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Robbed of Jobs by the Deficit Cultists
The latest US jobs report shows how feeble this recovery is. Yet those managing the economy are set on a low-employment path
If the temporary jobs generated by the census are pulled out of the count, the economy created just 20,000 jobs in May. The average rate of growth of non-census jobs over the last three months has been just 130,000 a month, only slightly faster than the growth of the workforce. At this rate of job growth, it will take decades, not years, to get back to normal levels of unemployment. It's time that we stop the happy talk about recovery and get serious about the country's economic problems.
Once again, the reason for this downturn is very simple, even if most of the country's top economists were (and are) unable to see it. We saw an $8tn housing bubble and a somewhat smaller bubble in non-residential real estate collapse. This bubble had been driving the economy prior to the recession.
The bubbles directly generated close to $500bn in annual demand by stimulating construction. The housing wealth created by the bubble indirectly spurred another $500bn in demand by lifting consumption. With the destruction of this wealth consumption has now been drastically curtailed. The question is not one of consumer sentiments. Consumers are not spending for the same reason that homeless people don't spend: they lack the money.
The $1tn plus in lost demand is the cause of the downturn and there is no obvious basis for replacing it. The stimulus package pushed a bit more than $300 billion a year into the economy, but close to half of this was offset by cutbacks and tax increases at the state and local level. The negative impact of the state and local actions will intensify after 1 July when most new fiscal years begin.
There will be additional downward pressure on consumption coming from further drops in house prices. The first-time buyer tax credit, along with other supports for the housing market, temporarily reversed the drop in prices. However, with the end of the initial credit, and now the expiration of the extended credit on 30 April, house prices are again falling and are likely to drop at an accelerating rate in the second half of 2010. Purchase mortgage applications fell to their lowest level since April 1997 last week, suggesting that the falloff in demand is likely to be substantial.
The crisis in Europe is another drag on the economy. As countries across Europe are forced to adopt contractionary fiscal policies, growth in the region will weaken as will imports from the United States. The decline in the euro relative to the dollar will further reduce exports, as US goods become more expensive in the eurozone countries.
Even the end of the census jobs will be a drag on the economy. The census is currently employing more than 500,000 workers. The wages of these workers are helping to sustain demand in the economy. When the census lays off most of these workers in June and July, another source of demand will be eliminated.
All of these factors dampening demand should have been evident even before last Friday, but May's weak job report should make the recovery's weakness so evident that even an economist can't miss it. At this point, we are presented with the option of taking steps to further stimulate the economy such as an extensive jobs programme, or facing years of unnecessarily high unemployment. (Work-sharing is another option that should be considered, especially if we can't get the political support for more stimulus. As a result of an effective work-sharing policy, Germany's unemployment rate has actually fallen slightly even though it has had a steeper downturn than the US.)
Unfortunately, the deficit cultists are making it likely that the country will follow the path of high unemployment. This will mean an enormous amount of unnecessary pain for millions of workers and their families. These people will be out of work not because they lack the necessary skills or don't have a willingness to work – they were working just two years ago.
No, today's unemployed are out of work because the people who are managing the economy don't have the skills necessary to do their job. And the incompetents who are managing the economy are all getting very well paid for their work. That is not good economic policy.
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35 Comments so far
Show AllThe financial flim-flam/housing bubble of the 2000's masked the effects of offshoring our manufacturing, engineering, R&D and backoffice jobs. Without a radical change in our trade policy to rebuild our industrial base and bring home the offshored jobs, the economy will never recover to what it was 10 years ago. Unfortunately, "the incompetents who are managing the economy are all getting very well paid for their work" and are making boatlods of money by manufacturing essentially for free in China and by offshoring generally. Obviously these people, along with their newest spokesman in the White House, should be replaced ASAP. The only question is: how?
I don't understand the selective myopia of the 'deficit cultists'. Someone cuts taxes and doubles the national debt, and these people are literally popping the champaign. Someone else tries to hire people during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, and these people are scowling.
They are cultists, alright. No one is fooled that they are cultists about deficit-spending, however.
