There are almost no words for this kind of propagandistic ignorance. The Professor elucidates:
Wow. The GOP prescription for higher employment is actually quite spectacular — it’s a thing of many levels, an ignorance wrapped in a fallacy.Wow indeed. And War is Peace, and Ignorance is Strength.
The idea is this: we’ll lay off government workers; this will raise unemployment, putting downward pressure on wages; and lower wages will lead to higher employment.
Krugman adds:
[T]he argument ... says that by reducing demand, you cut the price, which increases demand, which means that you end up selling more than before. Um, no — that’s the kind of answer that, in Econ 101, has you suggesting that the student get special tutoring.Doublethink in George Orwell's 1984 is the ability to say the opposite of what is true, and also to believe it. Looks like a win-win for the GOP, at least by that measure.
Think maybe that "downward pressure on wages" is the real goal? Me too. Near the end of this post, I asked if the rich and their retainers aren't trying to kill the cow they're milking. Or have we stopped being that cow?
So which is it? Have the super-rich decided they don't need America any more? Or are they just so in love with Supply Side Jesus that they don't know they're burning the house down with them inside?In my opinion, that's still the right next question.
In other words, when this country becomes a faltering second-world economy with a useful first-world military, have the super-rich prepared their financial escape? Do the rich really need the rest of us?
GP
