The article is very well written, IMO, and i encourage people to read it.
First, let’s get back to basics. There are only two primary ways to grow a nation’s wealth: by extracting resources from the earth or by manufacturing goods, adding value to those resources. Everything else — lawns getting mowed, nails getting done, stocks getting traded — may move money around or improve quality of life, but don’t grow the actual wealth of a nation.
I agree and i call that “actual wealth of the nation” the real economy, while painting nails and mowing lawns is entertainment.
The Democratic Party has largely understood this since the industrial revolution, as did the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, who oversaw construction of the transcontinental railroad and funded over 70 free “Land Grant” colleges like MSU across the nation.
From FDR through Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton, Obama, and Biden, Democratic presidents have consistently invested in the physical and human infrastructure that powers wealth creation. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the GI Bill, the WPA and CCC, the Clean Air and Water Acts, and most recently, the Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS Act all fit this pattern.
Even Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican, got it, although he was his party’s modern exception. He built the Interstate Highway System and warned Americans against the possibility that the military-industrial complex could corrupt Congress. His vision was of a balanced, productive America, not one dominated by war profiteers and Wall Street gamblers.
But the Republican Party since the 1920s (with the exception of Eisenhower) has marched in the opposite direction. […]
In a healthy economy, windfalls get invested in productivity: roads, R&D, education, healthcare for working people. In today’s GOP-run economy, however, they’re getting funneled into yachts, stock buybacks, and political influence. Economists call this the “voracity effect”; a dynamic where powerful groups extract so much from the economy that they ultimately destabilize and then crash it. It’s economic cancer.
Exactly what i say. The rich skim so much wealth from the economy that it simply starves to death. A wealth tax would be a systemic counter-measure to that development, and it’s bitterly needed.
I don’t think I agree with this premise at all, unfortunately.
The article describes extraction or manufacturing as the sole ways to increase “actual wealth” (apart from government works) but it’s just sophistry to embed the author’s biases against the value of information and services. That’s because services and white collar jobs both (a) can represent intrinsic value, and (b) can both directly and indirectly be subject to international trade.
To explain, the author would define manufacturing a refrigerator as “actual wealth,” but the knowledge of how to do so as not “actual wealth,” even though the knowledge is equally a prerequisite for the refrigerator, and is a more valuable unit for trade with other nations or economic growth.
The conclusion about focusing on long term “wealth” creation is fine, but that premise isn’t necessary to get there and detracts from the credibility of the argument.
Yeah, you’re right. I think the author tried to contrast jobs that add real value to the economy against financial trickery, which he accused of only serving the rich.
But indeed, white-collar jobs have played a tremendous role in the economy in the last 50 years or so.
Now he is pushing for tariffs against Russia. And he finally seems to be figuring out that Putin doesn’t want to stop trying to conquer Ukraine…a point the rest of the world understood immediately…years ago.
while most people in the west will think that trump is finally coming to his senses about ukraine,
to trump, it’s just a distraction scheme from his problems at home. he thinks that if he starts a war with russia, the people at home will forget about the bullshit policies he’s implemented domestically.
He would need to put boots on the ground to make a big enough distraction.
Nope, this is just Europe ordering a lot of weapons from the US for Ukraine and Trump saying some nice things to make it happen.
The headlines this week are wild
And it’s only Tuesday.
Trump desperately tries to distract from his internal problems at home.
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I’m pretty sure Poutine and Netyahoo helped the push too
Don’t you dare tarnish the good name of Poutine by comparing to such a low life.
You’re right. And anyone not up to snuff with our own history might think I was referring to Canadian PM Jean Poutine, but he doesn’t deserve that kinda slight.
I mean Vlad “Dracula” Putin, scumbag extraordinaire, duke of defenestration, and chaplain of cockbags
Honestly, I’m impressed how fast this fell apart. (we still have a long way to go!) I was sure he’d be able to string MAGA along for 2 more years before revealing he’s a pedophile.
