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Krugman Doesn't Understand Why "Darkness Is Spreading Over Part Of Our Society"
A rather surprising Op-Ed by none other than Paul Krugman, first posted in The New York Times,
Despair, American Style
A couple of weeks ago President Obama mocked Republicans who are “down on America,” and reinforced his message by doing a pretty good Grumpy Cat impression. He had a point: With job growth at rates not seen since the 1990s, with the percentage of Americans covered by health insurance hitting record highs, the doom-and-gloom predictions of his political enemies look ever more at odds with reality.
Yet there is a darkness spreading over part of our society. And we don’t really understand why.
There has been a lot of comment, and rightly so, over a new paper by the economists Angus Deaton (who just won a Nobel) and Anne Case, showing that mortality among middle-aged white Americans has been rising since 1999. This deterioration took place while death rates were falling steadily both in other countries and among other groups in our own nation.
Even more striking are the proximate causes of rising mortality. Basically, white Americans are, in increasing numbers, killing themselves, directly or indirectly. Suicide is way up, and so are deaths from drug poisoning and the chronic liver disease that excessive drinking can cause. We’ve seen this kind of thing in other times and places – for example, in the plunging life expectancy that afflicted Russia after the fall of Communism. But it’s a shock to see it, even in an attenuated form, in America.
Yet the Deaton-Case findings fit into a well-established pattern. There have been a number of studies showing that life expectancy for less-educated whites is falling across much of the nation. Rising suicides and overuse of opioids are known problems. And while popular culture may focus more on meth than on prescription painkillers or good old alcohol, it’s not really news that there’s a drug problem in the heartland.
But what’s causing this epidemic of self-destructive behavior?
If you believe the usual suspects on the right, it’s all the fault of liberals. Generous social programs, they insist, have created a culture of dependency and despair, while secular humanists have undermined traditional values. But (surprise!) this view is very much at odds with the evidence.
For one thing, rising mortality is a uniquely American phenomenon – yet America has both a much weaker welfare state and a much stronger role for traditional religion and values than any other advanced country. Sweden gives its poor far more aid than we do, and a majority of Swedish children are now born out of wedlock, yet Sweden’s middle-aged mortality rate is only half of white America’s.
You see a somewhat similar pattern across regions within the United States. Life expectancy is high and rising in the Northeast and California, where social benefits are highest and traditional values weakest. Meanwhile, low and stagnant or declining life expectancy is concentrated in the Bible Belt.
What about a materialist explanation? Is rising mortality a consequence of rising inequality and the hollowing out of the middle class?
Well, it’s not that simple. We are, after all, talking about the consequences of behavior, and culture clearly matters a great deal. Most notably, Hispanic Americans are considerably poorer than whites, but have much lower mortality. It’s probably worth noting, in this context, that international comparisons consistently find that Latin Americans have higher subjective well-being than you would expect, given their incomes.
So what is going on? In a recent interview Mr. Deaton suggested that middle-aged whites have “lost the narrative of their lives.” That is, their economic setbacks have hit hard because they expected better. Or to put it a bit differently, we’re looking at people who were raised to believe in the American Dream, and are coping badly with its failure to come true.
That sounds like a plausible hypothesis to me, but the truth is that we don’t really know why despair appears to be spreading across Middle America. But it clearly is, with troubling consequences for our society as a whole.
In particular, I know I’m not the only observer who sees a link between the despair reflected in those mortality numbers and the volatility of right-wing politics. Some people who feel left behind by the American story turn self-destructive; others turn on the elites they feel have betrayed them. No, deporting immigrants and wearing baseball caps bearing slogans won’t solve their problems, but neither will cutting taxes on capital gains. So you can understand why some voters have rallied around politicians who at least seem to feel their pain.
At this point you probably expect me to offer a solution. But while universal health care, higher minimum wages, aid to education, and so on would do a lot to help Americans in trouble, I’m not sure whether they’re enough to cure existential despair.
* * *
[ZH: One can only assume Mr. Krugman's shocking honesty at the demise of The American Dream (and even more shockingly his - and his devout followers' - admission of an inability to fix it via fiscal and monetary policies) is a modest pitch for "stuff's bad and getting worse... but vote for the good guys and at least we can all get worst together, equally."]
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If you work for someone else, its not your job ... its theirs
If the bank bought your home (via mortgage) it isnt yours .. its theirs
If you think you give a fuck you're wrong... your are on the receiving end.. your getting fucked.
Huh? Krugman is silently partying inside over this.
Fuck Krugman. He almost admits that the economy is crushing the American dream, but then he has to blame it on the boogey man - I know I’m not the only observer who sees a link between the despair reflected in those mortality numbers and the volatility of right-wing politics.
Did I say fuck him already?