And don't forget about the ones like Peter Peterson, who feel that the only way to cut the deficit is to privatize Social Security - or do away with it, which is the same thing.
Obama's economic team is one of his own worst enemies. They and Conservodems and Blue Dogs in Congress have left us with weak Bank reforms and nothing to speak of on jobs.
Is this the path Obama/Dems want to follow?
Mr. Baker- The whole of gov't power should be let loose on the economy or we won't need to worry about any other problems. The looming disaster which fiscal conservative liars warn us about is a self-fulfilling prophesy waiting to happen. A true nightmare for the middle class. We need to STIMULATE, STIMULATE, STIMULATE!!! Every project, state and locally, with a 10-15 year timeline horizon, should be done now. The unemployed, the young, and all abled- body people should be engaged or this downward spiral will not be stopped. The Deep Double-Dip is coming and will create a lost decade and horrible social upheavel in this country. Some elites want this to gain advantage. They must be stopped at all costs. This is dire for many. Don't buy into Blue Dog and Fiscal Hawk B.S.; the real issue is saving all that we have worked for as a people. You can see the problems but can the country find the strength to fix them? Or will the sheep-shearing rich and their bought pols win yet another one.
linkwray, you sound worried, rattled, and agitated. I wish you were a scare-mongering wacko. Unfortunately, you are not.
Greg- I was raised by a depression-era economist. I pray for my fellow man in these times. The country has 2 economies where only 1 is needed. The writing has been on the wall for a qtr. now. Can any economist read anymore?
Greenpeace unveiled their plan to battle global warming today. I absolutely believe we'll have to take this plan, or one like it, if we are going to keep from having to endure massive climate changes. Yet, this is exactly the demand for the government spending you are prescribing for this recession. I hope somebody (Obama) can grow the cojones necessary to embrace public energy infrastructure spending now, to put people to work building the kind of energy infrastructure that will pay dividends later (and, oh, by the way, possibly save the planet). But I'm not holding my breath. He can't move a muscle cuz it might upset the oil-n-coal companies: his 'base' of support.
Obama can't or won't move because of the cowards in the Congress who listen to the Teabaggin' rich white elites who visit their grandkids once a month for Sunday Supper and worry of their future. What this is white, upperclass rascism masked as fiscal responsibility. They don't want their money going to " lazy welfare recipients, illegals, union teachers or anything that doesn't preserve privilege for their white grandkids. Oh, the military is good because they've got their money in Boeing or Martin-Marrieta stock. Too, they like the idea of killin' people with names they can't spell for the protection of their future white children. If the middle class gets smashed up as a result, well, so be it. The elites have golf to play, second homes to visit, vacations to take and a whole list of things to do before they send some corrupt pol a political contribution so the inheritance tax is cut once again; ya' know, to save themselves hundreds of thousands of dollars that they can pass along to those same white heirs they worry so much about. Obama appears to have no problem with supporting economic apartheid in the U.S. Funny that, huh.
The report cited is new, but the rest of the piece is old news. We already knew this; jobs have been declining in number, pay, employee benefits, etc. for decades.
There isn't any money so the feds have been deficit-spending. However, they only feel comfortable doing so in ways that benefit the PTB (BigCorps, DoD, and those profiting therefrom). For 'social' programs, (re)building infrastructure, investing in R&D for a greener healthier future, and pretty much anything else that makes sense, it's 'sorry, we have to control spending'. The path forward should be obvious, but nothing has changed, and I'm not sure why this article was written.
"bgcd" hit the nail on the head. The out-sourcing of jobs over the last 30 years is the problem. The "Housing Bubble" collapse was just the fig leaf dropping away and exposing that there never was any 'prosperity", just a credit binge. If we don't reverse the Reagan economic practices and bring home and protect good jobs there will not be a "recovery"... Again; Third Parties, your only hope!
Oh yeah, and State Banks! Read (anything by) Ellen Brown.
The Question I want answered:
Why do we have to borrow our own money?
