Who's Right, McCain or Gramm?

Lies, Damn Lies, and Conservative

I love reading the comments of the conservatives. You can always trust them to fall back on the "stop whining, work harder, start saving" BS. Let's look at the facts:

1. Even if American were to actually start saving, the dollar is losing value faster than most people can accumulate them.

2. Get s better job? Good luck. The economy is losing jobs faster than it is creating them. 480,000 and counting. And wages are dropping. So, if you do find a new job, odds are it will pay you LESS.

3. GDP is a spurious number than doesn't account for many real factors in the economy. Unemployment is another one of those special numbers that look good on paper but doesn't tell the whole story. The employment figures don't include information showing if the "jobs" being produced offer livable wages... most of the jobs produced in Bush's economy have been of a significantly lower quality and even those are disappearing. Also, the figure doesn't include people who stop looking for work after employment benefits dry up. Unemployment has stayed low because many people have been out of work so long, they are no longer included in the figures. It's just creative mathematics.

4. Banks and corporations have benefitted tremendously from a friendly U.S. government. The markets have been vastly deregulated over the past 25 years. So government regulation isn't why this problem has occurred.

Conservatives want to blame "whiners" and the government for the situation and fall back on the GDP to "prove" that the economy is strong. Our government has been a friend to corporations for a long time and has deregulated most of our industries. As for those "newer, better" jobs that are always on the horizon? Labor costs are always among the highest business expenses and one of the easiest to control. In other words, businesses have NO INCENTIVE to create better jobs. In fact, it's in the interest of businesses to find ways to lower salaries. So when a conservative tells you a better job is a-comin', don't hold your breath.

James King of VA @ Jul 13, 2008 11:12:50 AM

<i>The FDA does not even know where the contamination(s) is coming from, Florida or Mexico. We are hurting badly right now as individuals or as a nation. We need Barack Obama as President. We can not take four (4) more years of Bush, via John McCain.</i>

So true. Obama knows where the contamination has come from and as soon as he is President he will tell us.

We need to tax the rich. Until they are properly reduced. Then we can start in on the middle class.

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So which is better? A system that attracts big money? Or one that drives it away?

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And yes. The Bush economy is a disaster. What we need are Carter's economic policies. And most importantly his foreign policies. Carter was instrumental in the rise of fundamentalist Iran.

Hope and Change is only the beginning.

M. Simon of IL @ Jul 13, 2008 08:09:41 AM

Capitaliasm and the Poor

Capitalism has an answer for the problems of the poor. A growing economy. More capital. More powerful than any government program.

More capital means higher paying jobs.

Taxing capital accumulation lowers growth and also reduces what can be paid for a job.

M. Simon of IL @ Jul 13, 2008 07:38:48 AM

"total reversion to the laissez-faire robber baron days of the early 20th century"

Is that why the previous post was about bailing out two quasi-governmental corporations? One of us better go back an re-read the history of the robber baron days.

"our free markets with no regulation have led to the worst of all worlds: Fascism"

So Fascism occurs when there is not enough government. Who knew?

The Dirty Mac of NJ @ Jul 12, 2008 14:04:52 PM

What "free market"?

Anyone who thinks we have some sort of free, laissez-faire market in the US that is now failing is completely insane.

Everywhere you turn, the government is hip-deep involved. Medicine, levels of taxation, college education, housing, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, mandates, guidelines, regulation, diversity initiatives, spending increases way higher than inflation YEAR AFTER YEAR AFTER YEAR. It goes on and on and on and on.

OF COURSE things are screwed up. This is why conservatives are so angry at the president over his handling of the economy.

If we cut the government about 50%, that would be a good start.

Anyone who thinks things will get better under Obama is NUTS, you might say.

Chester White of IL @ Jul 12, 2008 08:23:36 AM

Free market?

Where? Our markets here in the US can't seem to stumble along without the government propping it up or bailing it out every step of the way. This so-called "free" market hasn't managed too much on its own lately.

Jefe of NC @ Jul 12, 2008 07:43:58 AM

Clinton's bubble and the crash of 2000

"This is the third time in 100 years that support for taken-for-granted economic ideas has crumbled."

Hardly. The startling bubble in the technology markets under Bill Clinton shattered conventional economic wisdom. For almost five years, financial markets significantly choked off capital to traditional sectors investing instead in -- it might as well have been tulips -- "dot com" companies. Employment soared, but only on paper as worthless, a few years later, as the stock certificates of all the bankrupt start-ups. The educational and employment decisions of an entire generation were significantly skewed, and many still pay the price for the decisions taken back then.

The Clinton Crash of 2000 was the worst since the great depression, and set the stage for a massive transfer of the remaining wealth from equities to real estate. In this manner, the Clinton Crash ignited the very real estate bubble at the core of our current troubles.

It's remarkable Bush has kept our economy growing and, over the entire period since the crash, employment and productivity growing, even as the U.S. faced unprecedented domestic attack and a global war on terrorism.

Anil Petra of NY @ Jul 12, 2008 03:03:29 AM

As a first generation of Asian immigrant, who is now an entrepreneur I want to add to Gramm's comment, that America is not only growing into a nation of "whiners" but also sissies.

They have gotten so used to the expectation of "American Dream" that they have forgotten the fine print that you need to work hard for it.

If you are a laid off auto worker in Michigan, move to Mississippi where Toyota is opening new plants; or learn computers and move to Seattle; or learn some other occupation that is in demand.

Millions risk their life to come here, they work under exploitative condition and still believe that they can build a better life. Why are you complaining?

All change must start from within.

ST of CT @ Jul 12, 2008 00:28:08 AM