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Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Class War on the Senate Floor



If only this was what we were hearing from every Democrat, from the White House on down...

6 comments:

admin said...

Yep. When people talk about higher taxes creating disincentives against productivity or innovation, it's important to point out that the incentives are already much higher today than at any time in history. The top 10 or 5 or 1% of wage earners make far more money today than ever before, which is the incentive to be productive, regardless of whether the marginal tax rate is 35 or 39%.

I agree with him on everything except China. I believe that Americans are not the only people in the world who deserve to be prosperous, and I'm glad that China is growing economically and creating a huge middle class. Also, when we buy their products at a cheaper price, that has the effect of making us richer. So we benefit greatly from our trade relationship with China. Ultimately, it's a win for everyone, which is why it's so successful.

Rather than trying to hold onto obsolete factory jobs that we can't possibly compete with China over, we should *innovate* and create new *kinds* of jobs, green jobs, tech jobs, etc.

Dale Carrico said...

I would like both local and international organizing to render China's manufacturing base more equitable and sustainable -- I hesitate to describe myself as made richer by the consumption of either toxic products or products produced under conditions of near-slavery, but I actually do take your larger economic point, and I also agree (as I think Sanders also ultimately would) that what is wanted is to create new jobs in the renewable and tech sectors. Also, I think lazy recourse to China bashing taps into belligerent yellow-peril nonsense and mistakes as a threat a nation that faces structural problems that dwarf our own and make China more likely a partner than an opponent in a world where anything like sense prevails (oh dear, forget I said that).

On a separate note, I personally would far prefer we change the structure of agriculture subsidies to encourage sustainable smaller scale polyculture practices, making agriculture a key job growth sector rather than trying to get jobs back from textiles and toys or what have you. Topsoil erosion, aquifer depletion, and lower productivity gains from high energy-input intensive petrochemical ag is a disastrous cul-de-sac, and sustainable ag in a networked (both digitally and through rapid rail), tech-ameliorated world of farms would be far more attractive than the old agricultural regime that mobilized industrial overurbanization. My two cents.

jollyspaniard said...

Unfortunately the resentment felt by many of the Middle Class over their plight has been skillfuly redirected.

The Chinese enriching themselves is a good thing. Chinese workers deserve to be paid more and to work in better conditions.

Dale Carrico said...

Getting millions of pampered ignorant racist yahoos to vote against their own best interests probably takes less skill than either of us guess.

jollyspaniard said...

It's not hard to direct someone's resentment with a simple narrative.

In this case people are already predisposed to resent those "other" people. All that's need is to craft a narrative where those other people are responsible for all your problems.

You can't pay your bills, the environmentalists are ruining the economy. Feeling unfulfilled? Those weirdos on the west coast have poisoned our culture.

There is something to it, some people are obviously better at it than others (Reagan, Palin). But it's usualy not a result of skilled manipulation so much as simple charm and the ability to be send coded racist messages.

Dale Carrico said...

Given that it is both simple and true to say that tiny minorities of filthy rich assholes are ruthlessly exploiting and harassing vast precarious majorities and destroying the world without sense or justification or end in sight one would think your premise would empower the good guys more than the bad guys. Interesting that is doesn't.