Charity never did, never can, replace safety net

I've argued most of this before, (you can read some here, here and here), but Mr. Konczal lays out the exhaustive historical case that the U.S. never did manage to take care of its poor through private charity.

Contrary to what Paul Ryan, Newt Gingrich, Rand Paul, et al tell us, there never was a golden era in American history when private people and charities provided a safety net, or even anything close to one.

So the burden really is on far-right conservatives who want to tear down the safety net that was built to fix all these historical problems, to explain how they are going to invent something totally novel to American history, and guarantee that it will work when such patchworks or networks of charity have always failed in the past.

There's just no valid study, history or facts to back up their false claim.

The Conservative Myth of a Social Safety Net Built on Charity

By Mike Konczlar

March 24, 2014 | The Atlantic

URL: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/03/the-conservative-myth-of-a-social-safety-net-built-on-charity/284552/

Lower corporate tax rate doesn't create jobs

(HT: Peter).  Isn't it funny how all the axioms of Republican economics turn out to be shibboleths?  

Tax cuts on the rich?  Don't trickle down; increase inequality.

Deregulation?  Hurts real people; passes the $ bill onto all of us.

Austerity as a cure for recession?  Increases deficits, hurts job creation.

Work or starve?  ... Well, that one's in play right now. Personally, I think we're going to have more starving and less working, but time will tell. Time will tell. And then so will I, you can bet on it!

Does Lowering Corporate Tax Rates Create Jobs? Answer is a resounding "no"

By Linda Beale

December 3, 2013  | A Taxing Matter

URL: http://ataxingmatter.blogs.com/tax/2013/12/does-lowering-corporate-tax-rates-create-jobs.html

No correlation between cap. gains tax and investment

Sometimes common sense is not so common... or correct.  Quantitative research, i.e. reality, often contradicts our intuitive sense of they way things ought to work, but actually don't.  Such is the case with capital gains tax rates, real investment and economic growth, as proven by tax law professor Chris Sanchirico of the University of Pennsylvania and Wharton in a recent paper [emphasis mine]: 

On the surface, the growth argument against capital income taxes seems clear and compelling. And many policymakers and pundits—on both sides of the aisle—appear to regard it as common sense. 

A very different picture emerges, however, from the academic research on taxes and growth. Scholarly evidence on the growth argument against capital income taxation is mixed at best. Indeed, it would not be unreasonable to conclude, based on the best available theory and data, that the growth argument has no real basis.

[...]  Compelling intuitions tend to melt away on close inspection, and the data tell no consistent story. When the negative growth effects of offsetting increases in labor income taxes or government borrowing are also taken into account, uncertainty begins to shade into doubt. Attempting to spur economic growth with tax preferences for capital income may be like trying to repair one side of the roof with shingles from the other. 

Regarding the non-correlation between capital gains and real investment, here's an historical illustration by economist Jared Bernstein:

If it seems to your untrained eye that there is no relationship between the red and blue lines, your eye is correct.  

And if you care about growing income inequality in the U.S. -- most conservatives don't -- then you must note the conclusion of Thomas Hungerford of the Congressional Research Service: "The reason income inequality has been increasing has been the rising income going to the top one percent.  Most of that has come in capital gains and dividends."

Catholic historian: Early Christians never persecuted

Here's another sacred myth busted:

In the 300 years between the death of Jesus and the conversion of the Emperor Constantine, there were maybe 10 or 12 scattered years during which Christians were singled out for supression by Rome’s imperial authorities, and even then the enforcement of such initiatives was haphazard — lackadaisical in many regions, although harsh in others.

... "And then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32).

The Romans did not target, hunt or massacre Jesus' followers, says a historian of the early church

By Laura Miller

February 24, 2013 | Salon

URL: http://www.salon.com/2013/02/24/the_myth_of_persecution_early_christians_werent_persecuted/