We can have the treasury print the money and spend it right into the economy. Spending on programs with NO deficit spending. Sure we can't print forever but in a deflationary spiral it is just what we need.
Instead we will issue debt and have the very criminals that created the crisis loan us our own money ... those would be the privately owned and operated Federal Reserve and their Member Banks.
As far as jobs we need to reduce the work week from 40 to 32 over two years ... The work week was reduced from 48 to 40 after WWII to absorb returning Vets and it worked great.
Econommists have done and continue to underestimate the breadth and height of this bubble ... Under current proposals even by "liberal" economists full employment will not be achieved for a decade ...
We aren't in a "Great Recession". We are in a depression scenario. Treating the two the same is treating pneumonia like a fever ... Look out below as the world heads into austerity instead of tossing the banksters and each country creating its own debt free sovereign money ...
Once again we see a so called liberal economist defending the very system and miscreants that brought us this crisis by not offering our only possible solution ....
Print the Money without debt and de-leverage the banksters!
I too would like an answer to this damn good question.
Maybe I'm missing something, but isn't that what Baker is advising--creating our own money at essentially zero percent interest to combat the recession? The US government does not have money to pay for a stimulus, so it borrows money from the Fed at essentially zero percent interest. The Fed creates the money with a few key strokes on its spreadsheet. China and other countries are buying treasuries now, but if they get tired of that game, the Fed will buy them. And I believe Baker did advocate job sharing in the article, as you recommended.
We are borrowing that money so it is part of the deficit. The Fed buys some of these notes back but keeps the interest. By far the largest percentage of treasuries are sold and we pay interest ...
Banksters can now borrow from the privately owned and operated Federal Reserve at essentially a zero percent interest rate and then turn around and buy treasuries at 3 to 4% for a nice guaranteed spread. And that is basically is what is happening. The banks borrow at .25% buy bonds at 3 to 4% so that the tax payer is once again subsidizing the banks ... And then when you ad leverage the profit margin becomes 30 to 40%! Nice deal for them!
Sioux Rose
MMCKIN: Don't forget they RENT us back the money they borrowed at ZERO percent at 22% via the credit card market, added to membership fees, late fees, and other instruments of exotic usury. And with THESE odds their "house" still loses and demands, via paid congress critters, that the public insure them and their profligate bets (because they're too big to be allowed to fall). What an unsound basis for an alleged economy.
IMO the masters of the U.S. want to go the Hoover route because it reduces long term debt. For every 1% drop in spending, unemployment goes up 3/4% and long term debt goes down by only 1/2% (Krugman).
They could easily raise 500B$ yearly (world wide) if all financial transactions (all commercial paper) were to be taxed at 1/4% of value (1$ on every 400$s of value). That's 1.5T$s in three years. But that means it would come out of the pockets of those who caused this financial catastrophe.
If they cut spending it will drive wages down, give more influence to corporations to set work rules, and make it easier to challenge environmental laws, S.S. and medicare.
It is in-your-face class warfare and the people of Greece are not fooled by it.
By the way it must be pointed out that the 411,000 jobs created for the Census is a fabrication in and of itself.
Multiple Census takers have indicated they were fired and rehired fired and rehired. Everytime they were rehired another job was "created".
C'mon Baker, you can't separate yourself from the pack of blind economists. The problem is demand. Working people's incomes have been engineered downward by economists, businessmen, and politicians over the past thirty years. You decoupled wages from productivity, lied about the true cost of living, created a top friendly tax system, created NAFTA and exported good paying jobs at a foolish pace, lied about the benefits of global trade "prices did not fall." So now, Americans have been engineered into economic hardship and cannot buy goods and services. So forget your lofty theories and bullshyt analysis. It's simple demand and it's not there and therefore the economy cannot recover. Of course economists will never admit that; instead, your ilk will suggest world war three to get us out of the recession. You guys are psycho's. You need to be locked up.
Hopeless as it makes me feel, this poster's analysis makes a lot of sense and I can't find any argument with it. Let's see if anyone can refute part of it and help me sleep better.
Don't forget easy credit with tiny minimum payments to conceal the fact that real wages have dropped since the 70's.
