ACA Repeal/Replace: Progressives Face Moral Dilemma

[pbrower2a]

(09-10-2017, 09:49 PM)Warren Dew Wrote:

(09-10-2017, 10:51 AM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(09-09-2017, 09:02 PM)Warren Dew Wrote:

(09-09-2017, 03:13 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(09-09-2017, 01:46 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: If you want to understand it better, I'd suggest brushing up on your algebra and calculus, or learning them if you haven't.  While in theory I could try to teach them to you on this forum, there are far more efficient ways for you to learn them, and frankly my algebra teaching attention is fully taken up by my daughter.

Or maybe, just speak English..... the "many of the left" do not think in terms of scalars and functions, although you say they have opinions and assumptions about supply and demand. We don't need to re-study algebra just in order to understand your post.

If you're going to understand the quantitative aspects of economics and understand how the economy actually works, you have to use algebra, and in the case of understanding Georgist land taxes, an understanding of calculus is pretty necessary as well.  If you don't think of economics in mathematical terms, you're not really using economics at all; you're just making political arguments couched in misused economic terminology.  I do understand that the left is often happy to misuse economics in this way, but the truth is, economics without math is as worthless as physics without math.

Speaking in terms of "Georgist land taxes" is not speaking English either. Throwing terms around without defining them is just one-upmanship, hoping to win an argument by default because no-one can understand you. Define your terms, or don't use them.

pbrower2a seemed to understand it.  But hey, if you need help:

http://lmgtfy.com/?s=d&q=georgist+land+tax

My college major was economics. I took calculus and know well what functions and scalars (a/k/a coefficients) are. It's telling that much of the mathematics behind economics was worked out by chemists.

The idea of Henry George is of course to tax rents, the easiest large incomes that people can get. Rents are beyond the usual, competitive reward for entrepreneurial activity or onerous toil. Exploiting a permanent and intractable scarcity or a monopoly privilege is far easier than even shrewd investment in honest business.