j_b

It's just a montage picture of my avatar. Grab the tin foil hat, do something but get a grip of yourself.

On average public employees earn less than their equivalent in the private sector. I have cited a half dozen analyses to that effect including one done by the Seattle Times, which is hardly progressive

India and China's emissions are skyrocketing because you outsourced CO2 emissions along with production (and the jobs attached to it). Doh ...

Do any of these models account for GDP loss due to climate change? Of course not and you didn't feel like mentioning it. You sound like a charlatan to me. A REPORT OF THE ECONOMICS OF CLIMATE ADAPTATION WORKING GROUP: "These studies have produced some striking findings, which will help country leaders, international institutions and practitioners reframe adaptation as climate-resilient development. We have seen that poor adaptation to current climate already destroys considerable economic value – in the locations studied between 1 and 12 percent of the GDP annually. Impact from climate is not just a future concern, although the scale of possible future climate change could dwarf these losses." http://www.mckinseyonsociety.com/downloads/reports/Economic-Development/ECA_Shaping_Climate%20Resilent_Development.pdf

I guess that must mean your activism toward raising revenue hasn't been very effective. Perhaps, if you spent less time arguing for austerity, it'd make a tiny difference?

I sure feel like we should be taking economic advice from those who crashed the economy, refused to start shifting energy sources starting decades ago, and refused to decrease CO2 emissions starting 20 years ago, and still don't want to acknowledge that externalized costs actually cost a whole lot.

don't you know that bitching every day about the "need" to cut spending is going to create momentum for raising revenue?

because rehashing ad-infinitum about sovereign debt the way you do isn't shrill? all the while you ignore private debt that dwarfs public debt? It was time to be practical when the state income tax was on the ballot, yet you managed to be against it because you wanted to cut spending anyway. There is the regressive sales tax as a temporary fix but they could also cut loopholes and tax breaks.

JayB doesn't believe that external costs actually cost anything. Throw away half of the equation and it's much more pleasing math that way.

Those who disagree have so much intellectual integrity that they won't speak up. The same way they don't speak about the ginormous military budget or health care costs that are bankrupting us (yet they complain about medicare). I wish the weasels stopped taking cover behind the obstructionist congress to argue gutting public services and employee benefits.

but hey! let's keep going after the fat cat bus driver/teacher/nurse ...

The top 10% of Americans now earn around 50% of our national income.

Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.

Our competition: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.

For the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.

More than 40% of Americans who actually are employed are now working in very low paying service jobs

The top 1% of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America's corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.

The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.

As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets

In 1950, the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.

Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.

A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.

83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.

61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.

66% of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.