But everyone who’s intelligence is above your average potato caught his Scooby-Doo villain ass long before he ran the first time.
I’m impressed how fast this fell apart.
In my book it took almost a decade. It’s like you could watch it running towards the precipice in slo-mo, and all warnings were countered with “libs triggered, lol”. Not to speak of all the groundwork laid by most previous admins, esp. Reagan’s.
Yeah this article rightly points out Eisenhower’s foresight and the ways intelligent leaders saw the writing on the wall throughout the last century. 2016 was certainly an inflection point, but in hindsight 2020 seemed to be the tipping point.
American voters in both major parties consistently vote against their own collective interests in order to maximize individual gain. It’s irrational, but also so essentially American.
For example, consider that the historical self-narrative and cultural lexicon for young American students is essentially:
“We are the greatest country on Earth. Our ideals are universal and should be impressed upon all of Earth’s peoples. We deserve all the wealth we have, but are not responsible for the consequences. Any criticism against us is a direct attack on our way of life.”
It should be no shock that without intentional efforts to maintain civic society, integraye immigrants and other minorities, and foster social cohesion through rural-urban exchange; this type of culture quickly erodes into the ‘fuck you, got mine’ mentality rampant on social media, perpetuated by corporate interests, and exploited by malicious political agents.
American voters in both major parties consistently vote against their own collective interests in order to maximize individual gain.
Well said, but it’s not just American voters. Also it depends very much on how you explain things to voters - individual gain and collective interest are not opposites, but that’s what a corporate lobbyism/propaganda machine has been promoting for many decades.
For example, consider that the historical self-narrative and cultural lexicon for young American students is essentially:
Yeah just yesterday I watched snippets of old Reagan & Bush II speeches. They are so dumb and smarmy and naive.
his Scooby-Doo villain ass
Oh, so we live in the “Scooby gang lost” timeline. Everything makes sense now.
And he would have gotten away with it, (still might) if it wasn’t for the mountain of evidence resting on the back of a even larger mountain of racism, sexism, Christan fascism, and oligarchy rule.
Brink of Recession
Impossible. Big Stock Line Goes Up.
Trump is just another tumour of hypercapitalism, never forget that.
only a systemic treatment can help. treating individual cases isn’t enough.
we need a good social safety net, including wealth tax and UBI.
Thanks Obama.
So like yeah, all that, but come on eggs were so expensive!
A little WWIII and some fascism just as a treat is well worth keeping Kamala out of office, she laughs for Christs sake!
…/wrist
And she keeps changing her race, she’s a communist,
and she’s black, and we want to keep Trump out of prison because he’s my daddy./s
I love* that the prescribed way for conservatives to complain about Trump is to preface with “Kamala would have been infinitely worse, but…”
* I do not love this
Well, some of the qons voted for at least one of these. Also, I’d throw civil war in there, although if the government is conducting a war on an unorganized civilian population, I’m not sure it’s really a civil war.
But I’ve definitely seen these assholes call for a civil war, at least when they are miffed by Democrats having even a marginal amount of power and doing something reasonable with that power…
The brink?
This should be obvious to anyone paying any attention, but a lot of maga hats live in a world of lies, and a lot of people live in a world of shallow media. All those “did biden drop out?” searches right before the last election are haunting.
We could lose more than our democracy. We could lose the very idea of America and, with it, the peaceful world we’ve anchored since 1945.
This is essentially nationalism.
I’m just trying to understand people’s sentiments here. Is “preserving America” something that the people in general want? Just trying to understand the situation here. Or would people prefer to live in their own, local communities?
This is chauvinism, but not quite nationalism. The belief that you’re somehow better vs actively placing yourself first at the expense of others.
Nationalism…how? The point is clearly illustrating a Domino Effect if democracy fails in the US.
My best guess is the “peaceful world we anchored” bit
And a fucking holocaust
Is that the Smithy sword from Super Mario RPG about to descend on the White House?
The sword’s name is Exor. And I wish.
Doubt it. Smithy be like “nope I ain’t tainting my tip.”