Add to that the (what I now consider fake) "women's liberation movement", so now two incomes are available, though still can barely support a family.
Suddenly, no one can afford the jacuzzi, the giant flat-screen tv, the McMansion in the suburban breeding pens, the boat, the wine cellar - no one's shopping because without income, there's nothing to shop with.
Locked up - great idea! In China, they'd have been executed by now. That level of greed an incompetence is criminal.
And Obama's solution? "I feel your pain."
Stone, I would argue that global trade has, in some cases, allowed prices to fall. For instance there has been quite a lot of great deals these past few years on tools and electronic equipment coming from China and surrounding areas.
Sure, prices on electronic items have come down. But what good is a lower price if you can't afford to buy ANYTHING thanks to no job? What is that flat screen TV REALLY worth to you? And let's not forget that the quality of the Chinese stuff is nowhere near what the quality of American made goods was. Lower prices are great, but what if you have to buy the same tool or TV two or three times due to it's being a piece of crap? Not worth that much in the long run, if you ask me.
Back before Reagan and his Alzheimer's economics policies, people had decent paying jobs and could afford to buy decent, quality goods. Back then, we still had a workable tariff system, and had been using it since the country was founded. It was Reagan who came along and started the destruction of that system, and quality had gone down the toilet.
We used to charge enough in tariffs to run the ENTIRE gov't. In fact, until the income tax came along, we DID run the whole gov't off of those tariffs. Now, thanks to Reagan and Clinton (NAFTA, CAFTA, and GATT), we charge a 2% tariff on Chinese goods imported here, while China charges us 24% on goods we send there. We charge Korea about 2$ to send us cars. They charge us $5,000 PER CAR to send them there. And THIS is supposed to be "free trade"? Hardly. It's a nationally suicidal policy that has led us DIRECTLY and OBVIOUSLY to right where we are now. And we the workers have gotten screwed for every penny, while the top 2% has made out like the BANDITS they are.
This needs to be abolished IMMEDIATELY. ALL companies that offshore jobs should be the FIRST to have to pay higher tariffs. ALL business tax breaks need to be repealed, especially those put in place since Reagan. The ENTIRE Reagan Alzheimer's economics "system" needs to be sent packing, Reagan's grave defaced PERMANENTLY, and the worshiping of his dead, stupid, treasonous ass needs to be considered a national crime. ANYONE found doing it needs to be locked up FOREVER. Clinton should also be locked up for these GD policies that have done NOTHING for the vast majority of the world, and everything for the few, the selfish, the greedy.
So, tell me, just what good is that cheap Chinese crap when you had to lose your job to get that lower price? Is it REALLY worth a goddamned thing? I don't think so. And it's a real shame that this country was sold out so quickly, cheaply, and easily.
The quality of the Chinese goods has increased dramaticaly over the years. Indeed I have found stuff stamped "made in the USA" as likely to fail if not more so then a product made in China.
That said the lower prices that the Made in China product brings the consumer is illusory. US wages still spiral downwards and in time "Made in China" will not be "cheap enough". The more the Consumer is buying "Made in China" the greater the downward pressure on the consumers own wages.
The Continual reflection on "back then" fails to acknowledge the very real facts that "back then" the USA economy relative to the worlds was much larger and "back then" , Japan and Europe had only just reindustrialized from the wars. "Back then" China and India were still agrarian. "Back then" The US had only recently become a net importer of Oil.
It a very different world today. Natural resources dry up. China and India have an appetite for those in the third world that are every bit as large of that of the USAS to feed their own economy. It is harder to find deposits of Copper and Zinc and Iron and Oil , all of which are the feedstock of the consumer economy.
Quite frankly there is no going back to "Back then". A NEW focus is needed for the future and that is not trying to rebuild the Consumer economy of the past. An economy built around Consumption is not sustainable . Trying to reignite the "Consumer economy" by putting more money into the pockets of the worker would in my opinion be a mistake.
I will grant you that things have gotten better with Chinese goods. They are using a much higher quality of anti freeze in toothpaste, now, and there is a much higher quality lead in children's toys.