You did, but I'm having a drinking game at my desk with how many times you and everybody else here can say "Fuck Him" so please say it again.
Thanks for you support.
We didn't build that.
nobody gives a fuck about the dying white usa middle class least of all that politically correct pos.
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that's been beat too much
Till you spend half your life just covering up
Born in the U.S.A...
[/Bruce]
It's the dispossession of the white race. Simple.
+1. I have this game where I look at the agenda aimed at the white race and can only use words starting with "D"."
Demonize
Demoralize
Displace
Dispossess
Destroy
Can you think of others?
Import the third world to America...illegally....is a good first step in gutting the American dream. When that doesn't quite work out for a bunch of illegals, tell them that's OK, give them some welfare and raise the taxes on the rest of America to pay for it.
Then throw in a liberal dose of affirmative action to make sure everyone but whitey get his piece.
Then just in case we missed someone, bring in a bunch of H1Bs so the we don't just screw the blue collar guys, we screw everyone equally, that's Democracy.
Then add some bastardized liberal feminism to tell the guys what a piece of shit they really are when they get home from their $12/hr greeter job at Walmart.
So I think I'll go out and get me some Johnny Walker that I saw on my MTV last night, and then some more.
$12 an hour! I wish! Try $8!
If you were portrayed as being a cancer on the face of the planet and found your culture under constant asssault, you' be depressed, too.
Well, if I wanted to be "tongue in cheek" rabidly reactionary and racist I would say :
MANIFEST DESTINY.
When white man's burden becomes unbearable, loaded as he is on Bourbon, coke, a nagging, feminist wife and the irrepressible urge to rise to the top of the corrupt heap we call "do or die" WS burn-out.
"Why wasn't I born a Mussie with a harem of juicy pussies who never say never and where the only burn-out is eating too much couscous or pullao rice!"
Traumatic combat stress disorder is the type of legacy that falls on the young American returning from Iraq etc.
Blowback is a bitch. What you sow... Reagan's blood line via the Bushes and Clintons will send you back having shipped to China your jobs.
"Its only the 1% that COUNT, the rest are collateral to Oligarchy trickle down!"
Manifest Destiny imposed by the White Elites on White Middle class! Yikes!
Krugman apparently has read : Darkness at Noon ! (By Arthur Koestler about Stalinist purges of Commie white men during his great 38 purge). An interesting side line: After having written that book in German he got it translated into English by his Mistress who was a young English Sculptor, Daphne Hardy, living in Paris with him. All the while he wrote a treatise on Sexual mores of Man (encylopedia of sexual knowledge), a contract he had signed with his editor cousin; and practised what he wrote on his mistress who rhapsodied over his novel's translation between shakes, rattles and rolls !
Just goes to show Darkness at noon can be fun n games !
Dude can't write a single article without comparing Sweden (population about the same as metro Chicago) to the U.S. Maybe, just maybe there is a difference between the governance of a small scandinavian nation and the current global hegemon?
True, and when has Sweden ever had to assimilate any other culture? Never, until now with the advent of mass m uslim immigration perpetrated by the Socialist Elitist class of Progressive Sweden.
Do you think Krugman will bring up that Sweden is now the "Rape Capital of the West" with one in four WHITE women projected to raped by m uslims during their life?
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/5195/sweden-rape
Krugman, along with the Keynesian Socialist Cabal of Europe will now have a civil war on their hands EXACTLY as planned!
Not to disagree with your point, but Sweden has been conducting the multicultural experiment with populations from the Middle East and Africa for 40 years now. The "hate facts" (yes, it's a delusional world we live in) show this to be the reason for Sweden earning the title of "Rape Capital of the West". I believe they're currently #2 worldwide and have held the #1 spot.
For the benefit of Mr. K,
there will be a guillotine
at Wall and Broad....
Current dynamic very much like the French Fronde period.... The state has gained total control and now can mop up malcontents at leisure.
So the Kenyesian, Socialist Motherfucker has essentially stated what Carter stated a few decades ago:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/carter-crisis-speech/
"But he also admonished them, "In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does but by what one owns." Hendrik Hertzberg, who worked on the speech, admits that it "was more like a sermon than a political speech. It had the themes of confession, redemption, and sacrifice. He was bringing the American people into this spiritual process that he had been through, and presenting them with an opportunity for redemption as well as redeeming himself." Though he never used the word -- Caddell had in his memo -- it became known as Carter's "malaise" speech.
What Krugman, Carter, OFucker and the rest of the socialist cabal don't understand is that when you live in a bubble like they do, with total disregard for working families, Keneysian Socialism is simply the vile rape of the taxpayer which they know nothing about.
