing the pie” must be pretty active, because I still feel deeply offended even though I realize what they are really doing is relying on most of the rest of the population being very stupid. I am unrealistic, I suppose, and still think it should be possible for us to have leaders who treat the general public as being slightly smarter than it is, instead of the reverse.
I also believe that there really is an effort to give massive breaks to lots of people who don’t deserve them, going well beyond the nibbling-at-the-edge billions in profits extracted from the RTC etc. in the last bank crisis. Many tens of millions of people who benefited from (what I consider are temporary and probably unsustainable) increases in asset prices over the last 20-30 years are loath to give up the gains, and will use any “save our economy”, or other, excuse to advance their personal interests.
Well, I am just perpetuating an unverifiable opinion here, so I will rest my case with that. Thanks for the interesting discussion. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!
