What are you favorite political and economic myths?

[salvorhardin]

I'm trying to collect a list of common myths that drive our political and economic discussions. A myth is a proposition that is commonly believed to be true, but either has no basis in fact, or is a gross oversimplification of a complex topic. If you have a myth you'd like to share, please use the form at the link, and feel free to share far and wide.

Examples: "Our schools are failing," or "Social security is going broke."

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dC11RmthdGRLYTk0eXhYQlVpVDNaTnc6MQ

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. tax cuts equal economic growth.

[salvorhardin]

3. That's exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for

Thanks! Please share it at the link though (if you haven't already).

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. got it. Posted there.

[Odin2005]

2. "The Debt is out of countrol!"

Actually, as a % of GDP our debt level is much lower than many other developed nations. Japan's debt level is twice as bad as ours relative to GDP. Sure, Japan's economic growth has been quite poor, but that is because of a very low birthrate, no immigration, and an inbred, cartelized, corporatist business community; it's debt has nothing to do with it.

Our debt would only become an issue if individuals and governments stopped buying treasury bonds for some reason, and right now US treasuries are still considered the safest bond out there.

The hysterical "Inflationista" Libertarian types do not understand this. The reason our deficit spending is not causing and will not cause hyperinflation is because so many people and governments are using American debt as an investment, which absorbs any inflationary pressure.

[Art_from_Ark]

28. Japan's poor economic growth is due mainly to a saturated domestic market

and an extremely overvalued currency which is killing its export-oriented manufacturers.

This country has 126 million people living in islands whose total area is about the size of California. As one of the most densely populated countries in the world, Japan has plenty of people as it is.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

4. The One That Always Makes Me Laugh

I hear right-wingers repeat this line as if it's fact all the time. The government makes more money by cutting taxes. It's all based on the widely discredited "Laffer Curve," but good old common sense proves this one wrong. Whenever people tell me this, I simply smile and say, "Then according to YOUR logic, the best way for you to get rich is to quit your job." Just another Orwellian disconnect. Less income somehow magically transforms itself into more income. How? It only makes sense in a right-winger's mind.

[Odin2005]

7. On another message board I frequent...

One poster, who is an amateur economist who has written a book on investing, argued that the high taxes of the Pre-Reagan period actually encouraged business investment in the real economy. When Reagan cut corporate and Capital Gains taxes it become more profitable to dump money into the stock market rather than the real economy.

[HereSince1628]

6. America is a conservative country.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

8. exactly. Except when you poll specifics. Then we become socialist.

Or, our's is a christian nation. Another favorite lie of mine.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

9. I think you just need to post the Romney Election Plan

that is all it has, platitudes, lies, and sound bites directed at the great unwashed. We know them as tea baggers.

[begin_within]

10. That business owners are "job creators."

They use "creator" because of its religious overtones.
The real job creators are customers, not owners.

[salvorhardin]

14. Myths often have religious or moral components to them

That's what they're so successful at propagating -- they hijack what Daniel Kahneman calls our "fast" thinking system which is emotionally driven and relies on heuristics rather than analysis.

[JI7]

27. wingnuts aren't even saying Business owners, they are saying Wealthy = job creator

[TBF]

11. Russia is a threat to us.

Still, so many years later, Romney is trotting this one out ...

[Lucy Goosey]

12. Obamacare = government takeover of healthcare

People on social assistance are lazy, don't want to take responsibility for their own lives, have no work ethic, etc.

[Lucy Goosey]

13. Also: the private sector does everything better/more efficiently/for less money, etc.

[Spider Jerusalem]

15. a few:

right-wing economic myth: cutting taxes on the rich creates economic stimulus by "trickling down". It doesn't.

left-wing economic myth: speculators are responsible for high oil prices. They aren't.

[WCGreen]

16. Republicans are good at Financial stuff....

The biggest misconception ever...

[NoGOPZone]

17. Raising the minimum wage increases unemployment. nt

[Johonny]

18. If you stay home on election day you teach the politicians a lesson

unhappy with the guy you voted in office. Want to teach them a lesson! Will I'm just going to stay home. Then they'll respect me. Hey they lost now there's a new guy in there. Politicians don't respect people that don't vote. In many cases they don't want you to vote ever. Removing yourself from the political process doesn't teach politicians "lessons", it just means you voluntarily removed your voice from the main method to express it in social matters in the country. The winners of your removing yourself from the process are generally more than happy you did and will try hard to make sure you don't come back.

[salvorhardin]

19. I see a lot of good ones here

Thanks everybody, but if you could add them via the form linked in the OP, that'd be fantastic.

[LeftishBrit]

20. If you cut the public sector, this will cause corresponding growth in the private sector

(in a recession, it usually causes the opposite).

Related to the above: The private sector is always more efficient than the public sector.
(Not in my experience - especially some of my experiences with banks! Efficient is the last word I'd use for them.)

The economic crisis was caused by overspending by the previous Labour government in the UK
(then how come it's a GLOBAL issue?)

Job insecurity will result in more outstanding performance.
(Actually it is likely to result in less risk-taking.. The worst performers may be weeded out, but the potentially best will be afraid to innovate, and will seek to 'play safe'. Also, there are likely to be more absences through stress-related illness.)

[LeftInTX]

21. Myth: We are becoming socialist

I posted on the site. Tax rates in the 1950's 20 percent/90 percent versus now 10 percent/35 percent

Source: http://www.ntu.org/tax-basics/history-of-federal-individual-1.html

[Hell Hath No Fury]

22. The US is a "Christian" country --

That one really chaps my ass.

Another: our Founding Fathers were "Christian" -- when they are talking about the frickin' pilgrims and mistake the two groups.

[PurityOfEssence]

24. Jamestown predates Plymouth by 13 years

and it was a straightforward business enterprise. Hell, there were black slaves in Jamestown a year before the Pilgrims landed up north.

As for the founding fathers being all Christian, that's flat-out incorrect; Washington was a Deist, Jefferson wasn't much of anything and Madison didn't convert until old age.

They also like to conflate the Declaration of Independence with the Constitution to cover the fact that the Constitution is a thoroughly secular document. The Declaration invokes the concept of a God as one of its justifications for the actions being taken, but it is merely a position paper written in a time of strife to bring people together; the Constitution is a sober and very well-thought and well-fought plan for a constituent republic's mechanism of governing.

If you shout a lie over and over and over, it becomes a truth.

[Initech]

23. Reagan ended the cold war.

No he didn't- the Soviet Union collapsed because they had an incredibly shitty economy and were forced to break up. Yet somehow St. Reagan gets all the credit.

[mnmoderatedem]

25. Democrats are soft on defense

and they've demonstrated over and over it's about their hawkish ideology, not whether candidates have served in the military. Witness W and Cheney, and now Romney and their respective cowardice, yet nothing but "USA USA" chants result from their breathren. Hell, Cheney dodged Vietman five times and gets a hero's welcome in front of military crowds. Kerry, who DID serve in Vietnam, got mocking Purple Heart bandaids at the RNC convention.

Now they want to define Obama not be tracking down and killing the world's most wanted terrorist in a gutty make or break ambush, but by Benghazi. Had a conservative president got bin laden, they would have already carved their likeness on Mt Rushmore.

Their hyprocisy is staggering...

[salvorhardin]

26. Thanks again everyone!

These are awesome. Crowd sourcing really does work.

[Blue_Tires]

29. my biggest one

That mega-corporations and Wall Street "compete" against each other...I been saying for years that Corporate America practices socialism to a better effect than we could ever hope for...