CommonDreams: Why the Economy Is Gloomier Than We Are

[marmar]

Published on Thursday, June 19, 2008 by CommonDreams.org
Why the Economy Is Gloomier Than We Are
by Robert Freeman



It’s hard to know when dealing with the mainstream media at what point simple propaganda passes over into sheer idiocy. Case in point: yesterday’s Washington Post. A piece by Neil Irwin, “Why We’re Gloomier Than The Economy,” puzzles about the fact that Americans’ collective attitude toward the economy is so negative.

He notes that consumer confidence is at its lowest level in almost 30 years but then flogs the standard repertoire of government statistics to suggest that the economy is, in fact, fine. Official inflation is relatively low. Official unemployment is relatively low. Official GDP is growing. What’s the problem? The intimation is that the pall of gloom hanging over things is really just a bunch of crybabies who can’t hack it today’s dynamic world.

We can’t know for sure if Irwin is simply carrying water for his corporate masters, trying to paint lipstick on a pig that, embarrassingly, persists in going “oink.” If he were, he’d be among worthies, what with Ben Bernanke, Henry Paulson, and even Big George himself regularly opining how the economy is “fundamentally sound,” on “solid footing,” and with its perennially recurrent crises perennially “contained.” This is the “perception-is-reality” school of propaganda at its most condescending.

Or, Irwin and the Post may actually believe, like Voltaire’s Dr. Pangloss, that “things are perfect and getting better all the time,” that a swelling tide of prosperity is lifting the economy to new heights, buoying the vast middle class to that elevated plateau of nouveau riche gentility that Bush used to tout (but doesn’t any more) in his “ownership society” speeches. Perhaps he is of that Thomas Friedman/David Brooks billionaire/millionaire ilk of noblesse oblige declaimers who feel that the proper, orderly response to a little financial headwind is to discreetly let go one of the downstairs maids or pastry chefs.

Whatever the cause of Irwin’s misapprehension, it is worthwhile cataloging — for him, for the Post, and for all the rest of the ranks of oblivious officialdom — just some of the reasons mainstream Americans are so gloomy about the economy. Readers are asked to understand the space limitations that compel only a partial and suggestive rendering. So, to wit:

* Real income for the median male worker is still below what it was in 1973.

* Even after seven years of “growing GDP,” real median incomes for all workers are still below where they were before the last recession, in 2001. And they’re headed down again.

* The ratio of debt-to-income for the average American has doubled over the past 30 years, from 65% to 135%, as families have struggled to maintain lifestyles once promised as part of the social contract but now beyond their means.

* Some 77 million Baby Boomers stand on the threshold of retirement with half of them having no savings whatsoever. A full 40% of all income earners have a net worth of zero. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/19/9742/

[gaspee]

1. Even if

all of what he cites were true (which it's not,) like many others, I now spend a much greater amount, proportionally, of my income on gas.

Groceries prices are going higher and higher, electricity is through the roof. My 1800 SQ foot home typically has an electric bill of 150.00 a month whereas 5 years ago, it was about 90 a month.

So everything can look rosy to this guy, but the reality is that many people like me just have no money for anything other than the basics.

[tom_paine]

5. Everything looks rosy when you have an easy job with an excellent paycheck where you don't really

have to work...like Irwin.

It can also look pretty rosy if you are one of the Media Toadies who suck down millions of dollars to protect those who suck down billions of dollars.

And yes, :rofl: at the idea of Irwin's noblesse oblige...I wonder did he let the downstairs maid go or the pastry chef.

If he's watching his prime-rib-gut, then Irwin undoubtedly canned the pastry chef.

[Binka]

2. A Must Read! K & R

"Perhaps he is of that Thomas Friedman/David Brooks billionaire/millionaire ilk of noblesse oblige declaimers who feel that the proper, orderly response to a little financial headwind is to discreetly let go one of the downstairs maids or pastry chefs." NAILS IT!

[hfojvt]

3. I am reminded of Wachtel's "Poverty of Affluence"

Chapter 2 points out how the mood is often that we are worse off when in fact we are better off.

I kinda shake my finger at people who don't save, but they may be better off ultimately. My savings is kinda evaporating right now. For example when I put that $20,000 in the bank it would have bought 10,000 gallons of milk. Now it only buys about 6,000. Same for bread, same for gasoline, etc., etc.

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. Not everyone has enough money to be able to save some. An awful lot of people are

living paycheck to paycheck.

[Warpy]

4. Hoover waddled around with his head up his ass, too

and thought the basic economy was sound and all he had to do was persuade the captains of industry to hire people to produce goods and services.

Unfortunately, the captains of industry will never hire anyone unless they have other people waiting with money in their pockets, ready to purchase those goods or services.

This is the fundamental difference between conservative and liberal economic dogma. The conservatives think everything flows from the top down, and that as long as the top is doing well, the bottom will also do well. The liberals, long observers of conservative dogma in action, know that everything flows from the bottom up and that unless the bottom is doing well, the top will fail to get richer.

Everything we're seeing and hearing now was first done in the late 1920s and early 1930s: the concentration of wealth, the suppression of wages, the loss of net worth in a real estate crunch, the substitution of debt for real wages at the bottom, the perversion of the tax code, and the cluelessness of the ruling class.

Liberal dogma produced the longest sustained boom the country or the world has ever seen, plus the best deal working people ever had in this country.

What we're seeing now is the conservative dogma that destroyed it all being utterly paralyzed in the face of collapse.

I sincerely hope people are paying close attention to these happy pudgy white men who are telling them what a good deal they have in this economy. Like the people who threw Hoover out of office in 1932 and kept the GOP out for the next sixteen years, they are likely to resent being lied to and act accordingly.

[marmar]

6. D'accord....

:thumbsup: