Keeping Despair Alive

Feb. 21, 2012

midnight

It's becoming increasingly obvious that the Republican candidates for president leave a lot to be desired for most Americans, including Republicans. But all their glaring individual flaws aside, the real reason Republicans running for president have so much trouble stirring any enthusiasm in these troubled economic times is their losing message of despair. That was on full public display last week when President Barack Obama visited Master Lock headquarters to celebrate the American success story of a major corporation bringing 100 jobs back from China to Milwaukee's inner city, where its flagship plant is running at full capacity. Republicans belittled the appearance as exaggerating the importance of a paltry number of jobs for a photo op. Republican Gov. Scott Walker, in the definition of a photo op, met the president arriving on Air Force One and then ducked out, claiming illness, instead of joining Obama at Master Lock. The contrast between Obama lauding a Milwaukee company for reversing the flow of jobs overseas and Walker's own policies that have resulted in six straight months of job losses in Wisconsin would have been too embarrassing. Besides, union workers at Master Lock wouldn't really want Walker crashing their party with the president after Walker's demonization of unions and destruction of 50 years of collective bargaining rights for public employees. The economically depressed black community, where Master Lock is located and where a large proportion of its workforce resides, is the same neighborhood that saw its first new factory in decades, the train-building company Talgo, sabotaged by Walker's rejection of nearly a billion dollars in federal job-creation funds for high-speed rail in Wisconsin. Walker's unpopularity with workers is the same problem Republican candidate Mitt Romney faces in trying to win the presidential primary in his home state of Michigan, where his father, George Romney, was president of American Motors and an extremely popular governor. The Milwaukee rally continued the president's celebration tour of sites across the country illustrating growing signs of recovery from the Great Recession, the second-worst economic crisis in national history, which Obama inherited three years ago. There is no better example than Detroit, the headquarters of the American automobile industry that was on the brink of collapse three years ago. If the auto industry had gone under, it could have taken down related industries all over the country, including Johnson Controls in Milwaukee, bringing on the Mother of All Depressions with no end in sight. Almost unanimously, Republicans, including Romney, who should have known better, said: "Let 'em go bankrupt." Instead, Obama supported an $80 billion federal loan to save the automobile industry—a dreaded bailout. It worked, the loan is being paid back and this year the car companies didn't just return to profitability but, in the case of General Motors, record profitability. GOP's Political Ploys Here's the truth: The auto industry's success story, just like Master Lock's, is good news for everyone in America, Republican or Democrat, rich or poor. When you are coming out of the second-worst economic disaster in American history, you welcome every glimmer of hope, every positive sign. But the Republicans and their candidates have put themselves in the position of being the only ones in the country who don't welcome an end to our long, national economic nightmare. In fact, Republicans hope it's not really happening. They may be the last people in America fighting to keep despair alive. That's because Republican elected representatives forgot what their jobs were. Three years ago when President Obama was elected, economic recovery should have been the No. 1 job of every elected official in America. Recovering from a catastrophic economic meltdown wasn't a Democratic or Republican issue. The billionaires and millionaires who are represented by Republicans and the workers who are represented by Democrats all do better during good economic times and worse during economic disasters. Yet, for some reason, Republicans didn't see job creation as their No. 1 job. Their highest priority, in the words of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, was to make sure Obama was a one-term president. That meant forestalling economic recovery because anything that improved the lives of the American people would benefit Obama politically. Until Republicans suddenly reversed themselves this election year, they repeatedly voted against job creation, the extension of unemployment benefits for those out of work and even a middle-class tax cut that would put money into the hands of struggling people who needed it instead of millionaires. It's a classic case of putting party ahead of the public good. Another word for it is un-American. Republicans are always quick to attack the patriotism of anyone who doesn't support their dirty, little wars. Yet, they were the ones committing the ultimate un-American activity: intentionally prolonging the economic despair of millions of Americans to try to benefit themselves politically.

