Electric Politics | Work, Workers, and the Very Rich

Monopoly man It's tempting to want to see the positive side in Mr. Obama's recent talk of further stimulus. One must remember, however, that it's only talk — he has no intention of jamming anything meaningful through a dysfunctional Congress — and, further, that his heavy emphasis on tax cuts for business, if implemented, would just set us back further. What we really need, more than anything else, is a massive tax hike on the Über-rich. Establishment "left" economists (not to mention mainstream economists) just don't get it: the Über-rich, both deliberately and accidentally, create such powerful economic distortions that the economy is only able to lurch from crisis to crisis, to their benefit, but not to anybody else's.

From Paul Krugman to Jamie Galbraith, a lingering sense of the validity of neo-classical economic theory produces a remarkable blindness. Instead of understanding that for all practical purposes the Über-rich now control the system, establishment economists persist in reverting to cognitive errors on the part of policy makers as an explanation for why working people get screwed. Krugman's column the other day is classic, an academic exercise at proving what he knows to be true. But he doesn't stop to wonder whether his "bad" outcomes are, in fact, a deliberate choice. He mistakes the apparatus of government for governance. For example, if we had complete, unrestricted access to the paper blizzard within government — at the Treasury, at the Federal Reserve, at the White House, and elsewhere — out of hundreds of thousands or even millions of documents we probably wouldn't find a single one explicitly arguing for giving the Über-rich anything they want. It would be an elementary mistake to put that on paper. Doesn't happen. But that doesn't mean that the intention at the top, which filters down through political channels, isn't exactly so simple. Somehow, economists have learned to think in a make-believe language that doesn't include words for sophisticated theft and fraud through politics.

No matter. People who work for a living don't need economists to tell them that the Über-rich are turning them into peons. A political back-lash — in whatever form it may take — can't be avoided.



Home FAQ Contact Archive EP Store EP Alerts © 2012 ElectricPolitics	Work, Workers, and the Very Rich It's tempting to want to see the positive side in Mr. Obama's recent talk of further stimulus. One must remember, however, that it's only talk — he has no intention of jamming anything meaningful through a dysfunctional Congress — and, further, that his heavy emphasis on tax cuts for business, if implemented, would just set us back further. What we really need, more than anything else, is a massive tax hike on the Über-rich. Establishment "left" economists (not to mention mainstream economists) just don't get it: the Über-rich, both deliberately and accidentally, create such powerful economic distortions that the economy is only able to lurch from crisis to crisis, to their benefit, but not to anybody else's. From Paul Krugman to Jamie Galbraith, a lingering sense of the validity of neo-classical economic theory produces a remarkable blindness. Instead of understanding that for all practical purposes the Über-rich now control the system, establishment economists persist in reverting to cognitive errors on the part of policy makers as an explanation for why working people get screwed. Krugman's column the other day is classic, an academic exercise at proving what he knows to be true. But he doesn't stop to wonder whether his "bad" outcomes are, in fact, a deliberate choice. He mistakes the apparatus of government for governance. For example, if we had complete, unrestricted access to the paper blizzard within government — at the Treasury, at the Federal Reserve, at the White House, and elsewhere — out of hundreds of thousands or even millions of documents we probably wouldn't find a single one explicitly arguing for giving the Über-rich anything they want. It would be an elementary mistake to put that on paper. Doesn't happen. But that doesn't mean that the intention at the top, which filters down through political channels, isn't exactly so simple. Somehow, economists have learned to think in a make-believe language that doesn't include words for sophisticated theft and fraud through politics. No matter. People who work for a living don't need economists to tell them that the Über-rich are turning them into peons. A political back-lash — in whatever form it may take — can't be avoided. Posted by George Kenney on September 8, 2010 9:13 AM « The American Dream \| Main \| Podcast Schedule Mid-September » Share this post: Leave a comment Name Email Address URL Remember personal info? Comments (You may use HTML tags for style)

Work, Workers, and the Very Rich

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