Fuck you Krugman... the Mailaise speech you wrote in the OpEd stands as your Jimmy Carter moment for this admin and your ivory tower fuckwad keynesian army of university professors!
what's not to understand fuckwad? my real income has been forced down justified by fake gubbmint statistics. the real basis of money has been replaced by illusory digits and is created from thin air by licensed thieves. it takes two people working overtime to feed a family just keeping their lips above water. and and and
you dry fuck elitists have ruined the lives of millions in the non war regions and exterminated millions in your money driven war zones. fuck you and your progeny for ever. may they all die slow fiery deaths in shit filled pits.
White men are angry. A great majority of them supported our involvement in the Vietnam War (consider the votes for Nixon in 1972). Their willingness to "pay the price, bear the burden, and render the sacrifice" got no respect and much less recognition from the Marxist-Zionist media. The average white male was the enemy of "liberalism" and the "corporate state".
Democrats couldn't win elections based upon the appeal of pacificism, or upon class- and race-warfare. So they came up with a huge bribe to the women of America: offering them de facto preferences and privileges over white men, thereby creating a distinct voting bloc against the white males who rejected the Nanny/court-controlled state. Single/Divorced women get so many government-provided benefits that most of them can now live better outside of marriage than inside. (Anecdote: when we bought our home in 2000, the bank would not give us a mortgage if my name was on it. They wanted to give it to my wife alone, who is a Japanese immigrant, so they could count her twice toward meeting their "diversity goals".) Then, in states like New York, they took away our guns.
But Globalization is what has truly killed the white male. Globalization means import substitution and immigrant substitution. "Getting things done." is what men do black or white.
The average white man may no longer be the "typical American" anymore. But he is still the one element which could upset this one-world, multiculural, monetized, and feminized society that is being created at his expense.
White men over age 65 might be angry about Viet Nam (they were in high school in 1968, safe from the draft), but they're generally in good spirits.
It's younger white males that are depressed, and rightly so. They have no connection to the Viet Nam war, or hardly any understanding of their world. Their navel gazing world revolves around student debt, decreasing take home pay, dependency on SSRIs and booze, and a recognition that their lives and their childrens' lives will be worse than the prior generation. The psyche of the typical Soviet man post WW II was exactly the same, for the same reasons.
People like Krugman will be the first to have their heads chopped off if the X/Y/Millenial generation ever gets out of the SSRI-induced stupor. Unfortunately, bread and circuses like FanDuel will keep Krugman's head firmly attached.
Talk to an Englishman that lived there in the 1970
They will tell you what being depressed means.
It's been a few years since I read any of Krugman's diatribes. For a so called economist, he sounds more like a political hack than ever.
You get where you are in life through your own effort, drive and ambition.
If you fail, it’s your fault.
What is hidden – atrocious social mobility on a par with the class ridden UK and its privately educated elite (2nd worst in Europe after Portugal).
http://www.oecd.org/centrodemexico/medios/44582910.pdf
People are made to feel like they have failed when the odds were always stacked against them.
Private schools and Universities help the rich succeed and the poor fail.
We have had a privately educated elite in the UK for Centuries.
What private University did the US elite go to?
Debt is the cancer that is eating our system from within. A nation of debt serfs is a nation of no hope, no future. I got nothing more than a high school education and even I can see it. We need real free markets, real capitalism. The whole system now is nothing but CRONY.
attaching USURY (interest) to currency (rothschild script) created ex-nihilo is the problem
without USURY your mortgage would be paid off in about 10 yrs vs 30 yrs with USURY........
Don't sign it!
"scrip"
The supreme soviet manipulates markets and lives and marginalizes and subordinates the individual to the state. Communities undergo rapid, unpredictable and often pervasive negative changes due to corporate restructurings and the economic fallout. Jobs are not secure. Health is not secure. Media propaganda instills fear and hatred and division. Religion is on the wane which further weakens communities. Though I am not religious myself, religion provided a key support network for people. Families put under high stress by debt and falling real incomes often feel shame and hide their pain and suffer more as a result.
The loss of predictability and control cause anxiety and depression, a perfectly natural reaction designed by nature to motivate a change in behavior. Unfortunately, instead of adapting, people increasingly medicate themselves to numb the feelings that should be guiding them down a new path in life.
There is no mystery, here...
KARMA!
Every Friday Tom Woods and Bob Murphy take on Krugman's op-ed column in their weekly podcast. The next one ought to be great: http://contrakrugman.com/
It's a bitch being the victims of kleptocrats, the very same people who own the media and tell you how great things are while stealing from and spying on everyone every day. Orwell knew all about it.