American goods were never any more perfect than other country's, but at least we were making our own things, instead of giving tax breaks and cuts to business to move our jobs overseas. And I'm not talking about right after WWII, I'm talking about before Reagan. That was 35 years after the end of WWII.
The situation is not the lack or the dwindling of resources, that can be dealt with. What CAN'T, however, is the fact that the upper 2% of our country's money holders think they deserve to own everything. They set about to get everything back when Reagan took over, and no one has stood up and said NO FREAKING WAY!No politician back in Reagan's time knew enough history to tell us WHY Alzheimer's economics was stupid, foolish and nationally suicidal. But yet, LOTS of US knew it, and took shit for the last 3 decades of telling people about it.
The situation that we find ourselves in was a SELF INFLICTED WOUND. It wasn't China that did it to us without our knowledge. It wasn't India that did it to us without our knowledge. It was selfish and ignorant scum like Jack Welch, who ran GE, who started the offshoring. He doesn't give a flying rat's ass about America or Americans. He worships the almighty bottom line, and anything that doesn't tow that line gets sent packing. He bragged about it in his book. He should be beaten until he screams like a school girl for having done it.
We would still have issues due to the declining of the aforementioned resources and the like, but at least we would still be working in our own country and bringing in wages from selling goods to OURSELVES. This was done to us by our own "leaders", and done to us on purpose. And if you think that it's just the luck of the draw that things have worked out this way, you are an extremely naive individual. It was greed that did us in, not anything else.
It's unfortunate that you see the worker as being the problem here. They aren't. It's the greed of those on the top that is. It's really basic economics 101 (which I never even took, being a professional musician). If all the money is in the hands of a few, it will never get circulated. That is what we have today. If you get more money into the hands of more people, they will spend it. Poor and lower income people SPEND. Rich people HOARD. It's how they GOT rich in the first place.
Here's another thought. We have lowered the tax rates on the rich like never before in this country. And what happened during that time? Investment in this country DRIED UP. It's EXACTLY the opposite of what St Ronnie told us would happen. He said if we give the rich the money, they will invest it. BULLSHIT. We gave them the money, lowered their tax rates, untied investment from taxation, and investment DISAPPEARED. It's really easy to see why. If you let people keep their huge amounts ONLY by investing them, they will invest. If you let them keep it with no strings attached, what is their incentive to invest? Investing is a risk, why would they risk what they already have? You've let them keep it without any strings attached.
We USED to be smarter than that. But Alzheimer's tends to remove your ability to make smart decisions, and Reagan infected the whole GD country with it. It's really no big wonder that we aren't smart enough to see the reality anymore.
Putting more money into the hands of those who need it to survive INSTEAD of into the hands of the ultra greedy is NOT a mistake. It's the ONLY way to have ANY kind of a real economy. Stand up for the corporate slime all you want, all it does is make you seem really senseless. it's giving them all the breaks that has screwed us. I REFUSE to stand up for that horse shit approach to things. It's nationally destructive, and it helps only those who need NO help. They are already fixed for the rest of their lives, and generations to come. The rest of us just want to survive. How is facilitating that a mistake?
Sorry, but we have some real serious differences here. The rich are already too damned wealthy, it's time for them to ether get out of the rest of our way, or get put out of our way. it's happened before, and I see NO reason why it shouldn't happen now.
Where on Earth did I say the WORKER was the problem?
I have stated CAPITALISM and the CONSUMER economy is the problem and we can not FIX that problem by continuing to rely on it as the basis of our economies.
"Dwindling resources can be dealt with and is not the issue"
What a load of absolute CRAP. Hardwood forests the world over disappear at a rate faster then they can be replaced. Well over a billion people are without ready access to Fresh Water and this number will only grow. The Gulf of Fracking Mexico is being filled with crude OIL as we speak and I hardly see that issue being dealt with this related to the pursuit of a dwindling resource called OIL.
