Discussion for article #223820
I am sure his closet is full of lunacy.
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TL,DR.
heâll be an even bigger selfish fuck than Cantor was, but fortunately he wonât be in a senior position in Congress. I have little faith the democrat will beat him in such a conservative district.
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I remember Jesus talking about âHuman Capitalâ
He saidâŚoh wait, no. He told us to feed and clothe the poor, because theyâd always be with us. And that whatever we do unto them, we do unto Him.
So, how is measuring âhuman capitalâ a christian idea, exactly?
Itâs your economic, or worldly worth as a person, right? No credit for the worth of your soul?
And so, in a free-market capitalist system, the poor have little worth.
Perfect.
If Jesus ever does come back, I hope heâs gonna slaughter these hypocrites first.
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Iâm pretty sure itâs more worn on a sign around his neck.
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Let me just summarize this rambling gobbledygook of a paper:
âGod told me that greed is good.â - David Brat
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His main conclusion is that R&D investment is the critical factor in national prosperity. Someone ought to ask him whether he supports increasing funding for the NIH and NSF, which have suffered greatly in recent years.
By the way, I am not an economist, but nothing in this seems terribly original. The Protestant Work Ethic stuff was worked over by Weber more than a century ago. One always has the problem of explaining why Japan is rich, which they do by claiming them as âhonorary Protestantsâ. Then there is South Korea and Singapore. My brain hurtsâŚ
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He might even have a brand on his chest.
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I.Just.Cannot.Read.More.Bullshit.
211 Pages of BullshitâŚno thank-you. Iâll leave it to the scholars to dissect, then get back to you.
Can TPM highlight the most inane points he makes howeverâŚIt would sure save us all the pain and suffering of having to read through how the Puritan work ethic shaped our warped understanding of American productivity and ingenuityâŚ
For all those Chinese laborers that built the railroads, forced African-American slave-labor that built the economies of the South, Mexicans that pick damn near all our fruits and vegetables even to this day, or the Jews that built HollywoodâŚIâm sure it was the Protestant work ethic and their glorious overlords that made all of that possible in this countryâŚso let credit be given where credit is due, right? Fuck that.
Sorry. A brief synopsis will doâŚ
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Some college awarded this guy a Ph.D. based upon this poorly written thesis? This seems more like a thesis for a degree in religion than in economics.
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211 pages of BS from a bloviating sicko.
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Heâs an Ayn Rand nut.
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Never underestimate the power of a âgoodâ myth.
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Hard to believe that there is an even bigger Randian tool than Cantor. But the proof is in the pudding.
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Jesus.
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TL;DR. General gist: Government bad, Protestants good, Magical thinking solves everything, Hitler Anti-Christ Fascism arglebargle.
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I know. Really stupid people like Sam Huntington actually believe that Protestantism is a magic potion that makes people successful capitalists. Errr. The Protestantism Weber speaks about is that of the 16th century and it was very different in character than todayâs protestantism. Moreover it was what it was for its time, a time when the merchant class was growing and booty capitalism (which is more what we have nowârobber barons, et al.) had to be curbed. (Huntington actually wrote that Hispanics in America HAD to be converted to Protestantism if they were ever to acquire a âwork ethic.â Never saw Hispanics at work, did he?)
Poor Max, turning over in his grave at the abuse of his insights.
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Oh yes, the Titans of Industry. Lumber barons, oil barons, railroad barons, steel barons, coal barons, automobiles, shipping and finance and now our illustrious tech barons and telecomm behemothsâŚMonopolies that took the country by storm and now have us at their beck and call, whether we like it or not. And donât forget our beloved national pastime, baseball, exempt from anti-trust regulation almost from day oneâŚleaving the taxpayer on the hook for those glorious stadiums in dying communities of color, with no tax base left to call their own.
The grand experiment in capitalism and democracy that has literally gotten so out of control that the 99% of us no longer recognize that America anymore, if it ever really existed in the manner in which itâs been portrayed. Sorry, but a lot of those years were simply Dickensian for those not in the upper-class of American society. Their children werenât drafted as well to fight for this country.
The only thing different then from today is that those barons and Titans of Industry were much better at philanthropy for the common good to some greater or lesser degree. TodayâŚnot so much. Like you say, their philosophy today is âGreed is goodâ, âI got mine Jack, now back offâ, and âwhereâs the best gated community to hang my hat away from those teeming masses yearning to be free?â
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Not quite as nutty as one would expect.
His conclusion is that protestants who were more open-minded fostered science better than Catholics, who were less open to ideas. Too bad his analysis stopped before he got to U.S. Fundamentalists.
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Letâs not forget that slave labor also built the Capital building and the WHITE HOUSE. Iâm not sure if that would be considered irony or hypocrisy?
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