Was a bit flippant in the post below, but it is sad how the most "liberal" approach is a complicated mess. Want to increase aggregate demand? Give people money. Want to reduce poverty? Give poor people money. Want to give people jobs? Hire them to do stuff. Want to give everybody health insurance? Tax them and give it to them. Ditto retirement.
I get all of the arguments about the politics of things. I've sometimes been on the other side of these arguments, in that I get that "giving money to poor people" is less politically popular than, say, "programs to help poor people help themselves" and thus the latter are more likely to be passed. But at some point people - liberals, and conservative who aren't total assholes - should get that more complicated isn't necessarily better, either in terms of fairness or efficiency. We waste a lot of money on all of this stuff because, I dunno, freedom or centrism or whatever I guess. People get less help for more money.