He doesn't understand because he's a fucking idiot! The same exact thing happened in Japan. Banking boom, credit crisis, money printing to "save the system." Cost of living rises wages stay stagnant, most people see they no longer can support themselves because of the cost of living increase that doesn't keep up with their wage stagnation. It's depressing to know your job used to pay for all of your needs and now with the same job and same pay you barely scrape by. Kids come out of school with 100k in debt and then get job offers for 35k per year and are expected to work 70 hours per week. No time for a part time job when your full time job expects 70 hrs per week and only pays 35-40k per year, yet one is necessary to live. To not understand how money printing fucks citizens is not to understand exactly what happens when the gov't prints money. Only investors do well in money printing environments. By the time the money makes it to the worker the cycle is over.
Below, I wrote "What you do will come back to you. You reap what you sow."
I'll bet three quarters of the people on this website who read that interpreted it as --- "What somebody else did to me, they will be punished."
Sadly, I see it as "No good deed goes unpunished".
White America sees their freedom and rights being stripped from them in the name of political correctness.
When you take freedom away from any human being it will crush their spirit. Equal slavery for all is still slavery.
That is why America is (was) exceptional - true freedom will always make a country and its people exceptional.
It's the freedom stupid.
People are as free as they ever were...they're just too brainwashed and compliant to manage their own lives without someone telling them what to do.
Detached form reality, are we?
In prison, are you?
Wow, look at all the negative waves from the prisoners of their own minds. I think it's time for me to bail. It's been fun, if a bit unreal.
Instead of complaining about the rules, why not just stop following them?
I'm not talking about breaking the law. Laws have nothing to do with what goes down at the office. People are afraid to say no so people get abused...never going to change until you learn to say no. Simple fact. You're shooting the messenger, though. Why? You do not want to be responsible for your own situation.
Imagine it's the 1940's and you're in the Battle of the Bulge...like that better?
Imagine it's the MCarthy era and you've been falsely accused of being a homosexual and a communist because someone did not like your new book or whatever.
Imagine it's 1970 and your draft lottery number is 88, same as mine.
Imagine it's 1982 and you just hit the workforce...cost of living is spiralling up, interest rates are 12% on mortgages and the worst recession in history is underway.
Imagine it's 2001 and you're on the Path to WTC and it stops in the tunnel because the WTC is gone.
Both sides play the same game...blame someone else.
Lame!
Adapt or die...
I suspect the negative reaction was largely in the interpretation of your comment "people are as free as they ever were". The ever present erosion of constitutional protections, accumulation of federal power, and the lack of privacy would lead many to find that to be a false statement. However, I’m fully onboard with the self-help “adapt or die…” comment.
Nuanced views do not tend to make it past people's emotional filters. Their Pavlovian history is showing. I'm simply trying to clarify for people that they've bought into illusions associated with money and power that people have the power to end at any time, no voting required. Problem is fear...no one wants to be first because the first few will pay a higher price than those that follow. People do not realize the nature of real power.
Freedom need not and in fact cannot be granted because it is an ineluctable feature of the human condition. The idea that "man is doomed to be free" is an existential credo. Carpe diem.
Here's a post I wrote on the NYT as a suggested way to cope with the dark times:
Do less...
Sounds uncompassionate and facile, I know, but it certainly works for me. Do a careful, objective financial analysis and you may want to rethink following the crowd into debt and servitude.
The internet is a wonderful tool. It allowed me to discover that much of what I had been taught was wrong.
For example, did you know that having two incomes makes families financially *less* secure?
Did you know that most people who go bankrupt due to medical debts were insured when they became ill?
Did you know that, in many households, the entire second income is eaten up by higher taxes, transportation expenses and child care costs?
Did you ever seriously consider trying to set up a one-income family model? Limit the size of your family?
Live substantially below your means even though you're comfortably well off?
People have options but they're not availing themselves of those options because they're following a life prescription that has been promoted by establishment interests and reinforced by peer pressure. Fact is, you do not have to do what everyone else is doing nor should you, because it is simply not working for most of them and it is unhealthy.
Sure you need money to live, but do you need a new car or a vacation to some exotic place or an ivy league degree or a ten thousand dollar wedding or a big house or much of the stuff in it?
Do you?
Money is a seductive lure and debt is a trap...do the math and think it over.
NYT Pick
I am an old retired guy (76) and I'm not depressed in the least. I'm sad though to hear these moans and groans. Western Culture is the greatest culture this planet has ever seen. However, white folks have been pushed into showing preference to other cultures, finding out what thes other cultures have to "teach" us.
Hell, I didn't really even know my own culture as much as I'd have liked to until I retired. It doesn't cost much to read Don Quixote. I highly recommend Don Quixote as a jumping off spot. Then don't let Shakespeare scare you off. Shakespeare wrote fantastic stuff, and he wrote it for appreciation by people like you and me.
