The demise of American manufacturing is the major factor, but politics is another. Probably the biggest kept secret of American political history – when supply-side economics failed and sent us into a double-dip recession in the early 1980s, Cap Weinberger proclaimed “Soviet Military Superiority” (since proven to be a sham) and Reagan spent his way into recovery – generating a deficit by the election of 1984 which had exceeded all prior deficits combined dating back to George Washington. Hence this chart re government spending comparisons between Reagan and Obama.
….
Kos headline of the year in response to recent polling of Republicans: “Do Conservatives Really Belive Obama is Muslim, or are They just Dicks?”
….
Rick Santorum isn’t playing the game right. Last week he admitted that the Republicans may lose the economy as an issue despite the story above. This week he’s accusing Fox News of shilling for Romney.
….
And people keep putting a microphone in front of Sara Palin’s mouth with crazy results.
9 comments
Comments feed for this article
March 13, 2012 at 7:28 pm
somebody
Eric,
I have been working on opening a business for a few months. You just can not believe the shit you have to do to open your doors. Seriously, you have a line of agencies from here to Sacramento with their hand out for a fee, and if they don’t want a fee, they want some paperwork that costs you time and money, mostly time. I think this has hampered our economy in a way that you can’t measure. It is very discouraging and makes you want to give up. If I was relying on my new business for income I would be homeless by now since I have spent more time filling out forms than anything else.
March 13, 2012 at 8:36 pm
Eric Kirk
As a business owner myself, I sympathize. But that’s a constant. I don’t think the paperwork and fees are any more substantial now than they were 30 years ago. Perhaps not as bad.
March 13, 2012 at 8:42 pm
Sonia Baur
So much money is being spent on this Republican primary. They seem to be eating each other; it seems crazy, but it is not. They are propagandizing the public, talking about contraception and the threat of Iran and the brutality of Syria and the Mexican immigrants and anything but pumping money into the economy to make it go. They are, like Obama’s administration 100% behind the idea (and fact) of U.S. tax payers covering the debt of the banks, but then none of the tax payer’s money should goy for infrastructure or the welfare of all of us, (education, health, green-energy etc.) to improve our lives and create useful jobs, and at the same time make the economy go again.
They have a disease which I call “Terminal Greed” i.e. so much greed that they must have it all, can’t allow anyone else anything, and in the end will take themselves down too as they destroy the rest of us.
March 13, 2012 at 8:57 pm
Sonia Baur
Yes, filling out forms, welfare cheats, so many little complaints- while the banks are giving us .02% interest on our money and refusing to loans to anyone who might actually need one. Local government could give us better service, the things we need, like education, health care, clean water, sewers, public toilets etc. if we were willing to support it. All of our money is being sucked up by the big financial interests, and the military (fighting for freedom in Iraq or where ever) while we whine about the details.
March 13, 2012 at 9:00 pm
Thorstein Veblen
Hey Sonia, notice that they are not taking on the devil weed. Abortion – bad, contraception – bad, female – bad, Obama – bad, Syria-bad, Mexicans-bad. But ganja……priceless.
March 14, 2012 at 6:48 am
somebody
“As a business owner myself, I sympathize. But that’s a constant. I don’t think the paperwork and fees are any more substantial now than they were 30 years ago. Perhaps not as bad.”
I heartily disagree. Perhaps if you work in an office that you have worked in for a long time and haven’t made any changes, things are pretty much constant. We remodeled an office building and spent $20,000 on ADA compliance for a business that does not have interactions with the public at-large. Have not had one person in a wheelchair in 30 years come to the office. I believe in the ADA, but I always thought you had to make reasonable accommodations. Turns out that is not the case. We spent that money on the off chance somebody comes by I guess. There is never a need for a customer to come to the office as the services we perform are at their locations.
If you want to start a new business, that is, change the building, offer a new product or service in a new location, or god forbid, start from scratch, the whole thing is different now. You are not encouraged one bit, so far with the exception of one person, every agency I have come in contact with starts off with a list of what you can’t do and how much the fines are and what you can do and how much the permits are.
You can dismiss this as “it’s always been that way” and search for a big bogeyman, but I am telling you, it is demoralizing to start a new business. Even if you buy out an existing place, once ownership changes it seems to trigger a bunch of regulations that ultimately diminish our competitiveness.
March 14, 2012 at 7:52 am
Jane
It isn’t a fair comparison. Many of the jobs lost in this downturn were not from a lack of demand but a realignment across several industries to take advantage of gains in productivity from technology. As new programs are written to manage smaller programs (which replace common labor) midlevel managers were laid off in droves. This wasn’t just do to the public sector shrinking but do to the fact that companies had cover from shedding these, now excess labor costs, under the umbrella of recession.
These jobs are not only not coming back but this loss will continue as technology grows more and more complex and reduces the physical labor and time needed across all industries.
So the only way that Obama can recover is by adding jobs and he has been stymied by doing that at every turn. Not only does he need to spend us out of the economy but he has to reinvent the wheel as the spends us out of the economy. A Hoover Dam project and a national highway system isn’t going to work in the long run. It will help in the short run and buy time but it isn’t going to fix things. Reagan had it easy in comparison. And Reagan didn’t have to explain to a large portion of the populace what the term socialism is defined by nor what passes for a real birth certificate.
Plus I think people were still okay with having sex at that time for purposes OTHER than having a child. but I digress.
March 14, 2012 at 11:04 am
Anonymous
Peak Oil
March 17, 2012 at 6:37 pm
JIAD
Ever try getting around in Canada as a disabled person? Canadians do not have a Disabled Person’s Act or any mandatory accommodations. The US Census shows that 14 million persons of age 65 and over–42% of these have disabilities. That is just in age 65 category and older. While it may not be profitable for your business itself to make these accommodations depending on your market it is pretty easy to argue that it is a big contribution to society and the economy overall to make it as easy as possible for these citizens to get around and spend money with ease. Sometimes you gotta give one up for humanity and it is generally good humanity, in my view, to treat people with dignity, regardless.