prole

Are you mildly Down's or what?

The track record that neoliberals would be able to point to on the other hand can be found in the extensive descriptions by Charles Dickens. "Hard Times" is a good one...

"Track record" implies past, correct? God, you're a pathetic cretin.

Well, as far as the Keynesian approaches favored by most progressives, Kojak, that would be pretty simple: The Golden Age of Capitalism

20% of the American workforce is currently un or underemployed (just to get that out of the way). But what I'm personally incredulous about is that allowing the "distribution of employment to respond to reality" (aka the further commodification of labor through union busting, flexibilization, and corporate globalization, etc.) is going to result in better life-outcomes and democratic freedoms for the human beings that actually inhabit the theoretical marshmallow-world you concoct than one that incorporates features like coherent industrial policies, strong social welfare programs in health and education. Where is your track record of success, Jay? Point to the successes. We've been going down the neoliberal path for nearly thirty years. By almost any measure, we are practically ruined. Do you really expect us to believe that if we just push down your same path harder, we're going to reach the light? It's astonishing really, the power of your faith.

If this analogy holds, then cutting bus driver salaries is akin to using a teacup to bail water. I am glad you recognize the scope of the situation though.

There are two things that are going to get us out of this mess. The first is bringing debts down to a level that we can actually repay. This will happen with a combination of structural reforms and bondholder/creditor haircuts. The second is liquidating the cumulative malinvestment in real-estate and other sectors and letting employment shift to sectors that are producing things that people still want to buy. Demand for luxury condos, CDOs, and Escalades is never going to come back. Reality has changed, the composition of demand has changed along with it, and patterns of production and exchange have to change in response to reality. Pumping a gajillion dollars into busted sectors will prevent the expansion of those sectors of the economy where the unemployed might be able to find new jobs. The sooner we accept this fact - the better. Just rolls off the tongue doesn't it? Yeah, creditors and bondholders need to take haircuts, the question in this and other countries is whether or not finance has captured enough state power to determine whether they'll have to take the losses or whether they'll be able to squeeze enough out of citizens through structural adjustments (their haircut or our amputation). As to the second part: Hmmmm, things people still want to buy, which are labor intensive enough to put a significant number of people to work, that Americans are skilled enough to make or at wages low enough to make them competitive with African slum-dwellers, that the resources are inexpensive enough to source, that people can buy without relying on credit, that... Yeah, let us know when you got some specifics.

The Left equivalent of overpaid bus drivers, welfare queens, and anchor babies? You already offered an excellent suggestion: universal healthcare. None of these problems is going to get solved at the local level and certainly not by making more people miserable. Time to start thinking bigger again.

The "structural changes" you're advocating for are not going to save programs for the underpriviledged. The people with whom you're jumping into bed with on the "revenues to outlays calculus" have been trying to bust unions, privatize pension plans and SS, AND cut programs like the ones I cited above for years. In good times and bad times, rain or shine. Facilitating a race to the bottom by making everyone's health plans shitty, bringing wages down, weakening the ability to bargain collectively is not the way we're going to get out of this mess. Pretending this is a local issue while fiscal crises of the state metastasize daily at the global level is not going to get us out of this mess. Ignoring how the crises originated in favor of a state or municipal level shake-and-bake plan that exacerbates our already mounting health and welfare crisis is not going to get us out of this mess.

Bloated bus driver salaries strike again!!! And they call this "austerity"?!

"Never mind the fact that they are actually real people walking out the back door with real money! Nothing to see here. It's all about bringing inputs into line with outputs. Look here at the chart." Jay, it gives me great comfort knowing that the time you spend in here is time you're not spending doing real damage in the world.

Amazing how utterly fixated to the point of monomania you are with government spending to the complete detriment of any analysis that includes the "let markets rip" ideological framework that gave us the bubbles and the "too big to fail" institutions that got us here. Ditto for the massive wealth transfer to the top that necessitated government borrowing so citizens could pretend they were actually participating in the boom. Do they have shrinks for economists?

Funny how the conservative press (and let's face it, when it comes to economic issues, "they're alll neoliberals now") was saying how commendable the Irish people were for bailing out the banks, taking all this laying down, stiff upper lip, "doing what needs to be done", and all. That was before the details of the depth of the cornholing regular shmoes were going to take on behalf of the billionaires and the protests erupted. Anyway we do have you two shitheels' personal take on the kind of democratic actions at least one of you miraculously now finds commendable.

Till then, they'll be in the Burnin' Books for Jesus Brigades!

Thank God I'm not unemployed! Come 2013, Sarah Palin's going to be drafting unemployeds for the Great Conflagation versus the Infidels!

Yes, the Party of No (Fucking Idea) is really showing America how it puts its pants on in the morning!

Christmas came early for you too, didn't it? Savor that midterm victory over some cigars and single-malt? 2,000,000 unemployed off "the dole", that ought to save some money. Maybe even pay for another tax cut...dare to dream...

Well, I guess I can wait. Maybe you can call into a talk show tomorrow and ask the host or maybe google around to one of Jay's Addams Family think tanks and they can tell you what to say.

Hmmm, no answer. Man, just thinking about governing's hard, isn't it?

What are we going to do with all these damned people?

Now, now, never answer a question with a question...

Lay it on us. What's next?

These jobs are never coming back. The benefits will need to be extended indefinitely, works programs instituted to put people to work, re-colonize Africa, start a war with China, or GrannyBurgers. What sounds good to you?

Christmas come early, Fairweather?

Funny how that happens when FIRE captures a large enough portion of state power... See above.