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Comments (5)

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JOEL WHAT IS WRONG WITH A DEPRESSION? I HAVE BEEN...

JOEL WHAT IS WRONG WITH A DEPRESSION? I HAVE BEEN ADVOCATING ONE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL REASONS SMCE AT LEAST 74 (C BELOW). FURTHER BAILING OUT THE AUTO INDUSTRY FOR 80 BILLION WAS STUPID AS THE CAR HAS ALL KINDS OF NEGATIVE EFFECTS. IT COSTS SOCIETY ~ $6 TRILLION/YEAR. ELIMINATING THE CAR WOULD PAY OFF THE NATIONL DEBT IN 6 YEARS. GO TO THE UWM LIBRARY AND READ EZRA MISHAN THE FIRST OPPONENT OF GROWTH AND I BELIEVE THE GREATEST ECONOMIST OF THIS CENTURY I BELIEVE. HE TALKS OF THE EXTERNALITIES OF A PRODUCT. THE EXTERNAL COSTS OF A CAR ARE MANY TIMES GREATER THAN THE VALUE OF ITS PRODUCTION..

THE FOLLOWING IS A LETTER TO THE EDITOR SENT TO THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL ENTITILED “DEPRESSION BENEFITS” DATED OCT 8 1974

President Ford was recently asked if we’re going to have a depression.
What’s wrong with a depression? Looking back to 1929, the gross national product fell 40% with the hard good sections such as home building, cars etc falling 60%-90%. The death rate interestingly enough did not change.
People lived at a survival level with environmental problems well over 60% resolved, which is the way things are going to have to be anyhow.
If anyone has quicker, more effective and humane solutions, I’d like to hear them. The last six years of environmental reform have not been humane or effective, in fact, if the Journal could suggest ways the average person can disrupt the economy to cause one, rather than advocating freeways, they might finally attain some public usefulness. Tom Sherman 1809 n Cambridge.

THE FOLLOWING IS AN ARTICLE IN THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL MY OPINION COLUMN DATED JAN 17 1977 ENTITLED “IF THE COUNTRY’S BAD ECONOMY IS THE RESULT OF RESOURCE SHORTAGES, WHY STIMULATE IT?”

What is Jimmy Carter’s concern with the gross national product? GNP is not a function of politicians or businessmen, Wealth is based on man-hours of labor (businessmen are simply an overpaid form of labor) plus the production and technological ideas available at the time.
Therefore, increase in GNP is a function of the ideas of scientists and inventors or perhaps even time-that is someone would have invented the incandescent light around the year 1900 if Edison hadn’t. Planning, wealth redistribution and antimonopoly and antisubsidy legislation are the three ways Carter can increase my wealth.
Planning would increase my wealth by lowering my costs. In eliminating distances it would mean shorter roads, sewers, telephone lines, mail routes and smaller areas to cover for police and fire-thus lower taxes utility costs result for these same. It would mean the lowering of distribution costs in the private sector, which are 25% of a product’s cost.
Planning the system to eliminate resource use would also lower prices. Banning the car that uses huge amounts of oil, steel, copper, rubber, etc. would lower the cost of home heat, bike tires and other more important and useful products.
Third, planning would reduce “overspill costs”. If there were no cars there would be less medical expense for lung cancer and accidents. I would not lose time from my life simply for crossing the street and wouldn’t have to worry about my dog being hit.
It’s a fact that the riches fifth of the population receives eight times the wealth of the bottom fifth (40% to 5%). By taxing and “redistributing” to just a 35 to ((5?)) ratio for one year the poor could benefit in an effect equal to 15 years of economic growth (which says something about growths value to the poor).
Monopolies that the government could eliminate range from oil companies to the American Medical Association, law schools and even until recently those advocates of free enterprise stockbrokers (ugh).. by controlling medical schools the AMA artificially controls the number of doctors, most of whose chores could be performed by paramedics anyhow (ditto lawyers)
Unions of course should be banned since they are by definition a monopoly. Government services and regulated monopolies should not be subsidized, but as much as possible be on a user/pay basis or stopped. Airplane tickets would be more expensive if nonflyers didn,t pay for the airport
support facilities with their taxes. Utility rates might be based on a cost circle, starting low downtown with higher rates in the suburbs. Are not dense (poor) areas cheaper to service? Economist Milton Freidman considers a radio license a $5 million gift that the government should auction off. .
Why not plan for larger recessions? If the bad economy is caused by resource shortages why does Carter want to stimulate it in any case? Aren’t recessions inevitable, therefore, until resource intensive industries are naturally eliminated? One might even plan larger recessions to speed and rationalize the process. Perhaps we might even be whimsical and consider a depression.
In 1929 the resource intensive industries such as single unit housing and auto, were virtually eliminated by 82% and 75% respectively) yet the nations death rate was unaffected. (Today the people are richer to begin with and the government would act quicker than Hoover, making a depression more painless still. And there would be a secondary benefit if the drop in GNP is directly proportional to the “ecological good”.
But of course this radical immediate cure is unnecessary, since Carter and the country will at east act to conserve resources, change buying habits and safely bury plutonium. Tom Sherman=4856 n Santa Monica-Milwaukee Wi 53217 XXXX

