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Sunday, October 9, 2011

Worse Than Faith-Healing

Faith-healing is bad on many levels. Not only is it a waste of money but it often ends up killing
people who might have lived if they had gone to hospital instead of a church. Fortunately, faith-healing is a fringe movement and that mitigates the harm it causes.
There is another set of false beliefs that is far more destructive and widespread. I call it Faith-based Economics.
Like faith-healers, the followers of Faith-based Economics don't care about evidence or results and don't take kindly to criticism of their beliefs. They just know that the minimum wage helps the poor, that the govt can stimulate the economy, and that the rich should be taxed more. What facts support these conclusions?
I'm sure there others annoyed by the stubborn ignorance of these people, so I've put together a few stumper questions for them. Enjoy:
1) If the minimum wage is good, why not make it $100/hr?
2) Is there any evidence beside the CBO report (which is based on a mathematical model, not data) that the stimulus worked?
3) If WW2 ended the Great Depression, why did the economy only begin to recover after the war when govt spending was cut?

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