Krugman: The Unwisdom of Elites

The past three years have been a disaster for most Western economies. The United States has mass long-term unemployment for the first time since the 1930s. Meanwhile, Europe’s single currency is coming apart at the seams. How did it all go so wrong?

Well, what I’ve been hearing with growing frequency from members of the policy elite — self-appointed wise men, officials, and pundits in good standing — is the claim that it’s mostly the public’s fault. The idea is that we got into this mess because voters wanted something for nothing, and weak-minded politicians catered to the electorate’s foolishness.

So this seems like a good time to point out that this blame-the-public view isn’t just self-serving, it’s dead wrong.

The fact is that what we’re experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. The policies that got us into this mess weren’t responses to public demand. They were, with few exceptions, policies championed by small groups of influential people — in many cases, the same people now lecturing the rest of us on the need to get serious. And by trying to shift the blame to the general populace, elites are ducking some much-needed reflection on their own catastrophic mistakes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/09/opinion/09krugman.html?ref=opinion

These problems are caused by the people at the top of the economic pyramid, NOT the bottom. This needs to be screamed every time some fucking repuke blames: immigrants, the working poor, unions, etc. etc. etc. It's a LIE.

Trillions of dollars don't just disappear. They get moved.

Every single one of the fuckers defending this failed policy and system of inequality need to be branded forever with their position....much like the branding of the Nazis in Tarantino's "Inglorious Basterds"...we need to mark them for all time to avoid having these human-roach hybrids scurry off to hide among the rest of the actual human population.

Sadly, the ONLY thing that any of these people fear is that someday their ability to game our political system will be threatened. Cheers to Krugs for speaking truth to power.

"The Bush tax cuts, which added roughly $2 trillion to the national debt over the last decade. Second, there were the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which added an additional $1.1 trillion or so. And third was the Great Recession, which led both to a collapse in revenue and to a sharp rise in spending on unemployment insurance and other safety-net programs.

So who was responsible for these budget busters? It wasn’t the man in the street.

President George W. Bush cut taxes in the service of his party’s ideology, not in response to a groundswell of popular demand — and the bulk of the cuts went to a small, affluent minority."

enough to get a few Republicans elected, and re-elected. They were not exactly bombarded with calls urging them not to pass them.

Just try suggesting that they be allowed to expire and listen to the howls from many on DU about their own $1,000 tax cut that they absolutely don't wanna give up.

Too many in the middle class are clutching their own $1200 and kinda shrug their shoulders at the millions of dollars that goto the Fab 400 or other members of the top .1%

Also, it is just NOT true that "the bulk of the cuts went to a small, affluent minority".

Nope, sorry, not true, no matter how good it sounds. Here's analysis from Citizens for Tax Justice http://www.ctj.org/pdf/gwbdata.pdf

A total of $1,903 billion in tax cuts over ten years from 2001 - 2010

$715.2 billion (or 37%) went to the top 1%

However, $876.6 billion went to the next 39%

Leaving only $315 billion for the bottom 60%.

Except many people even on DU will insist that most of those members of the top 40% are really "middle" class. After all, only people in the top .01% are "really" rich.

Look, if you will, at the Obama plan, to end the Bush tax cuts for couples making over $250,000 a threshhold that I think is way too damn high (as in, we should end them for couples making over $80,000).

Again, according to CTJ. http://www.ctj.org/pdf/taxcompromise2010.pdf

Obama's plan will add $300 billion to the deficit in one year, and thus $3,000 billion to the deficit over the next ten years.

13.3% of that money will goto those in the top 1%, or $400 billion over ten years (plus interest)
However, another 40.9% of that money will goto the other members of the top 20%, or $1.2 trillion
And another 19.3% will goto the other members of the top 40%, or $579 billion.

For a total of $2.2 trillion going to those in the top 40%. Almost 75% going to the top 40% compared to 13.9% going to the bottom 40%.

Leaving only $800 billion for those in the bottom 60%, a mere $141 billion going to those in the bottom 20%.

Obama's plan, which he wouldn't even fight for, gave most of its benefits to the top.

And now, having worked out a "compromise" to extend huge tax cuts for the rich and the upper middle class, Obama now keeps agreeing to budget cuts for the poor.

All of that has far, far too much public support as millions of ordinary Americans shake their fists at Congress insisting, "you better not raise my taxes by $600" even though their $600 tax cut is tied to those billions for people much richer than them.

The Bush tax cuts turned out to be a brilliant way to get the masses to fight for the rich. Jay Gould would be proud.

"I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half." Jay Gould

They are ordinary human beings with a lot of money and power. Mix that with a sense of entitlement and a sense of superiority that is a recipe for doing dumb things.

A combination of resentment among the urban poor and administrative incompetence by the old aristocracy doomed the republic to be taken over by a popular military strongman. In the aftermath of the Caesarean Civil Wars the power of the old aristocracy was effectively destroyed by Caesar and Octavian stuffing the Senate and imperial bureaucracy full of their merchant class buddies.

and he confirms at length and in every detail that Krugman is, once again, 100% correct.

it was mostly the ideologists of the Republican Party.

media and everyone else shaping policy. The Democrats have endorsed the Bush Tax Cuts now, which is probably the single biggest cause of the mess we're in. Yes, they built political cover for it, but at the end of the day, they extended those disastrous cuts, and regularly reinforce the ideological frame that made them possible; i.e., that tax cuts for the top will spur growth. And none of them want to touch real Wall Street regulation or hold any of the most prominent criminals accountable.

had a -2% growth rate in their wealth for the past 3 years. The Elite Class (Upper 10%) has a 6% growth rate over the past 3 years.

There is no reason what-so-ever for the Elite Class to change their tune, it is still working!