Rich People Create Jobs & 5 other Myths debunked - Mother Jones

[JohnWxy]

This is a good article for dealing with several of the Big Lies constantly chanted by Repunks. Romney and the rest of the Right Wing chorus like to chant 'the stimulus didn't work'. Here's an excerpt from the article on that myth....

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"Everyone from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (PDF) to private-sector forecasting firms have concluded that it increased economic growth, reduced unemployment, and put millions of people back to work. It just wasn't big enough, or long-lasting enough."[/font]

Rich People Create Jobs And five other myths that must die for our economy to live.


1. The Stimulus Didn't Work

For the first four years of his presidency, Franklin Roosevelt tackled the Great Depression with inflation, easy monetary policy, and government spending. But in 1937, FDR's advisers persuaded him to reverse gears. After all, interest rates had been close to zero for years, commodity prices were climbing, and fear of inflation was on the rise.

What happened next is now called the "Mistake of 1937" (PDF). Federal spending was cut and monetary policy was tightened up, with disastrous results: GDP immediately began to plummet, and industrial production fell by a third. Within a year everyone had had enough. In 1938 the austerity program was abandoned, and the economy started to grow again.

The truth is that stimulus worked in 1933 and it worked in 2009. So why is our economy still in such bad shape? For one, partly due to political considerations and partly because it was rushed through Congress, the 2009 stimulus wasn't as well designed as it could have been. It was also sold badly. If the bill passed, administration economists predicted, unemployment would peak at 8 percent and then start declining (PDF). But the recession was far worse than the White House originally thought. Unemployment peaked in the double digits, and that's made the stimulus a fat target for Republican critics ever since.

But as awkward as it is to argue that things would have been worse without the stimulus—"Not as bad as it could have been!" isn't a winning slogan—well, the truth is that things would have been a lot worse without the stimulus. Everyone from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (PDF) to private-sector forecasting firms have concluded that it increased economic growth, reduced unemployment, and put millions of people back to work. It just wasn't big enough, or long-lasting enough. Unfortunately, this has given conservatives an opening to demand tighter money and lower spending—exactly the same mistake we made in 1937.

(much more)

[PDJane]

1. I have been saying just this for years now.

Unfortunately, the average American has been absolutely brainwashed, and I feel as though I've been going head to head with a brick wall. Had another one of these discussions this morning about the privatization of the post office, and how well business runs things. I'm disgusted by the whole thing.

You can't teach people who only repeat the same mantra, over and over again. It drives me absolutely nuts, and I am beginning to get a reputation as a really nasty woman who keeps bringing up things like facts. It's getting depressing.

[JohnWxy]

2. A really good book on Trickle Down mythology is "The Big Con" by Jonathan Chait.

Read it like you would a text-book. Arm yourself with facts and analysis by the best.

here's the publishers blurb on it:

American politics has been hijacked. Over the past three decades, a fringe group of economic hucksters has corrupted and perverted our nation’s policies. With dark, engaging wit, Jonathan Chait reveals how these canny zealots first took over the Republican Party and then gamed the political system and the media so that once unthinkable policies -- without a shred of academic, expert, or even popular support -- now drive the political agenda, regardless of which party is in power.

Why have these ideas succeeded in Washington? How did a clique of extremists gain control of American economic policy and sell short the country’s future? And why do their outlandish ideas still determine policy despite repeated electoral setbacks? Chait tells the outrageous and eye-opening story, expertly explaining just how politics and economics work in Washington. Through vivid portraits of venal politicians and pseudo-economists, with wry analyses of their bogus theories, Chait gives us the tools to understand what’s really behind economic policy debates in Washington: a riveting drama of greed and deceit.


... also, check out articles by Bruce Bartlett. He was once an advisor to Ronald Reagan who sounds like a liberal Dem when he is criticising the current GOP.

[PDJane]

3. Thank you....voodoo economics is on my Most Hated Lies list,

right next to "private business always runs things more economically."

It gives me indigestion to think that there are people who actually believe this crap.

[AverageJoe90]

4. This is the same paper that debunked the 'AdBusters started OWS' MSM-promoted myth, btw.

Thank goodness for Mother Jones, and thank you, JohnWxy for posting this.

[mother earth]

5. It certainly wasn't big enough, had it been so, there'd be no question of efficacy now. nt

[upi402]

6. Gee, I wonder if our government officials know about this!

Golly, they sure could use this important history to inform their actions today!

:dripping with sarcasm:
:torrential sarcasm:
:and vomit too: