cassandra, wandering rocks, sirens

In this world, there is nothing softer or thinner than water.

But to compel the hard and unyielding, it has no equal.
That the weak overcomes the strong, 
that the hard gives way to the gentle -- this everyone knows.

Yet no one acts accordingly.~Lao Tse

***



“Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”

“A Republic, if you can keep it.” Benjamin Franklin (1706–90)

*******

Alas. The coming Theocracy.

Was it the lead in gasoline all those years? What, something, for the love of god, has made a population who had it all, who could have made such a world-- for the life (and that's the sacred thing; life, the fire that runs from being to being, the body mere temporary kindling) -- who could have made such a world for our children and their children. What has made a people so bloody damned stupid?


Krugman is right. No one hears.

***********

Income Inequality
Q.

Can you give me a rigorous, wonky explanation of how income inequality contributed to the Great Recession? How will our extremely unequal distribution of wealth affect future economic growth? — Nicholas
Q.

How do we raise the income of the working class? Better yet, how do we get the working class back to work? I’m part of the working class and your biggest fan. — Kathi Cooper
Q.

You have written quite a bit about income and wealth inequality in the United States (most notably in The Conscience of a Liberal). In particular, you have been concerned about how much it has increased in the last three decades. How do you think the financial crisis and recession will affect inequality in the US over both the short and long term? Will inequality worsen still further? — Cherie Campbell
A.

I’d like to make this a morality play in which the crisis was caused by injustice, but it’s not that simple. It’s hard to see how inequality led in any direct way to the slump. You have to tell a more indirect story. One issue is that the extraordinary rewards to the upper 0.01% played a role in causing excessive speculation and risk-taking, leading to the crash. Another is that both rising inequality and the Great Recession were due, in large part, to Reaganism – to the belief that the unrestrained market is always right.

We don’t have any certain answers about what can raise working-class incomes, but several things should be tried. First of all, Health Reform – at the very least we can ensure that every American can afford needed care. Second, strengthen workers’ bargaining power: make it easier for workers to organize and harder for employers to bust unions. An America where Wal-Mart was unionized would look quite different. Third, better unemployment compensation, so that workers face less financial risk.

At this point, the effects of the crisis on inequality aren’t clear. The Depression led to much lower inequality – but that was because it led to the New Deal. If the political effects of this crisis are less profound, which alas seems likely, we may be solidly back in the second Gilded Age a few years from now.

*********

and?

act 3, rising tension

Paranoia Strikes Deep

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: November 9, 2009

[...] Real power in the [Republican] party rests, instead, with the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin (who at this point is more a media figure than a conventional politician). Because these people aren’t interested in actually governing, they feed the base’s frenzy instead of trying to curb or channel it. So all the old restraints are gone.

In the short run, this may help Democrats, as it did in that New York race. But maybe not: elections aren’t necessarily won by the candidate with the most rational argument. They’re often determined, instead, by events and economic conditions.

In fact, the party of Limbaugh and Beck could well make major gains in the midterm elections. The Obama administration’s job-creation efforts have fallen short [see link: politics again], so that unemployment is likely to stay disastrously high through next year and beyond. The banker-friendly bailout of Wall Street has angered voters, and might even let Republicans claim the mantle of economic populism. Conservatives may not have better ideas, but voters might support them out of sheer frustration.

And if Tea Party Republicans do win big next year, what has already happened in California could happen at the national level. In California, the G.O.P. has essentially shrunk down to a rump party with no interest in actually governing — but that rump remains big enough to prevent anyone else from dealing with the state’s fiscal crisis. If this happens to America as a whole, as it all too easily could, the country could become effectively ungovernable in the midst of an ongoing economic disaster.

The point is that the takeover of the Republican Party by the irrational right is no laughing matter. Something unprecedented is happening here — and it’s very bad for America.