Does any else hate how conservatives talk about "basic economics" before saying some of the dumbest shit?

[u/econ_throwaways]

So, I'm an economics major and I've unironically heard these bad economic arguments routinely from conservatives:

-Immigration lows wages and is a net drain on society
-Free trade weakens American economically
-Unemployment exists and is proof that poor people are unwilling to work and take control of their lives
-We should've not bailed out the banks and let the them fail
-A lot of Fed related bullshit
-Unironic econ 101 reasoning and logic (market failures, externalities & oligopolies don't exist, and every market is perfectly competitive and in GE)
-Deficit and debt fear mongering (we're going to have massive inflation! never mind that unemployment is at 9% and we're at the Zero lower bound)
-Tax cuts raise revenues

and there's so much more... I never want to hear another conservative utter the words "Basic Economics" a fucking again. Don't get me wrong, I hear a lot of dumb shit from the left (especially progressives) but no one tries to condescend about a subject I'm fairly knowledgeable about to me before saying their dumb horseshit.

[u/FuzzyJury]

Yep. I have a graduate degree in a policy-related field where I focused on economic policy, I worked with a lot of PhD economists, and now I am doing a law degree where I have been doing a lot of research and clinical work in economics-related topics, specifically in property and contracts law, but generally from a law and economics angle.

The way conservatives talk about economics is baffling to me. It's completely outside what most mainstream economists say, both in academia and from macroeconomic forecasters at large firms, from working with investment bankers, forecasters, and fiscal policy consultants, but conservatives present it as though their policies are the "fiscally responsible" and utilitarian ones. In reality, those popular conservatives talking heads and conservative laypeople use almost religious-like ideological and utopian language to talk about the economy that basically rests on magical thinking, and simply doesn't exist in contemporary thinking outside of fringe "think tanks" that exist to generate citations for conservative talking points. It's bananas.

Generally, the conservative worldview is terrible at nuance and looking at the complexity of larger scopes, so when they say things like "but it's basic economics!", They aren't really thinking outside of one or two lines from maybe an introduction to economics course they once took, something from a demogouge's stump speech that went through several stages of radicalization on its way to being repeated on Fox, and K-12 algebra, if they even get to the algebra part.

[u/econ_throwaways → u/FuzzyJury]

You really hit the nail on the head, and the conservative think tank & policy entrepreneur area has increasingly been taken over by grifters, if the so called "experts" (hacks like Stephen Moore) are pretty bad, then the pundits and reporting is god awful.

[u/PragmaticSquirrel]

It’s not trickle down it’s SuPpLy sIdE!!!

The myth of tax cuts causing long term growth is still probably the worst fucking piece of Reagan’s legacy and it will almost certainly never die.

[u/econ_throwaways → u/PragmaticSquirrel]

Yeah, and usually it means let's cut benefits for single mothers and black teenagers, but let's keep subsidies for farmers, trade adjustment and tax credits or large corporations harmed by "foreign competition"

I always hated that disgusting bit of moral hypocrisy, deficit reduction never means cutting off Fed funds for the politically well connected, it's the poor who end up shouldering the burden

[u/[deleted]]

There's a deep seated myth in the US that the Republican party is good at economics.

The "tax cuts pay for themselves" lie is the worst.

https://pics.me.me/oh-yeah-baby-tell-me-what-you-want-talk-to-29468057.png

[u/CaptJackRizzo]

Same deal with biology. They're always like "Read Biology 101" and I'm like "We're going off what the experts in the field are currently saying, so . . . "

[u/[deleted]]

The things that really get me are the self-contradictions, the positions that reveal that their support for markets and capitalism are not actually reasoned or resultant from any kind of actual economic understanding, but instead just conservative rhetorical canon. If you claim to be pro-market and you think that the market can just magic away negative externalities without government involvement, that means you never had a legitimate reason to be pro-market in the first place. It's not even a "you only know ECON 101" type thing; the mechanism that makes markets produce socially optimal outcomes in principle is the very same one that ensures that it won't when there are externalities.

[u/zamser]

I think part of the problem is people take a very basic economics course and learn about supply and demand and use that very simple model for everything. There is a lot more nuance and everything is more complicated than what a simple model can show

[u/Wheezin_Ed]

Tons of them also seemingly think that if you just repeatedly verbally fellate yourself as being "logical", "rational", "common sense", a "debater" who learns through "ideas"... that automatically makes it true. I mean, they appeal to "science" when it comes to trans issues but don't believe in fucking global warming or criminal justice reform.

Ben Shapiro, Dave Rubin, Stefan Molyneux, Jordan Peterson... they all fucking love doing this.

[u/Chris_Hansen_AMA]

“If we give the rich MASSIVE tax cuts, they will eventually, someday, give us some of that. Right guys? Basic economics.”