Having already read many of Shakespeare's plays, I am now approaching the plays from a different angle. I am reading books by Harold Bloom, a critic and Shakespeare scholar who teaches at Yale, and whose Wikipedia page says he was born in the South Bronx. Hey, that's where I was born! Anyway, he was raised at 1420 Grand Concourse in the Bronx. That's way up by 170th Street. Everyone knows that the South Bronx only goes as high as 149th Street, so Bloom gets no "Street Creds" as far as I'm concerned.
But I go off topic. Look into your Western Culture, folks; and wake up and enjoy the sunshine while you still have time. Sure, it takes a little work, but that's the deal.
Then there's HISTORY. I'm just getting started on all the history I was never taught (or didn't pay attention to as a kid.) I find European history fascinating. American history? Mixed feelings. And I bought two World Atlases. I refer to the maps from time to time as I read. I now know a bit of geography.
And this is all great fun. I live inexpensively; do most of my own cooking. Life is good. But I pack a pistol just in case.
All the new physicians are of the persuasion which steals organs and sells them for $$$...you know who I am talking about. The old school family doctors are being retired. Prepare for those consequences old man. You are about to be culled to free up earth's resources.
It doesn't cost much to read Don Quixote.
It's a long book. The time you spend reading it can never be returned to you. It is the worst piece of crap I've ever read. Next to it, Two Years Before the Mast is brimming with thrilling action and fine humor.
Uhhh, maybe a lack of morals from .politburo on down??
http://russia-insider.com/en/military/russia-hits-isil-hard-us-just-goes...
>>>.politburo
>>>.pltbro
Survey: vote for your preferred ZH-only sarcastic term for "dot-gov."
Or, suggest your own. Best pick will be judged by LC.
Thanks.
KRUGMAN!!!!
Pull your PhD out of your ass and sniff it - is the answer clear now???
It is said that History is written by the winners. Not entirely true; Massa is too busy enjoying the spoils to be bothered with that menial chore. No, it is written by the stable of gelded scholars who've sold their intellectual creds for scraps from Massa's table.
Those who won control of the banking system in the US early last century formed their own stable of academic economic apologists. But it still won't help them.
Catherine Austin Fitts once said that "The winners in a rigged game get stupid." Evidently, the Elite have reached that point, with their continued employment - and deployment - of people like Krugman, with every predictable downturn to their Keynsian model showing their hired mouthpieces to be nothing more than mercenary Lysenkoists.
From a physics point of view, economic entropy is overtaking system ideology at near c speed. Approaching that speed, the system will collapse from the sheer mass of its own corruption.
Being in close proximity when it happens could be distinctly unhealthy...even afterward, for any surviving apologists for the previous system which, by imploding, will case untold suffering around the world. Wanna bet Krugman, like the Bush Family, has got his own little bolthole in South America?
Places in South America are part of the NWO membership package...
Socialism in all forms is depressing. It kills the human spirit and casts a shadow upon the soul.
This article is communist propaganda.
Socialism and slavery are NEVER the answer. Trying to claim that will cure the ills in the USA is a spurious argument at best.
This article is unworth of ZH.
Er, its an article by Paul Krugman which they reposted from the NY times. How is that unworth?
Krugman would be perfect in a tyrant or dictator's cabinet.
Likes telling people what they have to do according to the ultra-liberal policy.
Tyler Durden: Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.
Channel that anger in a positive direction, son.
You are correct. We've been led around and brainwashed into believing things that were never true. Things that could never be true.
I graduated from high school in 1982 and the job market sucked. Some American spirit was coming back but it was also the beginning of the end. Jobs were fleeing overseas faster than I could count. I went to college right after high school and was sickened by what/who I saw. I was so disillusioned I joined the Army as a private--with a college degree.
It was difficult to reconcile what I was seeing in college with what I perceived to be the logical steps of my life. None of what I had "mentally planned" was ever going to come true and I knew it. I just had to maintain focus and drive on.
After NEVER using my degrees to any real extent, I worked for some big companies and smaller ones too. I stayed in the Army on and off and in the reserves for 20 years. Suddenly, I was wisked away after 9/11 for a couple of years and life was changing again. What I witnessed as a young college student was now everywhere in my daily life.
Upon my return from deployments I decided to never work for anyone ever again--including Uncle Sam. There was no choice because our culture has been on a fastrack to destruction for 30 years or more.
I see acceleration now in ther destruction of the culture and middle class.
Gee, destroy base manufacturing jobs for 25+ years, dumb down college curriculum and peddle debt. Financialize every last thing in life. WTF could possibly go wrong with that plan?
Are White people dying younger because they're becoming a minority?
Multiracialism and White Deaths
Prestigious Medical Journals Rejected Stunning Study on Deaths Among Middle-Aged Whites Washington Post, November 3, 2015
This Swedish woman singer really puts it all in perspective, it is interspersed with news footage of riots in Sweden. This is culled from 2 live performances. Poor America, Poor Sweden...
