You have clearly stated what other try to obscure. The facts can't be hidden because most of us live them daily.
The problem is we fail to believe our lying eyes and look for an easy, quick solution. Then we become disolusioned when the lies of the leaders we support don't improve our lives. Rather than face the truth we run out looking for another quick fix.
Corbin, one piece of advice that I think you’ll really like: when you talk about building infrastructure and public works, emphasize that all the parts of the construction have to come from domestic manufacturing sources. That one policy, linked to a massive buildout of infrastructure, will rebuild the manufacturing sector and create millions of good factory jobs. I lay this out at GreenNewDealPlan.org which also has links to various of my writings on the subject. Keep up the good work
You can see several chapters of my book “Manufacturing Green Prosperity: The power to rebuild the American Middle Class” at ManufacturingGreenProsperity.com , particularly the chapter “myths of manufacturing “ (as of 2010). I think it’s the only book that offers a theory of economics that puts manufacturing at the center
Deregulation always serves capital unless it is specifically reserved for individuals.
Lowering building standards for capital gives you shitty, expensive Miami condos. Lowering requirements for self-build gives you options for sweat equity and participation.
I was caught in the middle of the downsizing mess in the mid-nineties. I remember the corporate -wide meetings that were used to announce the change from putting employees first to putting shareholders first. No mention of customers, they were actually a side-issue. Now in retirement my husband and I continue to get notices from the corp, shaving off benefits little by little. Basic life insurance offered at $24K at retirement, now $8K. Healthcare Reimbursement Accounts frozen at Y2025 dollar amounts. For now. Most of the benefits contacts are through benefits companies like Align, no way to talk to a corporate employee with our concerns. All carefully legal. It's easy to see how this is planned to end. All our savings, expectations ... We feel like fools, which is a good way to make people feel if you plan to continue to rip them off.
This started 'way before DJT. The rot has been at the roots of industry and services since forever. They just figured out how to run the rot like the business process it now is. If we want to fix this, we have to do it together and we have forgotten how to do that.
As usual, you are right on this healthcare issue. Let us wake up and make it our purpose to have a healthier America where everyone get primary/preventive care and no one is afraid to go to a doctor for fear of becoming bankrupt or for not having money.
Yglesias has it 100% backwards. Are you familiar with Modern Monetary Theory? You should connect with the likes of Nathan Tankus and Stephanie Kelton (whose The Deficit Myth I just finished; mind-blowing).
People are told time and again that these “radical”, “socialist” ideas and the candidates who espouse them can’t work and are thus unelectable. So even when the voters agree with the means and the goals, they often vote for the candidate who is perceived as electable. And so we get the same old corporatists over and over again.
Yes, way too much profit extraction. How do you fix it with the conservative think tank funded GOP traitors running amok? The 'smartest-kids-in-the-room' have got theirs, fuck us.....
Wanna eliminate poverty? Eliminate Wealth. Install Sustainability, at the Needs Level. No human Needs more than a safe, comfortable roof, good, clean, safe food, clean aire n water, much less pollutions and toxic waste.
Wealth drives over-consumption. It creates the idiotic, unsustainable parasitism we now writhe around in daily. Wealth defines poverty and suffering and low-quality existence AT the wealth level. The uberrich are drowning in their own filth. They cannot escape what they have created. Their jets are filled with plastics and toxins. Their mansions reek of pollution and garish slovenliness. No wealth, no poverty.
Prudent frugality is much, much more intelligent than austerity. Austerity is just the punishment the weak wealthy subject their consumer minions to accept. A kind of sick, twisted blame game a massive hoarder would gaslight its victims with.
Wanna take/make/consume/trash something? Anything? Then mandate one-to-one, real time mitigation. Take one tree weighing 2000 lbs, and shading X sq. ft.? Plant a ton of new trees now. Wanna tear up a desert mountain for some mineral? Surround that hole with hills covered with trees, shrubs and ground covers, then fill the hole with water and make a lake for wildlife or storage for irrigation. Too toxic? Do not dig the hole. do without. Yup. Do without. Now that is AUSTERITY. Humans, especially at the top, are lazy, inefficient, wasteful beings. No conscience, No awareness. Just Hoarding, on steroids. Second worst mental illness on the planet. Right behind environmental destruction. What intelligence shits in its own nest?
This is part of what we won't look at. At heart we want stuff. It makes us feel good, sometimes it makes us feel safe. To take care of our world we have to take care of one another and minimize the substitutes - more stuff.
I don’t believe anything going forward will ever be the same. This is a golden opportunity to do exactly what you have laid out. Now, convincing politicians to be bold and take risks, that’s where this will fly or stall out on the runway.
We need to start calling Yglesias et al what they are: Extreme Centrists. They think they're reasonable, rational moderates, but the end result of their proposals is extremism.
And, BTW, focusing on bringing down inflation is so wonkily elitist, in that it implies that slowing the rate of price increases -- from their current unaffordable levels -- will somehow make prices affordable.
You have clearly stated what other try to obscure. The facts can't be hidden because most of us live them daily.
The problem is we fail to believe our lying eyes and look for an easy, quick solution. Then we become disolusioned when the lies of the leaders we support don't improve our lives. Rather than face the truth we run out looking for another quick fix.
Corbin, one piece of advice that I think you’ll really like: when you talk about building infrastructure and public works, emphasize that all the parts of the construction have to come from domestic manufacturing sources. That one policy, linked to a massive buildout of infrastructure, will rebuild the manufacturing sector and create millions of good factory jobs. I lay this out at GreenNewDealPlan.org which also has links to various of my writings on the subject. Keep up the good work
Good point. I am going to do a more in-depth series on manufacturing in the US but I hear that point.
You can see several chapters of my book “Manufacturing Green Prosperity: The power to rebuild the American Middle Class” at ManufacturingGreenProsperity.com , particularly the chapter “myths of manufacturing “ (as of 2010). I think it’s the only book that offers a theory of economics that puts manufacturing at the center
Also, see my article in American Prospect , https://prospect.org/2018/06/28/else-1-9-trillion/, on the virtuous cycle between infrastructure and manufacturing
You should Run!
Austerity is a great way to achieve irrelevance.
Deregulation always serves capital unless it is specifically reserved for individuals.
Lowering building standards for capital gives you shitty, expensive Miami condos. Lowering requirements for self-build gives you options for sweat equity and participation.
Corbin, if you add a one time “buy me a coffee,” or whatever, I’d pitch in,, can only afford so many subscriptions, but I rotate around
I was caught in the middle of the downsizing mess in the mid-nineties. I remember the corporate -wide meetings that were used to announce the change from putting employees first to putting shareholders first. No mention of customers, they were actually a side-issue. Now in retirement my husband and I continue to get notices from the corp, shaving off benefits little by little. Basic life insurance offered at $24K at retirement, now $8K. Healthcare Reimbursement Accounts frozen at Y2025 dollar amounts. For now. Most of the benefits contacts are through benefits companies like Align, no way to talk to a corporate employee with our concerns. All carefully legal. It's easy to see how this is planned to end. All our savings, expectations ... We feel like fools, which is a good way to make people feel if you plan to continue to rip them off.
This started 'way before DJT. The rot has been at the roots of industry and services since forever. They just figured out how to run the rot like the business process it now is. If we want to fix this, we have to do it together and we have forgotten how to do that.
brilliance once again. thank you.
As usual, you are right on this healthcare issue. Let us wake up and make it our purpose to have a healthier America where everyone get primary/preventive care and no one is afraid to go to a doctor for fear of becoming bankrupt or for not having money.
Yglesias has it 100% backwards. Are you familiar with Modern Monetary Theory? You should connect with the likes of Nathan Tankus and Stephanie Kelton (whose The Deficit Myth I just finished; mind-blowing).
People are told time and again that these “radical”, “socialist” ideas and the candidates who espouse them can’t work and are thus unelectable. So even when the voters agree with the means and the goals, they often vote for the candidate who is perceived as electable. And so we get the same old corporatists over and over again.
Yes, way too much profit extraction. How do you fix it with the conservative think tank funded GOP traitors running amok? The 'smartest-kids-in-the-room' have got theirs, fuck us.....
Wanna eliminate poverty? Eliminate Wealth. Install Sustainability, at the Needs Level. No human Needs more than a safe, comfortable roof, good, clean, safe food, clean aire n water, much less pollutions and toxic waste.
Wealth drives over-consumption. It creates the idiotic, unsustainable parasitism we now writhe around in daily. Wealth defines poverty and suffering and low-quality existence AT the wealth level. The uberrich are drowning in their own filth. They cannot escape what they have created. Their jets are filled with plastics and toxins. Their mansions reek of pollution and garish slovenliness. No wealth, no poverty.
Prudent frugality is much, much more intelligent than austerity. Austerity is just the punishment the weak wealthy subject their consumer minions to accept. A kind of sick, twisted blame game a massive hoarder would gaslight its victims with.
Wanna take/make/consume/trash something? Anything? Then mandate one-to-one, real time mitigation. Take one tree weighing 2000 lbs, and shading X sq. ft.? Plant a ton of new trees now. Wanna tear up a desert mountain for some mineral? Surround that hole with hills covered with trees, shrubs and ground covers, then fill the hole with water and make a lake for wildlife or storage for irrigation. Too toxic? Do not dig the hole. do without. Yup. Do without. Now that is AUSTERITY. Humans, especially at the top, are lazy, inefficient, wasteful beings. No conscience, No awareness. Just Hoarding, on steroids. Second worst mental illness on the planet. Right behind environmental destruction. What intelligence shits in its own nest?
This is part of what we won't look at. At heart we want stuff. It makes us feel good, sometimes it makes us feel safe. To take care of our world we have to take care of one another and minimize the substitutes - more stuff.
I don’t believe anything going forward will ever be the same. This is a golden opportunity to do exactly what you have laid out. Now, convincing politicians to be bold and take risks, that’s where this will fly or stall out on the runway.
More proof that the uniparty is our biggest obstacle.
We need to start calling Yglesias et al what they are: Extreme Centrists. They think they're reasonable, rational moderates, but the end result of their proposals is extremism.
And, BTW, focusing on bringing down inflation is so wonkily elitist, in that it implies that slowing the rate of price increases -- from their current unaffordable levels -- will somehow make prices affordable.
I call them Radical Centrists, but hell yeah.