Dave Ramsey: People Have Lost 'Ability to Think' Due To 'Pigeonholing' – 'You Got Your Head Stuck So Far Up' Politics 'You Can't Think Anymore'

Personal finance expert Dave Ramsey says many people have lost the ability to think clearly and critically because their political biases are so strong that they refuse to hear opposing views.

Talking about the role of government intervention in people's lives on "The Ramsey Show," he said both sides of the political spectrum have grown less tolerant and try to forcefully justify their candidate's views without fully thinking them through. 

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‘You Can't Think Anymore'

Ramsey thinks this trend may be driven by news channels that constantly air divisive content to boost ratings by fueling anger.

"I know people who, I respect their intellect, who have slipped a gear, man," he said. "They have lost their ability to think through things, all through the paradigm of Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal. It generally means, though, that you got your head stuck so far up your politics you can’t think anymore."

Ramsey quoted Martin Van Buren, the eighth U.S. president, who said the less the government interferes with people's private pursuits, the better it is for society's general prosperity. He said he agrees with Van Buren's view and considers himself "probably" a libertarian economically.

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"We get so caught up in pigeonholing ourselves, like you know, if I’m for conservative values, I automatically have to worship Donald Trump, and I got to tell you, I don’t," Ramsey said. 

Ramsey said he believes excessive taxation is the government's way of taking people's money, and that poor people are better served by social institutions such as communities, churches, and wealthy individuals rather than the government.

"Somehow we’ve gotten a group of people who have equated increased taxation as a charitable act for the poor, and it’s not," he said.

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‘Standard Oil of Our Day'

Ramsey said he's "intrigued" that left-leaning advocates of wealth-inequality movements regularly use and work with Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOG, GOOGL)) Google, Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Meta Platforms Inc.'s (NASDAQ:META) Facebook, and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), which dominate their industries.

"They’re pretty much the standard oil of our day," Ramsey said. "If they all want to move against something in an industry that they’re in, it pretty much wipes the slate clean. I mean, it’s like a glacier coming through it scrapes everything off."

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