In a bold, visionary editorial today, the Seattle Times strongly condemned the Seattle General Strike of 1919.
Or maybe I misread it, and they’re merely attempting to advise the government of Greece, which I suppose would make sense considering that about as many folks in Athens take the Times’ editorials seriously as we do here in Seattle.
Or perhaps the Times intends the Greek crisis as a cautionary tale for our own budget writers, but that would be stupid considering our own record deficits don’t even come close to the Greeks’ percentage wise, and are temporarily hopped up on the stimulus spending that kept our economy from falling off a cliff.
I dunno. Very confusing.
The editorial board at the Tacoma News Tribune seems to be following The Times lead into complete irrelevancy by writing anti-Mike McGinn screeds.
Apparently Mr. McGinn is holding no less than 5 regional highways hostage.
I still find it amazing that handmade wampum from the 16th century and back is still more valuable than gold.
According to Adam Smith, what creates and builds wealth is the hand of the worker. The Luddites weren’t stupid, they just saw where the industrial revolution was headed.
Well the Seattle Times knows that a/the big problem in Greece is tax evasion, so they are blaming the evil government instead.
The situation with the US is hardly the same as Greece, even the Times acknowledges this before dismissing it.
The fact that US debt is in dollars is a huge advantage for us. Furthermore we’ve got a ways to go before our debt equals our GDP, even if it did there is no clear evidence the US would have the same problem. Tax evasion isn’t nearly the problem here it is in Greece. For that matter we could go a long way toward restoring a balanced budget simply by putting the tax rates back to what they were under Clinton, if we really want to be radical we can go back to the marginal tax rates of the 50’s and 60’s which weren’t exactly a period of economic decline for the US or the middle class.
We also have a vast ($600 billion+ per year) defense budget that can be cut to bring the deficit down.
I note the Times spends much of their editorial beating up on the benefits and pay of public sector workers in Greece. As if public sector workers in the US at any level of government (Federal, State, or Local) were overcompensated at all much less to the degree they are in Greece. But then I’m sure the Times would be griping about the pay and benefits of public employees even if they had no benefits and were only paid minimum wage.
Perhaps the Times would like us to go back to the Ottoman Empire where public employees got paid by taking bribes and by pocketing some of the public revenue stream.
Yep, Ronald Reagan, defender of the middle-class against government confiscatory tax policies, formed his distaste of taxes during a period when (a) he suddenly was making a lot of money in “B” movies and as a TV spokesman, and (b) the tax policies were weighted heavily against the richest Americans.
Since this impacted him negatively, he assumed it must be bad, and applied this lesson across the board to make sure the wealthy were never again taxed at that rate. Of course, this didn’t mean that we cut the budget significantly.
Once in office the Republicans found that “waste & abuse”, although a catchy campaign soundbite, didn’t amount to a hill of beans when compared to the huge amounts of revenue lost by lowering the taxes on the richest half of Americans. Moreover, there were lots of Republican-favored programs which had to be funded. “Fiscal Conservatives” in the Reagan administration, such as Budget Director David Stockman, were appalled to find that cutting the federal budget deficit wasn’t a priority at all in Reagan’s administration. It’s first priority was simply tax cuts for wealthy Americans.
Of course, tax cuts targeted to specific classes, which are financed through borrowed money, simply transfers the tax burden to the non-favored classes. Since the poor pay little in federal income taxes, this means the middle class picks up the tab – including interst on the T-bills, which goes to whoever buys them (typically NOT the poor or middle class).
So the Republicans who rant and rave about tax cuts being a “wealth transfer system” from the rich to the poor are actually engaged in a wealth-transfer system from the middle-class to the rich.
@5 Gotta give G.W. Bush credit for one thing, after an initial feeble attempt, he more or less stopped pretending that slashing taxes for the rich helps anyone besides the rich.
Btw, gotta question for all you Bush voters out there, given the rabid inflation of the Bush years (gas prices up over 300%, some grocery items going up 40% to 60% every 2 years) and the high unemployment and falling wages that Republican economic policies brought us, how’s that $300 Bush tax rebate working out for you?
You guys remind me of the dopes on new car lots who let a slick salesman talk them into paying $2500 for a $300 rebate.
If the Bothell Times is dissing the Wobblies, what comes next? Are they going to start badmouthing REI, the PCC and Group Health?
Either Germany and its better off Euro partners are going to go in to Greece with massive aid and considerably less austerity measures, or Greece is going to be the first Euro nation to leave it. Greece’s leaving would not be too bad, if we could be confident the whole damn Euro won’t unravel. We should not be confident.
If Greece goes, the cost of not losing Portugal, Spain, Ireland goes way up.
The cost of a disorderly unraveling of the euro zone will be a significant reduction in global demand. And as the world’s biggest trader, those chickens will be roosting here in the good ‘ole USA.
Obama needs to kick Angela Merkel in the keester … hard.
so anybody want to tell us what did the seattle general strike actually achieve?
i recall that in my college days on a leftist leaning campus it was pointed to as perhaps the best example of self organization in the usa. they had milk distribution etc. etc. etc.
but…was there any lasting achievement?
discuss.
@8 Probably beats the last POTUS feeling her up…
@8
The ECB essentially being nothing more than the old Deutsche Bundesbank but covering all of the countries opting in to the Euro is part of the problem. The ECB inherited the Bundesbank’s distaste for inflation to the exclusion of all else, including apparently the stability of the European economy as a whole.
The problem is, among other things, Europe is facing a major deflationary crisis which is a far worse thing, both for Europe and the world as a whole, than taking your lumps, printing more money, and accepting a slightly higher inflation rate.
I hope you are right and Obama and the rest of the world are able to talk some sense into the ECB and Merkel but the Krauts are notoriously obstinate when it comes to monetary policy.
I will point out that the UK is even more exposed to this mess, both by virtue of having their finances in only slightly better shape than Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain, and because they are members of the EU. However I doubt they will have much of a voice because of the hung parliament situation.
@7
1,000 years from now archeologists digging though our trash will come to the conclusion that REI was some sort of cult.