Ode To A Dying People
To understand how this happened to America, and Europe and Australia it is all explained here:
Review of 'The Culture of Critique'
Preface to the First Paperback Edition PDF
Preface to the First Paperback Edition HTML
The demographic this fella is talking about is uniquely positioned to be reminded every day in every way that they don't have a prayer in hell.
I relate to this article as I have witnessed my own health slip. I'd say starting in 1996, almost 20 years ago I entered a new awakening as I witnessed corporate greed and the beginnings of layoffs and plunder. The corporate brought in outside assassins to kill creativity in the workplace then downsize, outsource and give trophy bonuses to the thugs that wrecked the middle class. When Corporate America shouted - 'Let's level the playing field' they meant to kill the white man and demoralize them into insignificance. THEY HAVE SUCCEEDED and Paul Krugman is saying,,, It Ain't over and it ain't us. It's a phenomenon beyond his knowledge base. The mouthpiece is a tool for the New World Order, imho.
you stupid jew
We now return to our usual antisemitic programming.
Bitch
The problem with selling out to evil, like Krugman has done, is that it compromises your ability to make sense of complicated phenomena. Nothing makes sense anymore. Keep drinking that Kool-Aid Krugman.
"In particular, I know I’m not the only observer who sees a link between the despair reflected in those mortality numbers and the volatility of right-wing politics"
Therefore, you are not the only observer who is wrong.
For instance, leftist progressive Sweden is witnessing a spike in youth suicides.
http://www.thelocal.se/20140728/swedish-suicide-rates-hit-25-year-high
Why not admit the dog-eat-dog, "might makes right", psychopathic, loveless, porn and/or violence-riddled liberal worldview - left and right-wing alike - is the cause here?
The Krugman hatred here has gone off the charts. It is profoundly irrational because the destruction of the middle class, and the attendant harm to poorly educated white guys is largely attributable to what was called Reaganomics. Letting the corporations turn American society into an economic free-fire zone was supposed to make everyone better off through "trickle-down" economics. Unfortunately, the wealth trickled UP, and we now have a plutocracy manipulating a right-wing mob fixated on gun control, abortions, and xenophbia. Krugman and other so-called "Leftists" have steadily defended the interests of the weak and the poor against the overwhelming political power of the strong and the wealthy. To blame him for outcomes he has steafastly opposed is idiotic.
> Krugman and other so-called "Leftists" have steadily defended the interests of the weak and the poor against the overwhelming political power of the strong and the wealthy.
Get the fuck outta here. Krugman has made a career out of defending the Fed and the State.
So Krugman's defense of social safety net policies puts him on the same side as those who wish to privatize Social Security and end food stamps? It seems than anyone arguing for better government policies is now supporting the STATE. What alternative is there to the state? Would you prefer the clan or the tribe? Hatred of government is a repudiation of civilization. Without law and the state's power to enforce it, we would live as savages.
And when the state is the problem? Of course you don't see that. You believe the younger generations are better off being owed by a broke nation rather than having ownership of their retirement savings.
> Hatred of government is a repudiation of civilization.
This government murders civilians by the score via drone strike and other methods. It steals from all of us while not only sheltering the thieves but protecting them through manipulation of the legal system.
It sounds like the only civilized thing to do is to repudiate a government like that.
Let me refresh your memory about the functions of the state. The water supply, the mail delivery, the police and fire services, the education of children, the maintenance of roads, the safety of aviation, the reliability of doctors and drugs, and the enforcement of contracts are all largely dependent on the state. Take a look at modern Libya or Syria if you want to see a state getting torn down. Perhaps you can explain how a tribal or clan-based society would be an improvement.
The corporations support endless wars and concentration of wealth. Stupid rednecks vote into office legislators bought by the corporations. That is why our government is messed up. There is noting intrinsically wrong with parliamentary democracy. It is the undermining of democracy by the wealthy that is causing the current deterioration of American society.They would like to see a Latin American model of slums surrounding their guarded compounds and there is nothing to stop them as long as enough voters stay focussed on guns, gays, and God.
> The corporations AND THE STATE support endless wars and concentration of wealth.
FTFY.
"Would you prefer the clan or tribe?"
YES. I don't consider myself an American and never will. I will raise my son in the same way. Hopefully he will raise his sons the same.
Are you living in the real world? The wife and I are paying $16k per year for health insurance. And now people are FORCED to have health insurance at these insane costs. This is the progress Krugman extols? He has no real world idea what's going on in the lives of people. It's not about hating government. It's about wanting a fair and non-corrupt government. Congress just gave $80 billion more to the Pentagon in their new non-budget. Do you have any idea how the cash strapped states need help right now with their crashing budgets. They can't print money and the Feds can. Why does it all go to war and to the insiders? Government isn't the problem; it's corruption.
