harry wrote:

i t was all ********. You can't create wealth out of thin air. We now
see the results of trying to. It will take a decade to fix Bush's
mess.

Ah ha! It becomes clear. You have a less than rudimentary understanding of
wealth.

First, I recommend you read "An Inquiry Into the Wealth of Nations" by your
countryman Adam Smith.

Second, see if you can follow along:

Socialists normally, Communists certainly, and progressives always, believe
that the amount of wealth is fixed but maldistributed. Their goal is to
reapportion the pie so that each has a more equal slice.

Capitalists believe that wealth can be created - out of thin air. Here's an
example: Suppose a housewife buys a dozen eggs from a farmer for a single
dollar. The farmer is better off because he has more eggs than dollars; the
housewife is better off because she has more dollars than eggs. To each, the
transaction was beneficial - wealth was created for both.

"Wealth" is the totality of goods and services possessed by an entity
capable of being exchanged or used.

Wealth is NOT cash in hand.

If I buy (or create) something worth a dollar today and in a year, people in
a free market are eager to give me ten dollars for it, my wealth has
increased by nine dollars.

Here's the other side of the coin. There is a thing out there called the
"general marketplace," the instantaneous exchange of goods and services.
Since time immemorial, governments have tried to interfere with the general
marketplace. They do this with tariffs, taxes, and spending. For every
dollar of wealth exchanged by the government, a dollar of wealth is
destroyed. That's right, destroyed!

What most governments don't understand is that the general market place
always wins. Be it through the mechanism of the "black market," movement of
funds, tax avoidance, or a hundred other schemes, the general marketplace
finds a way.

For example, we have political leaders who are gnashing their teeth over
"international" corporations who move domestic jobs offshore. They forget
that the U.S. has (I think) the third-highest corporate income tax in the
world and that corporations WILL relocate to lower their tax burden. Hence,
when the government interferes, the market place reacts.

No, contrary to your insistence, wealth CAN be created out of thin air.
Regrettably wealth can be consumed or destroyed and is usually done so by
governments.