This only the smallest fraction of what I speak of. Include in that destroyed habitat for wildlife, the loss of wetlands and forests, seas filled with toxic plastics , species extinction. mercury in our fish and a poisened food supply and "This not an issue and all can be dealt with"
>> Stand up for the corporate slime all you want, all it does is make you seem really senseless
Where was I standing up for Corporate Slime? Can you comprehend what you read or do you just give a kneejerk response to everything? Putting more money in the pockets of the people is one thing, doing so in order to spark more "Consumerism" is another.
When your consumer has "More money" to spend on things like Cars and Boats and Color TV sets , that money still ends up in the pockets of those "Wealthy Elite" and buying a new car every 8 years might make that consumer "feel wealthy" but it comes at a cost as witnessed by clogged Freeways, polluted air and cities like Detroit rotting as the people "commute" from the suburbs.
The USA has 5 percent of the Worlds Population and consumes over 25 percent of the worlds resource and your fix is "More conumsption" to get the economy rolling again?
Geez
JUST to help update the discussion...which everyone is probably aware of news already:
as a result of low wages -- the notorious "slave wages in china" - some chinese workers , after even a few years of 16-hour days to supply cheap goods to the wonderful "consumer economy" of the USA and the world -- CAPITALISM's Demand of course -
have committed suicides...ONE Thing that can be said:
where in the USA - americans can tolerate such things with a shrug after a momentary expression of national "abhorrence" and then turn right BACK to being even MORE COMPLIANT or refer to them even jokingly as "gone postal"..while NEVER ADDRESSING the plight of workers and the relationship between LABOR and MONEY CAPITAL (even as the financial crises have already demonstrated it repeatedly) -
the CHINESE POPULATION is already showing its IMPATIENCE - and showing that EVEN the communist party better ensure that its PRIORITIES are the "chinese people" and NOT the corporations .
result?
the protests and MASS WALK-OUTS from big foreign-owned or subsidiarized companies (such as HONDA, and suppliers to Apple, Dell. etc) had to be given - in a mere 2 weeks - TWO HUGE pay raises...
it also is a reminder BY the chinese population TO the Leadership - whatever IS their political system - SOCIAL UNREST is what they will get - the CHINESE PEOPLE WILL Demand and are demanding "fair economic treatment".
what THIS does is:
it actually not just begins to spread the increase of wages across china - and the party WILL have to support it in keeping with their stated "socialism with chinese characteristics" as the central reason for their existence and what chinese populations will tolerate in the long run - but increase the ability of the ordinary chinese to become "consumers"...BUT primarily towards DOMESTIC development..
which is precisely what CAPITALISM inserting its demands towards the "manufacturing country" through CHEAP WAGES has PREVENTED china and other countries, for all of 200 years at least now, from achieving as their true national destinies:
THEIR OWN SELF_DEVELOPMENT - which is NOT dependent on "exports" - neither of their resources nor their labor - CHEAPENED through the machinations of Capitalism.
ARE AMERICANS anywhere NEAR that sort of action?
it is laughable how COMPLIANT americans actually are.
the TOP priority of ANY nation should be domestic development which is NOT dependent on foreign exchange of any kind.
CAPITALISM serves as an OBSTRUCTION against that - as well as a DESTROYER of that - masked as "TRADE" as defined by the Lords of Capitalism such as the USA. and one of the ways it has done this and maintains and enforces this and coerces nations of all stripes to participate in this is through ITS manipulation of the global "trade" regime and Financial "values" regime - which ENSURES that "competition for wages" becomes the be-all of all nations...THUS DRIVING wages down across the world..which IN TURN creates the conditions for "unemployment"...which in turn creates conditions for citizens everywhere, including now the USA, UNABLE to AFFORD the GLOBAL PRODUCTS which workers EVERYWHERE produce
but the MONEY CAPITALISTS MERELY SUCK BLOOD FROM!
it is a nearly impossible task --but if the globe and governments and their people , whether together or incrementally , decided once and for all that WAGES EVERYWHERE shall be the SAME - and DESTROY the US-led - western-led "wage arbitration regime" of DOWN-ward pressure of wages - in order to keep weakened LABOR against Money Capital........\
it would spell the end - in global terms of so much unfairness and injustice - and THEN turn the world's attention to BETTER things to DO for challenges that are more worthwhile - and proper - than MERELY trying to "earn enough to put food on the table" --and therefore dehumanizing people and keeping humanity from achieving , individually and collectively what our true destinies ought to be - to be the BEST that we can BE as part of the Planet's ecosystem and life.
the DESTRUCTION of these human potentials is the PRIME LEGACY of CAPITALISM everywhere.
