Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Fair Tax tactic...

There are some classic tactic that Fair Tax folks use...

not even making claims about the plan itself it just makes you start off questioning the legitimacy...

A Comment from my last fair tax post
The problem with your question is that basically all the serious economists with any credibility are paid think tankers in one way or another. Almost unanimously, those who have put the most study into the proposal agree that it would be a very good thing in the long run. Those who conclude against the FairTax usually do so because they deem the transitional problems to be too tough to weather.

Show me an unpaid economist who comes down against the FairTax and I will show you where he has missed something or changed something in his model.
I made an empirical statement and asked for an example... its bad form to try to flip the question around on me as if its now my obligation to prove the opposite. To try and make it seem... "wow thats obvious..." but never cite anyone isn't an answer. its an aversion.

I'll check out the post he mention when I get home...

fair tax people don't help their case...


--------------
Jim Nichols
A Speculative Fiction
www.JimNichols4.com

1 comment:

DavidFL10 said...

Jim,

That's just rude.

You did not make "an empirical statement and ask for an example"; you asked a fallacious question:
Aside from the paid think-tanker's can you find an economist with any credibility that actually thinks this will work?


You may as well have ended your question with the word "credibility" because there are very few economists with credibility who are not paid think-tankers. The very act of getting paid for one's economic thoughts lends one credibility. And the absence of getting paid casts doubt on one's credibility.

The error of logic is what I was pointing out and I am completely justified in doing so since I happen to know you just completed a logic class.

Furthermore, I took your question somewhat rhetorically as it was directed at someone else and was followed by a lament that you've "never seen that" even though I have sent you articles from more than a few credible economists who support the proposal.

If you actually want names, I can give you 85 names of economists who signed their names to an open letter to the President, Congress and the American People supporting the FairTax. I've only met two of them though, so I can't vouch for credibility of all of them.

Donald L. Alexander
Wayne Angell
Jim Araji
Ray Ball
Roger J. Beck
John J. Bethune
David M. Brasington
Jack A. Chambless
Christopher K. Coombs
William J. Corcoran, Ph.D.
Eleanor D. Craig
Susan Dadres, Ph.D.
Henry Demmert
Arthur De Vany
Pradeep Dubey
Demissew Diro Ejara
Patricia J. Euzent
John A. Flanders
Richard H. Fosberg, Ph.D.
Gary L. French, Ph.D.
Professor James Frew
K. K. Fung
Satya J. Gabriel, Ph.D.
Dave Garthoff
Ronald D. Gilbert
Philip E. Graves
Bettina Bien Greaves
John Greenhut, Ph.D.
Darrin V. Gulla
Jon Halvorson
Reza G. Hamzaee, Ph.D.
James M. Hvidding
F. Jerry Ingram, Ph.D.
Drew Johnson
Steven J. Jordan
Richard E. Just
Dr. Michael S. Kaylen
David L. Kendall
Peter M. Kerr
Miles Spencer Kimball
James V. Koch
Laurence J. Kotlikoff
Edward J. López
Franklin Lopez
Salvador Lopez
Yuri N. Maltsev, Ph.D.
Glenn MacDonald
John M. Olin
Dr. John Merrifield,
Dr. Matt Metzgar
Carlisle Moody
Andrew P. Morriss
Galen J. Roush
Timothy Perri
Mark J. Perry
Timothy Peterson
Ben Pierce
Michael K. Pippenger, Ph.D.
Robert Piron
Mattias Polborn
Joseph S. Pomykala, Ph.D.
Barry Popkin
Steven W. Rick
Paul H. Rubin
Samuel Candler Dobbs
John Ruggiero
Michael K. Salemi
Gordon Gray
Dr. Carole E. Scott
Carlos Seiglie
John Semmens
Alan C. Shapiro
Ivadelle and Theodore Johnson
Dr. Stephen Shmanske
James F. Smith
Vernon L. Smith
W. James Smith
John C. Soper
Roger Spencer
Daniel A. Sumner
Curtis R. Taylor
Robert Vigil
John H. Wicks, Ph.D.
F. Scott Wilson, Ph.D.
Mokhlis Y. Zaki

If you want titles, see here:
http://www.fairtax.org/PDF/Open_Letter.pdf