Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Matt Damon: Central Planner

Amazingly, Matt Damon is able to overrule such economists as Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises, who taught us that free markets are required to set functional economic prices. They have taught us that government intervention in any industry sets up distortions and markets that do not clear. They have taught that no central planner can plan an economy.

But this is so because they never met Damon, who tells us that government teachers are underpaid. Forget price signals. Forget supply and demand curves. Forget a free market education system.

Not once does Matt Damon need to question whether government should even be in the education business. Not once does he need to address the salary distortions caused by the lack of a free market system in education. Not once does he need to question the bureaucracy that develops around any government provided service.

Matt knows salaries are too low, that government needs to be the major player and that this all needs to be done through union representation! Matt has it all figured out. Who needs free markets when you have Matt? This is truly a remarkable talent Damon has. Maybe we could just hire someone (Damon would set the wage, of course) to follow Damon around on movie sets and just shout out different occupations, minor league basketball player, painter, auto mechanic, in-home massage therapist etc. and Damon would shout out in return what the salary should be. These could then be written down and set through out the nation.


18 comments:

  1. I love the pay is too low argument. What people that make this argument don't realize is that if pay is the real issue to quality education then that means we have a ton of firing to do to get rid of the crap that was willing to work for the presently low wages. Maybe he's really on to something after all!

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  2. He's a total tool for the fascist state.

    e.g.
    http://karendecoster.com/the-cdc-has-gone-hollywood.html

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  3. Matt Damon to world markets: Gold is too expensive. Stop being so greedy! Why do you hate America and American teachers?

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  4. Public school teachers are relatively well-paid and secure compared to their private sector equivalents. And don't even begin with administrators.

    I am now waiting for, "Stop the war on our kids..."

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  5. The pay is too low because there's only so much you can steal from people that are productive.

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  6. Perhaps all teachers should be federalized rather than be paid by the local municipalities. That way, to satisfy Damon, Bernanke can purchase trillions in Treasury securities, then the government can give all teachers a raise.

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  7. "The pay is too low because there's only so much you can steal from people that are productive."

    If only you were right Tony. Taking everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) you own if you are successful under the guise of helping the "less fortunate" is perfectly acceptable from where these animals sit. Listen to their words carefully and don't dismiss their intent to enslave you and anyone else who defies them.

    While I don't like much at all about the current debt ceiling agreement it is important to remember that those who seek to curb and cut our monstrous government only control one of houses of Congress with the other house and the POTUS ready to undermine any attempt to do so.
    Is it a rotten deal? Sure. Is it the best they could have made given the circumstances? Probably.

    Imagine if no deal was made and suddenly in 2012 all those who advocate small government are tossed out for failing to "save the economy from default". Now you're back to 2008 with those in power holding a grudge against you. You're SOL and they know it. Make gains on the battleground where you can-even if incremental with the eye on amassing a larger presence in both houses to subvert what this treasonous president and his sycophants want to do this nation.

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  8. However, entrenched education bureaucracies are only one factor, as Damon points out.

    Causes of the decline in educational achievement can aso be sought in the general decline in public culture, the politicization of the syllabus, the intrusion of state regulations making discipline and evaluation difficult and enabling litigation, changes in the demographics of the student body, greater pathologies among young people, and the breakdown of the family unit.

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  9. Am I the only one who's reminded of this whenever Matt Damon's name is mentioned? (Eh, probably)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWTzyU5MFgM

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  10. Since I am forced to pay the salaries of teachers via the tax code at the point of a gun, my "modest proposal" is that we treat the teachers in kind. Anything short of a 100% literacy rate, proficiency in calculus, and in molecular biology, history, and economics, all by the tenth grade, or they suffer the jail we would receive for not paying taxes. Moreover, since a single teacher's salary is probably (at a minimum) the composite of 4-5 taxpayers. The penalty should be 4-5x the sentence you or I would receive for not paying taxes. All problems in contemporary America can be summed up by the simple phrase "lack of accountability".

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  11. The really sad thing is that Matt Damon will probably influence the debate among the masses more than all the Keynesian and Austrian economists combined.

    That's why the U.S. was never supposed to be a democracy. It's too easy to influence people who don't think and have no skin in the game. They are all too happy to spend other people's money on anything.

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  12. @ Rad
    No, actually.

    For some reason, every time Matt Damon's name is mentioned i *must* think of the puppet saying its name in that brainless way.

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  13. I like the acting work of Matt Damon.

    I don't like him as a preacher so much here.

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  14. Democracies typically end in tyranny. That's why were designed as a republic with a representative form of government instead of majority rules. Under democracy you have no real rights or property- only what the State with the authority and blessing of the majority allows you to keep. Ever really listen to a progressive speak about wealth or property? It's not yours- you stole it from someone else. Progressives love democracy because they can always count on the "less fortunate" among the masses to use government as a means to plunder the producers in society.

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  15. Why would anyone even put a camera and mic in front of this bratty little statist twit? This infantile runt thinks of government as his mommy and daddy so nobody should be surprised.

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  16. I say let's put MATT DAMON's comparative value/compensation to a vote. MD is worth absolutely no more than $0.25/year according to ME.

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  17. What do free market theories say about bailing out insolvent gigantic banks? There hasn't been a free market for some time.

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