Anonymous more than 12 years ago

Joel, if people think the Republicans are putting ...

Joel, if people think the Republicans are putting party ahead of people, they simply will not vote for them. Therefore Joel, you have nothing to fear because the people will make the right choice.

Anonymous more than 12 years ago

What Joel forgets is the economy is like the weath...

What Joel forgets is the economy is like the weather. It will just change just as our seasons change. Good economy or bad economy, people will just make the best of it. If its warm and sunny we to outside to play golf. If its cold and snowy we don't complain, we go skiing. If a hurricane blows everything away we rebuild.

My grandfather became a multi millionaire during the Great Depression. Long story but he came up with an ingenious method of selling stuff to poor people with limited funds. He could have never done it without there being a Depression.

Grandpa inspired me to do the same during the recession of the early 80s and again in 2008.

Sure the politicians play games with bailouts, photo ops, propaganda about economy to make someone look good or bad. Who cares? The reality is the economy is always good all the time for good people who want to embrace capitalism. Joel is sort of right. When the economy is good, I do good. But when the economy is bad (in Joel's eyes), I do even better.
Joel needs to take his crybaby Chicken Little coward attitude and get some lessons on how to be a man instead of having millionaire and billionaire envy issues.

Anonymous more than 12 years ago

First there is no unemployment problem. Plenty of...

First there is no unemployment problem. Plenty of jobs in North and South Dakota that pay six figures and go unfilled. McDonalds and similar,pay $18 and hour plus benefits and has a $500 signing bonus. You wanna job, go their. We are still having to import labor for agriculture positions. If we are importing people to work then we don't have an employment problem, we have a lazy sloth problem.

Extending unemployment benefits. It was so stupid to extend them past 26 weeks. Everyone I know simply will not get a job if they are getting unemployment. The story is the same, they got a nice six figure buyout from their company along with benefits, To them unemployment is just part of the pension plan. They have absolutely no desire to work while this welfare is being paid to them. Some have been getting it for over two years. They go on vacation, golfing, hang out at the country club all day. If you took all the people who got big buyouts out of the unemployment figures we probably have a 4-5% rate. And 4-5% will never wanna work anyway so really unemployment is about zero. If people truly want to work they will move to where the jobs are. They are having to import nurses from the Philippines to work in North Dakota.

Anonymous more than 12 years ago

OMG Joel is high on something. Economic recovery ...

OMG Joel is high on something. Economic recovery led by Obama. That is why a huge number of unemployed americans are claiming they are insane to collect disability after losing there jobs and not being able to find any other work. Hope and change. The republicans are just painting the real picture. Not one to steal votes. Get a reality check Joel.

Anonymous more than 12 years ago