"The fact that we’ve had a Gordon Gekko economy for 30 years doesn’t make it OK"

[phantom power]

There’s a tone of incredulity to the writings of Romney apologists. It seems as if they can’t believe that the magic words — capitalism! free markets! job creators! — aren’t managing to silence the critics. After all, they say, wasn’t Romney just doing what has been standard for the past 30 years?

Actually, we don’t know just how standard his behavior was — and won’t until we see his tax returns, which will probably never happen (there has to be something really explosive in there). In any case, however, the fact that we’ve had a Gordon Gekko economy for 30 years doesn’t make it OK.

...

You might ask, what should be done about this troubling performance? Well, Obama is proposing mild meliorative measures: reform that at least assures workers of having health insurance, and modestly stronger financial regulation. Romney, on the other hand, wants to double down on the policies that brought us to where we are today: more tax cuts for the rich, more financial deregulation.

And his defenders are mystified that anyone should question the wisdom of this point of view.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/18/thirty-troubling-years/

[FirstLight]

1. yes

this was a fast look at how we got here - and the end paragraph was nice and clear. pass this on, people!

[Proud Liberal Dem]

2. Excellent way to put it

Also, I'd add that things didn't always use to be like it has been for the past 30 years and EVERYBODY did much better overall between the post-war period through the 70's. 80's is when the whole "Government is the problem" meme became an accepted maxim and businesses started being let off their leash to do mostly what they wanted to do.

[Generic Other]

3. They repeatedly stab us in the back and expect us to pat them on the back?

I won't be happy until these corporate raiders quit running for public office.

[reformist2]

4. Most people don't really like capitalism anymore, but are afraid to say so.

It's very important to thread the needle on this one - full-frontal attacks on capitalism are not what people want to hear. But people will be receptive to proposals that seriously blunt the edges.

[phantom power]

6. I've never understood why this messaging should be so hard...

I myself don't have a problem with "capitalism." The message is that you have to have regulations. A little fucking law and order, if you will. Which is something the Republicans used to like, as I recall.

It isn't a complicated story to tell. After the unregulated roaring twenties, we suffered through the Great Depression, and after we started regulating the economy with some basic rules of the road, we lived through the greatest era of economic expansion in history. Then, the GOP started de-regulating things right and left in the 80s, and behold! It all started to fly apart at the seams again.

The Democrats failed to frame this rebuttal to GOP lawlessness for 30 years. And so here we are. But it's never too late to start again. Even the recent moves by the Obama campaign machine to hit back at the GOP have them reeling. Imagine how badly we could bury them if we let all the horses out of the barn!

[reformist2]

9. You're right, but Dems must do it in a way so that when Repugs scream "socialist", it won't work.

[Odin2005]

5. The "magic words" comment set off a light bulb over my head.

I wonder how much of this BS has it's roots in the self-help memes that has infected business with "positive thinking" corporate duck-speak. Not just business, but our whole society has been infected with this "say the magic words and think happy thoughts" mentality. In times past planning for the worst was considered prudent, now it's considered "negative thinking" and will cause trouble through "The Law Of Attraction".

[BumRushDaShow]

7. "Self-help" became an industry itself

with grifters continually presenting the same garbage "workshops" and "seminars" over and over but updating the name every once in awhile, and charging more for you to discover those alleged "keys to success".

Boggles the mind.

[Odin2005]

10. Didn't Barbra Ehrenreich write a book on the Self-Help industry?

I forgot the name...

[agent46]

11. New religious cults in America have helped this along

Corporate marketed religious cults such as those in the new age movement on the one hand and the new dominionist/evangelical christian reboot on the other, all feature the corporate prosperity doctrine ("The Law Of Attraction&quot . This is basically a belief that says we each create our own reality based on the positive or negative content of our thoughts - this includes all aspects of life - wealth, health and success. Of course, this is only partly true and certainly not in any simplistic sense.

I believe this kind marketed social engineering in the form of popular "religions" is a great way to keep the social contract operating on the level of survival and competition and the population atomized into a mass of individually self-serving consumers.

This "Law Of Attraction" self-help scam is part of a pallet of corporate cultural memes devised to ultimately divide and dis-empower people who are not of the elite class. It gets people to blame the victim in most situations of social or political inequality and blame oneself and one's "negative" thoughts for failure to succeed at the corporate marketed American Dream(tm). It creates a culture that favors capitalist doctrines over more egalitarian solutions such as socialism, which is based on shared responsibility and is demonized through propaganda.

Few Americans remember how to think for themselves anymore. We have all been pacified by carefully constructed corporatist memes introduced into the culture to ensure we remain receptive to capitalist propaganda and maintaining the status quo.

[HiPointDem]

12. +1

[Romulox]

8. We can't have "free trade" and "globalism" for only a part of the economy. That's always been a

delusion.