The “social progressives” are always complaining because we’re not more like Europe. Well, they can stop whining now:
The US unemployment rate exceeded Germany’s rate in April and was very close to the rate in France.
Spreading the wealth around. And the poverty.
[Update a few minutes later]
A depressing chart of how hard it will be to recover.
[Update a few minutes later]
My piece on Munchausen’s Syndrome By Proxie is up at Pajamas Media (I wrote it a couple weeks ago, but Iran had kept it off the front page, and I have a feeling it will be relevant for a long time, unfortunately).
We’ve known for some time now they’re more interested in “equality” than in absolute well being. They are quickly achieving their goals.
It’s all b.s. though. Their real goal is to make sure that the private sector cannot provide better salaries than government. That way everyone is “equal” economically while the Left has superior access to the “perks” of government service like professional unaccountability, lifetime employment, pensions backed up by taxation authority, and getting a waive from government colleagues at the IRS or AG’s office when necessary.
Fascinating, Rand! Is this connected to the Cloward-Priven Strategy of manufactured crisis? Cloward and Priven were inspired by Saul Alinsky.
You wrote at PJM:
The president continues to insist that private health care is a root cause of our problems…
Cite?
This ignores the healthy economy we’ve enjoyed over much of the past three decades with the current system.
First of all, even under the “healthy” economy of the Bush years the increase in health care costs has negated any increases in median real income (click my name for “How medical inflation ate your pay raise”). The Obama/Orszag argument is that the exponential growth in health care spending will bankrupt us in not-too-distant future. Saying that it hasn’t hurt us is like saying that a Stage 2 cancer can be ignored because the symptoms aren’t too bad yet.
Brock, they’ve already partially succeeded. If you’re interested in steady, unchallenging work in one place for decades on end with virtually no chance of getting fired, then government work really is your only option.
Jim, there’s no reason to cite when you fundamentally agree with Rand. At least in my view, there’s little difference between “private health care is a root cause of our problems” and “exponential growth in health care spending will bankrupt us”.
If you were referring to government spending, which I consider unlikely, then we can cut benefits from Medicare/Medicaid and the government pension funds to correct that. Besides as has been mentioned before, it would be nice for the federal government to demonstrate how wonderful the new cost control measures are on existing government beneficiaries, namely Medicare/Medicaid recipients, rather than commit all of us to a pig in a poke.
Nice picture of Obama on the PJM peice. He must have been thinking about a really nice, big, tricked out gallows right there.
Karl, I noticed that too.
One wonders how Jim -well- thinks.
You see private healthcare is not the root cause of our problems but it will bankrupt us in the future.
So in Jim’s words private healthcare isn’t a root cause but it is a cancer.
*Nuance*
I’ll also note the delightful irony of Obama saving us from future bankruptcy. He’s got just a great track record on keeping the Auto companies from going into chapter 11 and has managed to damp down those horrid Bush deficits.
Ignorance is strength.
Great analogy Rand, but this is all you really had to say…
with policies that just happen to coincide with their political preferences to increase their power and control over it and the American people?
America is not in isolation so we don’t have the luxury of taking forever to figure out what you’ve described. In 2010 I seriously hope I’m proved wrong and we haven’t gone past the tipping point but what I expect is a move to world government where government ‘solutions’ become even more universal and the American experiment is essentially over.
…their political preferences to increase their power and control over ALL people everywhere. This is the end result if they continue to have the ‘success’ they’ve had so far.
Jim, you doofus, if health-care is not critical to recovery of the economy, WTF is Obama going to fling $1 trillion we don’t have on it, huh? What’s the logic for re-doing health care right now — with unemployment at 10% and climbing, with tax revenues croaking, with the economic machine grinding to halt — unless health-care reform is absolutely critical to getting the machine going again?
One thing anyone out of a job can tell you is that the FIRST priority of the President would be to get the economy going again. Sure, maybe health-care was a concern, say, last year, with unemployment at 5% and inflation at 5%. It’s a concern, yes. But it’s nothing like being out of a job. No matter how upset people are at “the uninsured” or high copays, lack of choice, yadda yadda, it’s nothing compare to being unable to pay the mortgage, college tuition, not having any coverage at all.
So if Obama does not think health-care reform is absolutely critical to geting the economy going, then he is totally fiddling while Rome burns, hugely screwing up his priorities.
First of all, even under the “healthy” economy of the Bush years the increase in health care costs has negated any increases in median real income
Actually, Jim, if you paid attention to your own graph, you’d notice that all the action takes place when the numbers on the x axis range between 2008 adn 2040. That’s right, off in the future. This is pure crystal-ball gazing bullshit, manufactured for the purpose.
If you look at the part of the graph where there is actual data, i.e. in the past, you’ll notice two things:
(1) Both real wages and wages after health insurance costs rose until roughly 2004. In other words, people got raises andhad more money left over after paying their health insurance premiums.
(2) After 2004, both real wages and wages after health insurance fell. In other words, people didn’t get raises.
So what was your point again?
Rand wrote that “The president continues to insist that private health care is a root cause of our problems…”. I asked for a cite because Obama has never said any such thing.
Rand wrote that “The president continues to insist that private health care is a root cause of our problems…”. I asked for a cite because Obama has never said any such thing.
As Rand said, “Getting Their Wish”:
“The cost of health care now causes a bankruptcy in America every thirty seconds,” Obama said at the opening of his White House forum on health care reform.
I could go on:
If we do not fix our healthcare system, America may go the way of GM, paying more, getting less and going broke,” Obama told the American Medical Association in Chicago.
As usual Rands got serveral good points. Dems have for years decried economic horrors and inequalities (in a very strong and growing economy) that required various programs and government interventions in real-estate and Banking and mortgage laws and policies to help the common man into home ownership. As well as other policies toward US automakers pushing them to cut back sales of popular low mileage cars – to increase the fraction of their sales that are unpopular high MPG cars. This resulted in a real-estate bubble that burst cratering the realestate, construction, mortgage, and insurance industries – and knocking banking on its knees – which shoved the car industry off a cliff.
The gov’s response – promises to accelerate and scale up the efforts they did for the realestate market that lead to the collapse, effectively, nationalizing the banking industry, and nationalizing 2 of the 3 us automakers (with a promise to force them to further cut back manufacture of popular car and truck models to make more cars that “people really need” but have no interest in buying).
It does sound like sacrificing the nation, to facilitate popularity and disasters they don’t intent “to let go to waste”.
On the optimistic side (perhaps to optimistic) the public seems to loath the gov policies now, angrily resisting the bailouts, take overs, health care nationalization efforts, and the SATGERING national debts they are projecting. Also, the Chinese appear to have very little interest, and posibly no ability to loan the US gov enough money to float the huge gov programs. The Chinese can’t really impair Washington’s attempts to trash the banking and auto industries and general economy – but it could well put a brick wall on Obamas beloved MEGA gov programs. Public resentment could cause a major reversal after the 2010 elections – or before it by politicians trying to keep their jobs.