For quite a while, I've attributed their actions and lack of grip on reality as having basic foundations in GUILT. It's an interesting driver of emotions and actions and can be used to justify pretty much any actions, no matter how futile or useless.

Very pleasantly put, Robbie! I put myself into Obama's mind:
"I genuinely care for America, for all her people. The problem is that half the country want what they call 'freedom' and what I call 'anarchy.' They feel I'm ruining the country. Not so! I'm testing the moral fiber of this nation, seeing how deeply they will sacrifice for their fellow Americans!"

Very well worded. I would only add this. Liberals lust for <insert item here> above all things and they see any means as justification to obtain it...

Some want power. Some want green environments, some want to clean up plastic, some want to save the world from sin. Does not really matter what the thing they lust for is, it only matters that they want it no matter what the costs, no matter who pays the costs and no matter what else results from attempting to get that thing.

Reason, Logic and even the idea of cause and consequence cannot exist in a mind that can see only an end goal they want, they lust after, that clouds their vision from anything other than that <insert power, wealth, environment, religion, science, freedom here>. They are simply people with blinders on to anything other than what they want at this moment, which may be power or nearly anything else.

In business terms, these are called barriers to entry, and can originate from a variety of sources, including capital costs (think about trying to compete with Boeing or Intel), initial investment costs (similar to capital costs), intellectual property costs (think Apple or Microsoft), labor costs, trade costs (taxes, tariffs, duties, etc.), marketing costs (NFL/NBA), or the more common and vastly more numerable compliance costs (EPA regs, FDA regs, etc.)

Of all of these, the compliance costs and trade costs are the most volatile, punitive, and subject to the next lobbyist. If you want a prime example of compliance costs and their effect on the economy, search the internet for any article talking about the costs of implementing the Affordable Care Act. You will see polls there of existing businesses that have flat out stated that because of the barriers raised by ACA, they will not be hiring full-time employees and will not be able to capitalize on growing demand for their products.

Governmental barriers to entry are very real and can have a very long reach and should not be taken for granted.

I agree. I was attempting to mock liberalism in general.

I really don't think liberals really do anything to help other people. They use "helping" as a smokescreen. If they really wanted to help people, they would look at the results of their actions and change course. Of course now _I_ am the one ascribing rationalism to liberals!

No, what I really think happens is that liberals value the acquisition of power above all else. This then becomes the central factor in all decision-making. If they think it will increase their power, they will choose it. I think they also don't have much regard for long-term vs short-term power and tend to choose the short-term options - whether out of impatience or simple risk-avoidance I can't definitively say.

There is no justification needed. Only an ever expanding population of needy people. We are our brother's keeper simply because he exists. Progressives exist "for the sake of" the homeless, helpless, and needy. Never mind that progressive policies create more homeless, helpless, and needy. That fact is "prima facia" evidence that there will always be progressives with a socialist utopian world view.

We were Gators. My class was in the same company all four years.

xthinker88@gmail.com

'88. Company G-2

When you have been told since childhood that you are a victim, I think that you view TV shows as unattainable. The leap is too great and the idea that you must work your way up one step at a time is daunting. No one in your family works and yet food, shelter, entertainment is available. It is a maddening waste of human potential.

No they do not tire of it. They have been brainwashed into being permanent victims of events outside of their control so there is no point in trying. To try is to make the effort and there is no reason to bother when money is handed out simply for breathing and reproducing. A baby born in Detroit is no different than one born in Palo Alto but is taught to be a victim. When the child sees three generations of females on welfare and no men around, the child learns that this is normal.

Much of the populace is unemployed and on various welfare programs. I lived around there for 20 years. This was all predictable and was very well described by Patrick Moynahan's (a D btw) paper written around 1966. Look it up on the dol.gov website.

I don't understand. You didn't execute your business plan b/c of Bush and Obama? Are you saying you believe there were customers willing to buy your goods and services at a price that would pay suppliers and workers the going rate, but it never happened b/c of something in Washington?

In my narrow corner of the economy, mainly engineers, if some activity doesn't make financial sense b/c of healthcare costs it won't make sense even if someone magically made that go away. It might be different in high-volume mfg. In my corner of the world, though, it's absurd. PPACA actually improves labor mobility, although I believe it has no net pos nor neg effect on business.

I have never known anyone in trouble with the EPA or other regulators. They could cause huge problems. I just haven't encountered yet. If I ever start buying solder paste by the barrel, I'll probably change my tune.

Ah, Robbie. You make the same mistake that all rational and reasonable people make - that the liberals are rational and reasonable people in the first place!

Liberals never justify themselves because that would imply a foundational set of moral codes or beliefs that transcend the minute it takes them to come to a decision. Liberals lust for power above all things and they see any means as justification to obtain it regardless of how fleeting, irrational, or truly selfish (worldly definition here) their behavior is. They also refuse to look at the past and all the failures of policy because in their hubris they believe that they are more brilliant, more charismatic, and more modern than all the other leaders who have pursued the same failed policies. They persist because they believe that no matter who else has tried it - even themselves - that it can't go wrong again.

It is my contention that there is no such thing as a reasonable, rational liberal for this reason. ;)

CircuitGuy is technically correct about correlational data. There are of course other factors at play besides government policy. For example, work ethic. Cross over from the heartland of Pennsylvania to New York and you go from tidy, prosperous farms and villages to a second world country of broken down trailers and little economic activity of consequence. This border area of New York would be made a booming economic area if the state government would get out of the way and let oil and gas companies lease land for fracking. Won't happen as long as Gov. Cuomo et al. are beholding to the green lobby and associated big-money benefactors.