As I type this reply, you've gotten yourself zero up votes and 27 down votes, which sort of proves your point. I say "sort of" because there is no point in defending Krugman. He is the point man for the AFL-CIO, bought and paid for, and a liberal rag like the NYT is happy to give him a soapbox to stand on. Nothing he writes is motivated by the "science" of economics. Everything he writes is pure propaganda with no purpose to it other than to further the interests of organized labor. He sits down at his work station thinking of a way to slam the political opponents of organized labor, then inserts whatever economist-speak bullshit into his article to thinly veil his true intent.
His prominence in the pantheon (cesspool?) of renowned economists is the result of the political support of the AFL-CIO. Unfortunately, that is how anybody becomes "successful" nowadays. Cozy up to the nipple of some power center and sell your soul to it. They will then boost you up if you have a talent for spinning the truth to hide what is really going on.
One popular spin, one that it looks like you have bought into, is that the interests of organized labor are the same as the interests of the common man. No, they are not. Organized labor is like those few of a group of shipwrecked sailors who are trying to save their own skins by pushing down their weaker fellow under the waves, then standing on their shoulders to survive.
Once you realize what Krugman is, you can become copacetic about his profound intellectual dishonesty, and read his stuff to inform yourself of where the winds are blowing in the vicinity of his political bent.
But there is no point in trying to defend any bought and paid for politician or their soulless lackey "experts".
Krugman... #superdouche
Krugman sounds like a rich gloating Chosen one.
I admit, I lead a charmed life. I'm 62, so, I missed out on the destruction of generation X currently underway. Of course, I was a hippie, smoked anything and everything that could be rolled into paper, drank like a fish and generally led a self-destructive life since high school (still do to a degree).
But, suppose you were 40 in 2000. You're now 55, have earned squat on whatever savings you might have had for the past 15 years thanks to ZIRP. You've also probably lost your job twice, lost a house, maybe got divorced.
Can you blame any of these people for drinking themselves to death or taking meds until their head explodes? Having been a part-time druggie and boozer propbably saved my life. I don't touch pescription meds, hardly ever use even aspirin, avoid doctors like the plague. Can drink myself into a stupor whenever I like.
I cheated the government every chance I could and still do. They say wait until full retirement age to get SS. I called BULLSHIT on that because, if you defer, for four years - 62-66 - it akes 12 years to catch up. Thankfully, I was always good at math. Many of my friends are waiting until they're 66. I'm taking the plunge NOW. I turn 62 in December, and the SSA just informed me that I'll begin getting regular payments in February.
Most of my friends make too much money to even consider "early" retirement, so, I suppose it's OK for them. For me, I've hated the system since the 60s and never changed my views. I told a freind the other day that the government giving me money proves they're morons.
I know I'm right. At least I'm still alive, own some land, love to garden, build, renovate, innovate, beat the system. It's a life's calling, but, obviously, not for everybody.
Good luck, everyone. It's definitely going to get worse.
I'm 50, thanks for summarizing my life and making me more depressed.
Actually, since I never counted my chickens until they hatch I find it easier to not be bitter about the money being taken from me (for the greater good). I don't need much and the government makes sure I don't keep much. I have a good job and health insurance but haven't seen a doctor in 17 years. I figure they'd find something that can only be "controlled" by something Big Pharma makes and I would need to take every day.
I'm with ya' brother. I hated working since my first job after college but plugged away nonetheless. Saved, invested and retired at 53. Avoided both stock market crashes and bought gold in 2003. I quit voting or even caring who won elections. Have a big garden in the country and am building a greenhouse for winter veggies. Built a big workshop by hand and get all sorts of tools dirt cheap at auctions from the failing middle class forced to sell their homes. Started puffing the magic herb again at 61 after a 40yr hiatus. Best decision I ever made. It's called dropping out, I guess. The government is run by nut jobs and the citizenry is flippin' stupid. Trannys, neocons, feminists, and all the other mental weaklings who hang their hat on a lifestyle that they'd burn at the stake 200 years ago. I just watch the show and let it go. Also took SS at 62. It will be getting much worse so get what you can now.
insanelysane, sorry I ruined your day, but you sound like one of the survivors. Take heed of Baron von Bud's advice.
Grow your own, smoke your own, eat your own (though I'd stop at the kids), make your own, buy stuff cheap. The middle class is being hollowed out, so, garage and estate sales are where it's at. Why are we in a depression? Oversupply. Take a look around. There's an abundance of everything, but, everybody is struggling.
It's a paradox created by the .001%. You work, they take. Get off the treadmill, quit, drop out, start enjoying life.
