What's wrong with communism?

[Xugumad]

Originally posted by Tobiasly
Sure, I'd be interested in reading your resources X, although something tells me they'll be one-sided.

I'll assume the smilie meant you were joking and not being prejudiced.

My 'sources', as you call them, are standard economic textbooks and analyses by economic journals and scholars. There is very little room for opinion or prejudice.

We must also not forget that it's impossible to isolate a particular period of time and say "this was caused by this".

That sidesteps any analysis of causality altogether, especially considering the fact that the number of people living below the poverty line doubled in the first five years of the Reagan administration.

...my point is that entrepreneurs must be given as much of an opportunity as possible to create jobs, because <B>they are the only ones who can</B>. The government doesn't create jobs, and policies don't create jobs.

I fully agree with you there, and I also agree that a cut of the top rate was a good idea; the level at which it took place necessitated the largest tax increase in US history, in 1982/83, since it didn't have the expected results. Cutting too much means bankrupting the economy, and causing budget deficit increases on a level from which the US hasn't recovered yet, and judging by current US economic policy, will not recover for the foreseeable future.

As an aside, placing the fate of your country in the hands of stockholders and company boards is suicidal: stockholders have only one interest, share profits; thus company directors will do whatever it takes to produce profits, with often-disastrous results. The liberal-market right has sneered for years at attempts to place restraints on the 'free market'; the results have been unchecked excesses that have brought the US (and by proxy much of the world's economy) to the brink of disaster. Bush is signing company-control laws that two years ago would have been met with derisive laughter by pretty much anyone on the right.

After all: the best way to ensure companies and businessmen improve the economy is to let them do their job and make money...

X.

PS: Speaking of sources, here are a couple of introductory economics textbooks. That ought to give you a better idea of the matter at hand. They are all ludicrously dry and boring if you're not interested in Economics, but they are the standard of what's used to teach Economics.

ISBN: 0716752379
ISBN: 0691092575

On a slightly higher level:

ISBN: 0072318554
ISBN: 0262231999

If you haven't read the basic texts, also read:

[Economics]
John Maynard Keynes, "The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money"
Adam Smith, "The Wealth of Nations"

[Theory]
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, "The Social Contract"
Thomas Paine, "The Rights of Man"