Here’s just about all you need to know (or quite a bit, anyway) about the Wall Street Journal editorial page, summed up in one unfortunate headline and subhed:
The Real Tragedy of Persistent Unemployment
It erodes the skills of the labor force and reduces future productivity.
The real tragedy of the little people being out of work for long periods, you see, is that Serious Men of Industry can’t get as much use out of their wage slaves. Serious Men of Finance won’t be able to skim as much out of the economy, either, if these people are out of work too long.
Meanwhile, all that stuff about people going homeless, kids suffering, depression, divorce, abuse—hey, all that’s the Fake Tragedy.
PIMCO’s Mohamed El-Erian, who wrote the op-ed but presumably not the headlines, does say this:
In addition to considering the welfare cost of substantial joblessness, policy makers should keep in mind the following four facts:
But even that’s ambiguous as to whether he’s talking about “welfare” in the sense of the Preamble or “welfare” in the sense of the social programs. I’m going to guess it’s the latter.
A little bit of unemployment’s a good thing in this worldview—keeps wages down. But get too many people bumming around for too long on and off the dole, and, well, that might interfere with medium-to-long-term profits.
So, uh, cut government spending. And kill those unemployment benefits. Also, don’t pass too many rules slapping these folks on the wrist for killing the economy and sending all those people they didn’t go to college with into the poorhouse.
Ryan,
You well-write
“The real tragedy of the little people being out of work for long periods, you see, is that Serious Men of Industry can’t get as much use out of their wage slaves. Serious Men of Finance won’t be able to skim as much out of the economy, either, if these people are out of work too long.”
In short, see ‘... last Answer ...’ below.
Author Mohamed El-Erian has not written “The Real Tragedy of Bubbles”, because he and his fellow travellers make more money from bubbles. So, “NO such writing!”, and, even more importantly, “NO pictures!!” -- I refer to very instructive, simple real price histories, e.g.
“Real Homes, Real Dow” at
http://homepage.mac.com/ttsmyf/RHandRD.html
What’s going on??? See the last Answer by The Establishment here:
“Ongoing extremes” at
http://www.durangotelegraph.com/telegraph.php?inc=/08-06-26/soapbox.htm
and see
“The public be suckered” at
http://www.durangotelegraph.com/telegraph.php?inc=/08-01-24/soapbox.htm
Remember “The public’s right to know”? Ho-Ho-Ho! The rephrasing is “Fool ‘em if you can”.
#1 Posted by Ed, CJR on Sat 10 Jul 2010 at 12:52 PM
I have noticed that the editorial page worldview is beginning to leak into the news coverage, both in text and headlines.
#2 Posted by Larry Maxcy, CJR on Sat 10 Jul 2010 at 05:56 PM
This commentary must be a joke, right?
The longer someone is out of work their skill sets deteriorate. Those drawing unemployment for 99 weeks are at great risk for losing their competitive edge in the job market. They also are taking money out of the pockets of productive workers.
#3 Posted by Rich Swier, CJR on Sat 10 Jul 2010 at 08:06 PM
Probably be cheaper, quicker, and easier to just kill the poor bastids and put em out of their misery.
Or, get em to a debtors prison to assemble US based production... at a prison wage, the US would again be competitive. And, since they aren't making a house payment, they might actually get the savings rate above zero?!!
Well, I need to scoot, the ice is melting under the caviar.
#4 Posted by Jefe Pelota, CJR on Sun 11 Jul 2010 at 08:57 AM
well what do you expect from a Murdoch owned paper?
the future of the paper can be seen on Fox daily
#5 Posted by brian, CJR on Sun 11 Jul 2010 at 10:01 AM
WSJ - even shorter version: "Let them eat cake."
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
#6 Posted by drb48, CJR on Sun 11 Jul 2010 at 10:49 AM
This is what happens when Ruper takes over something, after all the cynical promises about non-interference are gotten out of the way. All editorial content in the Fox/News International/Republican empire is written by Roger Ayles in a secret bunker with some helpful input from Rupert himself from the point of view of old white money. After all, as Rupert himself once observed so sagaciously, everyone agrees that a monopoly is a bad thing - until you have one of your own.
#7 Posted by Jon, CJR on Sun 11 Jul 2010 at 11:22 AM
I did an analysis of an article exemplifying how the WSJ spreads propaganda, the latest being that unemployment insurance encourages the lazy not to seek jobs, a position providing cover for inhumane acts. It's repeated over and over like a mantra.
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."--Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister.
The New York Times ran an article today on how "human-like" new generation robots are to the extent that they can replace teachers in the classroom. To Rich Swier's above comment: how does an unemployed teacher train to become a robot? And won't that make our corporate overlords happy? Imagine, to replace humans and all their imperfections with robots! Philip K. Dick lives!
#8 Posted by Kathi Berke, CJR on Sun 11 Jul 2010 at 12:05 PM
Channeling your inner Engels?
#9 Posted by Mike H, CJR on Mon 12 Jul 2010 at 10:54 AM
The honorable author focuses on the effects of corporatism instead of its source. But only the state can legally use deadly force to compel you. State-connected, state-regulated, or taxpayer-subsidized proprietors enjoy the benefits of monopoly, by the machinery and blessings of the state. Only the state and those it "regulates" enjoy a level of legally immunity to competition, deflation, loss production, aggressive war, unemployment, poverty, murder, superficial con/lib battles, and so on.
#10 Posted by DeLeo, CJR on Tue 13 Jul 2010 at 07:08 PM