How neoliberalism trashed your life, but made the super-rich

[bannination]

richer....

http://www.monbiot.com/2013/01/14/bang-goes-the-theory/

Interesting write up.

[Stinger]

That's basically what happened, isn't it?

It's probably a little more complicated than that, though.

[bannination]

The cons wonder why our wages have stagnated.

Derp derp.

[Stinger]

The cons wonder why our wages have stagnated.

Derp derp.

I think the change in our oil-based economy -- Arab oil embargo, increased price of oil, etc. -- also played into our economic downturn.

I worked for Sears around 73-74 when then oil embargo hit. Their stock dropped by half, I think.

They were the nation's number one retailer, offered generous profit sharing, custodians (porters) retired with generous pensions, appliance salesmen made a killing selling those Kenmore appliances, the name "Craftsman" meant something, and some of the hardware salesmen made a killing. It was not a bad company to work for.

All that changed around that time. Sure, there business model didn't work in the modern age, blah, blah, blah, but that was also the time when Japanese autos were just beginning to make inroads in the American market, textiles and other factories started closing.

[Boatrocker]

richer....

http://www.monbiot.com/2013/01/14/bang-goes-the-theory/

Interesting write up.

From the link:
". . . low wages suppress demand, which suppresses employment" would seem to be obvious as a fart in church, but stubborn and willfull disregard for this simple principle continues to be the basis of support for re-labeled trickledown economics. It's displayed by their laughable insistance on referring to wealthy people and grossly-overcompensated management types as "job creators," especially when most of the jobs they can semi-factually claim as having created are overseas.

"The demands of the ultra-rich have been dressed up as sophisticated economic theory and applied regardless of the outcome. The complete failure of this world-scale experiment is no impediment to its repetition. This has nothing to do with economics. It has everything to do with power." It is a waste of time trying to explain that to people who won't see it, or are simply too dimwitted to grasp it.

[Boatrocker]

Nor has a tax break ever created a single job.

[Boatrocker]

Nor has a tax break ever created a single job.

Not sure about that. If the tax break, as opposed to job-poor military spending, is for people that will spend the money, as opposed to stashing it in The Caymans, aren't jobs potentially created?

I was not clear- mea culpa- when referring to corporate tax relief, as part of our big business welfare programs.

[mike]

Note: the red text in the quote is my personal interjection ...

Interesting, and depressing indeed :

Secrets and Lies of the Bailout -- Matt Taibbi

Taibbi is always one of the best writers I've ever read. Thanks for sharing it, Vrede.

[mike]

^^^^

Done and tweeted. Thanks, Vrede.