Talking points – especially on the Left. I see them all the time. And there are times that this engineer wants to just scream because of stupidity. Once again, we’re back to one of the harbinger sites for it – Treehugger.
They are going all-in on AOC’s Green New Deal even though the posts author, Lloyd, who is based in Toronto, decided to hone in on the “redo of all of the nation’s building stock to make them energy-efficient” part of it in his post “Warm houses for all” is a great campaign slogan.” Socialists in the UK have also picked up on it.
Sidenote: just to prod your memory, AOC wants EVERY building, including YOUR home, to be taken over by the Govt so that it can be retrofitted to meet her unstated notion of what is good or not. In the meantime, where are YOU going to live, who is going to pay for it, and do YOU have the money to completely retrofit your home to AOC’s standards just on her (legislative) say so?
So, Lloyd uses two pull quotes:
Whoever is writing for the Labour Party gets this, and has come up with the best campaign slogan, for Labour and the whole Passivhaus Movement: Warm houses for all. Rebecca Long Bailey MP, shadow energy secretary, explains:
“Warm Homes for All” is one of the greatest investment projects since we rebuilt Britain’s housing after the Second World War. Labour will offer every household in the UK the chance to bring the future into their homes – upgrading the fabric of their homes with insulation and cutting edge heating systems – tackling both climate change and extortionate bills.
Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn sounds a little more like, well, Jeremy Corbyn:
If we don’t radically change course we face the threat of a hostile and dying planet. But Labour will turn that threat into an opportunity. We will tackle the climate crisis by putting wealth in the hands of the many, not the few, with lower bills, more good jobs and better health. By investing on a massive scale, we will usher in a Green Industrial Revolution with good, clean jobs that will transform towns, cities and communities that have been held back and neglected for decades.
There are two main components to the plan:
- Improving energy efficiency with insulation and double-glazing windows, resulting in 23 percent less energy consumption.
- Adding low carbon tech like solar PV, solar thermal and heat pumps.
They estimate the cost will be about £250 billion, or an average of £9300 per house.
First: offer the Christmas present. Second: THEN list the real purpose: wealth redistribution (“by putting wealth in the hands of the many, not the few”) as Labour Party Corbyn is pretty much a proto-Commie / Statist. Third: throw out some miserable excuse of a number, approx $320 billion, as a placeholder. As I’m now doing upgrades to Chez Skip after 13 years of benign neglect while concentrating on the ‘Grok, $10,000 / home ain’t gonna make it. Not even close IF the purpose is to do it right (versus just a talking point for elections).
But that’s all the background. Per normal, I went to the comment section to see what the (expected) reactions were; I was not disappointed. The first was all about the rich not “paying their fair share” canard. I really don’t know or care what happens in other countries, but I do know that most of those on the Left have NO idea how the US Income Tax rates work nor who “really pays”. Like Jennifer here:
jeanette poirier • 3 days ago
The super rich like to defame the word ‘socialism’. Afraid that the pretty much non-existent taxes they pay will be increased. They would rather keep the mass of working people poor and desperate because then they make obedient workers.
I’m not even going to touch the “defamation of ‘socialism'” bit – I don’t have the time to deal with that kind of stupidity other than “socialism” is a complete defamation of the human spirit. It’s the “non-existent taxes” bit. Don’t these nitwits even TRY to do a bit of research before proving they are ill-suited to participate in a debate on such a simple topic? So, I answered this “easy pickings”:
GraniteGrok jeanette poirier • 21 hours ago • edited
In the US, the top 1% pay over 1/3 of the income taxes. The top 20% pay over 70%.The bottom 50% pay about 3% of the income taxes (Numbers from the IRS)
There are “pretty much non-existent taxes” but that’s on the poor – the US Income Tax is quite “Progressive”.
That’s right – US Income Taxes pretty much leave the bottom 50% of the US population. That’s the “non-existent part” – Jennifer, not too ably, tried to flip that.
And of course, given the British references by Lloyd, I had to throw in yet another one:
GraniteGrok
The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money
-former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
Which 3 people decided to downrate my comments. Expected behavior but then someone decided to try to turn the table and make the moral equivalence the other way:
sagenav GraniteGrok • 2 days ago
Seems the same could be said about Capitalism. Except our taxes are under the control of Corporate America.
Yeah, all those evil Capitalists. Funny, that’s not always how it works, does it:
GraniteGrok sagenav • 21 hours ago
Funny, in my town, the amount of our taxes is controlled by the Budget Committee that acts as a limiter as to what the School District and Municipality can spend. “Low taxes is the result of low spending”. We have no sales or income taxes in my State either – the majority of taxation is applied directly to “Corporate NH”.Funny how real voting can make that happen.
Sure, corporations can and do have an effect on taxes – we ALL can have that effect. But one would think that in such a small state as ours that if Corporate America was really that “strong” and influential, there’d be no taxes on businesses in NH, we’d have a sales tax (on other than just meals tax) and income taxes + the plethora of fees and fines to make up for it.
OH WAIT! It’s the NH Democrats that want to raise taxes on businesses AND put in all those new taxes on NH residents.
So, who should we financially (and Freedom-wise) fear more: Corporate America or the NH Democrat Party?
