So what? the market always works, regardless of what nitwit fantasists like Krugman say.
Let 'em preach their twaddle- it makes no difference one way or another whether or not his ideas or others like them get implemented - like I said, the market always works.
It worked in Russia too, and there was mass starvation. Millions died of hunger.
It would have been nice to let the market work in a different direction them no?
To Smiling Dave,
Socialism has to have people who are willing to at least surrender to it in order for socialism to exist. So cultural things like “police are good”, “what about the children”, “taxes are voluntary”, “we are the state”, etc. are there as examples of this “at least surrender” principle. During the civil war, the white russians didn’t surrender but the socialists did exist as people in favor of socialism, w/o them, there wouldn’t have been any socialism.
Secondly culture is voluntary. No one holds ideas unless he thinks it would benefit him. So ideas, being voluntary, it is primarily the free action of people which keeps the state going. If there could be found no one who was willing to help the state, then the state would end.
Krugman is the 21st century Gustav Schmoller. In the future people will read about Krugman and wonder why some people were so primitive.
I dunno what Europe Krugman is looking at, because I lived in England and travelled through most of Western Europe for a few years and it’s exactly how he describes the “economy of legend”.
“Benefits for the less well off” do drastically undermine incentives to work, and government-subsidized public housing (at least in England) has completely destroyed the market for low-income earners. Basically, in my experience, you’re better off getting a girl pregnant and quitting your job because you would at least be able to get your own place to live and, with housing costs abdicated, living off benefits is comparable to actually working hard in any case.
As far as I could tell England’s economy was primarily based on the financial center in the City of London with all other parts of the economy basically trickling down from this (read: consumables and services.) There’s a massive public service sector which is an absolute joke. The state is, for all intensive purposes, bankrupt but people who work for the government get about 30% more than those in the private sector along with full pension and benefits.
If Krugman believes this model is sustainable then I invite him to move to England, sacrifice nearly 50% of his monthly income to the state, and enjoy waiting in line at a hospital for 3 hours just to get some stitches.
Do you happen to remember if people in England tended to see things as you are describing them or did they take a rosier view of their own economy?
He does the same thing with Canadian health care. He does it because his audience is ignorant to any other perspective.
Krugman is a fool, I swear if one of my professors next semester dare hand me a Krugman article, I’m going to ask to use the bathroom and come back 15 minutes with the same article.
Nasty I know, but this is how much I respect the man.
I think, though, that little by little those who intellectually oppose him are chipping away at his support base. I think he is more openly ridiculed after each poor comparison or analysis he makes.
I don’t see many people besides the “I’m smarter than you because I can quote the NYT like the back of my hand” Liberal actually pushing Krugman’s positions.
I’ve only heard praise for him inside that circle.
We’re in an age, where as fast as you become an authority, you become openly reviled. There is no end to the number of photoshops, blunders, lies, comedy videos etc that get distro’d and go viral over all of these people. Sarah Palin, Barack Obama, Paul Krugman.
I like to think we’re in an age of cynicism about authority. It might be the best thing to happen to us yet.
LS, hopefully this age of cynicism sticks. We’ve become too complacent with the American government to the point where it’s become blatantly onerous on individuals.
Whether people like to admit it or not. Apparently, there’s still a good portion of the population that still likes to turn a blind eye to buyers remorse.
Awesome, isn’t it?
Let cynicism ring.
Yup. I snoop around FDL (firedoglake) sometimes and the progressives are totally not with Obama. I am sure he has some populist liberal support still, and the intellectuals will defend him and make excuses for him, but the hardcore activists aren’t buying his routine anymore. The problem is, they think they can fix the problem by electing better people.
Nice to see you around ama gi.
There’s definitely no rosy view of the economy, especially for working-class people or elder folks on pensions, since they’re the ones losing their jobs and having their savings eroded by inflation. The government sycophants couldn’t care, they get so much money it’s beyond their worry.
The problem is politics isn’t nearly as interesting, engaging or contentious in England so a national debate on economic issues never happens. The parties simply run on vague platforms of “we’ll fix things”. Never mind the great white elephant in the room, the European Union, which is a de facto authority over most regulations and policies and these can’t be realistically challenged by national governments in any meaningful way.
England needs a Maggie Thatcher back, but as her tenure showed, the minute a party begins to cut government spending down the public servants, unions and welfare-recipients take to the streets and scare everybody into submission with strikes and protests. Greece is on the verge of collapse because of a similar situation.
He’s no fool.
He knows exactly what to say and who to say it to in order to ensure continued money and accolades [i.e. his own “prosperity”] .
People are suckers for a good “touchy feely” fantasy feel-good movie script - he merely supplies it - with relish.
He’s just “preaching to the choir” - and “cleaning up” income wise in the process -as far as I can tell.
The three largest economies in Europe (Italy, Germany and France) have stagnated since the late '70s/early '80s. Adjusted for inflation they’ve probably also contracted, especially Italy.
The sad thing is that Krugman is just outlining what’s in store for us all: the trend all over the West is towards yet another round of increased taxation. Of course this taxation will be aimed at the so-called middle class (“the rich” as they are called everywhere) which will just take it without blobbing since it will be “for the hospitals” or “to fund research to help our industries” and, hey you don’t want to pass for a Capitalist, don’t you? GDP data will be doctored to show yet another increase as we are seeing right now and the good times will roll again for the subprime mortgage crowd.