Third way democrat relative says progressives and liberals

[abelenkpe]

17. He has kids

Two actually. One from his first marriage and his adopted adult daughter. Also raised his grandchild when things went bad for her mother and father. She's now in college. Really it's confusing and a bit heartbreaking that he would make such a statement. I do agree with this article though:

"It's now clear that ordinary citizens will also be subjected to a full bore messaging campaign to persuade them that they should regard this counterproductive sacrifice as good for them," notes leading econoblogger Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism. She also notes, correctly, that "most Americans have a simple response to the notion of 'reforming' these popular programs: Cut military budgets and raise taxes on upper income groups".

I have my problems with a lot of the over the top hysterics at Naked Capitalism and their attacks on Elisabeth Warren but this is spot on.

And this (also from the article):

The idea of a bipartisan plan to grow the economy by balanced deficit reduction is understandably quite popular. It ranks right up there with the pizza-beer-and-ice-cream-heart-healthy-weight-loss-diet plan: The perfect solution for a fact-free world. But, as a recent letter from 350 economists points out, "[T]oo many in Washington are fixated on cutting public spending to balance the budget, not on how to put people back to work and get our economy going", but "there is no theory of economics that explains how we can deflate our way to recovery". To the contrary, as they pointed out, the opposite is true: "As Great Britain, Ireland, Spain and Greece have shown, inflicting austerity on a weak economy leads to deeper recession, rising unemployment and increasing misery."

No one in government is talking about how to put people back to work. I hear this baloney about a skills gap. It's fiction. There's no skills gap. There is a wage gap. Why take a job that will not allow one to survive? In my industry jobs are fast disappearing because of subsidies offered by other countries. Jobs are being bribed away from our shores. Who proposes to address this?

During the election I was encouraged to see the president talk about returning manufacturing to the US. But what about tech jobs? Or entertainment jobs? Or any once good paying job that is fast disappearing as companies seek to slash the cost of labor while enriching CEO's and stock holders?

Anyway....sorry for the rant.

edited to add: Special thanks to Petrus for linking to that article