The burden of solving the financial crisis on the backs of the working poor and the middle class is absurd. In typical American fashion those responsible for the problem don't bear the burden of their screw ups. Only those without power get pounded.If Wall street and the banks created the problem let them pay. Increase taxes on the top 5% to 60%. They can afford it and they'll pay it. They are the beneficiaries of almost all the real GDP growth in the past 20 years
I think the only thing keeping our local newspaper alive is the foreclosure notices.
As the slide continues the number of people losing their homes will continue to grow.
Homeless & unemployed - The new middle class.
Face it, people, we are living in a dying country. The money & power types aren't interested in reviving the US economy, just in getting all they can steal before it collapses. I guess they will go to Red China after that happens. Unfortunately (for them), what they will find there is an entrenched power structure a whole lot meaner & more corrupt than they are. It will only be a matter of time before some of these "Masters of the Universe" step on the wrong toes, and end up in a gulag. They will spend their last days in this world making little ones out of big ones for the greater glory of the Chinese Empire .....
For the overwhelming majority of readers, I invite you for a moment to use your imagination and consider yourselves a part of upper management or a large-business owner. In other words, rich. Take a look at this wet dream you've been living for the past few decades:
- While middle class jobs evaporate, your stock portfolio skyrockets as management and 'consultants' slash labor costs and benefits to improve bottom lines and increase stock prices.
- Offshoring jobs spikes unemployment which decreases wages. A scared workforce becomes evermore compliant and overworked. Cutting public employee jobs lessens competition for higher wages while adding to unemployment. Profits from companies located in China and the third world mushroom due to slave labor and diminished tariffs.
- Deep tax cuts for your class and increased MIC spending gives cover to eliminate hated social programs. What once was considered the third rail of politics (SSI) is now on the table for serious surgery.
- No worries about paying for the yeoman's health care - Barry handled that one for you.
- With full spectrum dominance of the media, all the above items can be spun to gain the support of working class idiots and selfish retirees, thus ensuring your status indefinitely.
As for these deficit hawks, where are they every time a Republican administration INTENTIONALLY blows off the roof? But the rich really don't mind when the Democrats are in charge; they just like the sociopaths of the R's a little better.
As many here encourage, vote third party. There will be short term pain, but it's the only hope for a sane(r) future.
Agree except for third party voting. Third parties alone won't fix the job problems. The system that rewards job shedding needs to be fixed.
There is no doubt in my mind that this is where we are supposed to be so that the haves can have all that their big greedy asses want.Cut taxes for 30 or more years for the rich and give the poor and middle-class $300 and then tell all the folks that social services,schools,and all other services and needs like schools and infrastructure cant be taken care of because there is no money.I firmly believe that it is intentional.Haven't figured out what they intend to do when even things like Social Security is gutted;what else would there be to steal and what to do with all the people who will not have a pot to piss in because that number has not reached critical stage yet.Tony
After viewing the results of the Arkansas senatorial runoff I can only conclude that the progressive community has to become much more disciplined in their messaging. If there was not election malefeasance then labor and progressives just got their asses kicked. If all that money and effort couldn't change the results, more of the same, then I will curse the groups that mangled this election. That list includes Daily Kos, Crooks & Liars, FireDogLake, Think Progress and a host of others. I also curse Bill Clinton as a lyin' phony of the first sort and the people of Arkansas for the being the biggest dumbfxxks who ever came down the pike. Man, does the progressive community have a lot of work to do! We can't even hold our own against the birthers and T-baggers. Good fxxkin' grief!