Baron, if you're ever up around these parts (Wayne county, NY), I'd love to share a blunt and a bottle or two with you.
I'm in rural Arizona. You wouldn't believe the right wingers here in John McCains homeland. Clueless. The person above said I'm living off the system and have benefited from what went before. That is true. I was in small business for myself for some years and your are right, FreeNewEnergy. It's impossible to survive paying those taxes. Look at the Dow30 companies in Value Line. They have an average tax rate of maybe 13%. A small business pays minimum 28% federal plus payroll, state tax and lots of fees. Nets out to 45% tax rate. You have to use creative accounting to survive. Krugman lives in NY with the elite zillionaire class who've engineered this corrupt system where an honest man gets taxed into slavery. The DC and NY crowd are vampire parasites extracting vast wealth from insitituionalized fraud - war, patronage, inside-information - that's how they get rich. Killing and looting ain't my thing. I recognized our trajectory 20 years ago and took action to extricate myself. I get SS and soon Medicare and will mooch every nickel I can get until it collapses.
I hear you. I own a small enigineering and design firm. We let our small staff go this year. Im only 40. Its been an uphill climb into deeper and deeper shit for over 10 years now. What used to be 5% principles' hours dedicated to regulatory compliance has balooned to 20% on projects due to local government requirements. Then there is the tax bite and liability insurance requirements. My partner and I have come to the conclusion we work for the government and insurance company, theres nothing left of the "business" once they are done extracting each year. I would love to afford to hire people but the government is doing the best they can to ensure that wont happen as my partner and I answer phones, chase leads, market, book keeping, engineer, draft and clean the god dam toilet so some fucking persons with disabilties reviewer can retire with a $120K a year pension.
You aren't the one mooching. Fuck the US gov't.
Almost everything you have is the consequence of other people enabling you to have it. Parents, teachers, employers, and now the Social Security Administration have all made your current situation possible. Pretending that you did it all and despising everyone and everything else is childish.
stupidity is so rampant and so unbelievable. Your stupidity is astounding beyond measure. Where did "they" get the resources to do anything for anyone??? All the "theys" of the overlord society stole every bit, of every thing they have, from the ones who spent a lifetime producing and hiding as much of their production as possible.
The "theys" make nothing possible. We the producers did do it all. They ONLY thing the "theys" have were stolen from us. WE made the "theys" current situation possible.
'We shall overcome'.... Worked for the Palin Daughter.
Maybe people are depressed because $8 million adjusted from Native American money to current American money is apparently $80.
http://www.oregonlive.com/beaverton/index.ssf/2015/11/beaverton_woman_sa...
There’s now a free food pantry every few miles. Addicts use the money they save buying groceries on more drugs which eventually kills them. An EBT card is now a badge of honor amongst working class whites who mostly get paid under the table. It’s such a depressing lifestyle. I had 4 crack head roommates and a heroin addict and they all had their groups of friends so I’ve seen it all. Thank God I escaped that scene but at the time I was struggling during the 2002 recession and was also trying to help out friends. For the one’s still alive I can’t even imagine what their lives are like now.
You forget to mention the women are debauched whores who cannot be trusted, so they go with the moneyed sports players and rap stars.
This article comes up very short in the "facts" department. Although, I can confirm people like Krugman have caused my alcohol consumption to rise.
Reading Krugman is like drinking wood alcohol. Blindness usually results.
I grew up in the midwest, rust belt, not quite the bible belt. When I was younger places like Peoria, IL. Toledo, OH. were solid middle class America with happy people and large stable familes. It really started going downhill in the 1980s and by 1990 you could see and feel the malaise sink in. If you ever saw the TV show Roseann it was a perfect capture of that moment, which has gotten much worse since then. Dan and Rosann Conner could still find work, pay the mortgage, didnt have opiate addictions or kids in jail. That would come in the 2000s. The country is being hollowed out like a cancer from deindustrialization.
The evidence seems to point to mortality being strongly related to having viable support systems. Secular states with adequate social welfare systems have low mortality. Hispanic culture, with an emphasis on strong family, provides another such support system which contributes to lower mortality.
Rather than "a culture of dependence," it looks like the culture of the strong independent white male is what's failing.
hispanic males don't live in a perfect world, more of them go to jail, get into gangs than their white counterparts. the strong hispanic family gets broken up when they cross the border. this white male age grounp has a wide exposure to the wars in the ME, and the VA which pretty much ignores them or overmedicates them. remember that was what the VA scandal was about, VA mds were overprescribing a combination of antidpressants which can make you suicidal. its not a bad time to be a white independent male, the obligation to marry before you have a relationship means fewer binding obligations. the existing social support system stifles male independence, but thats all changing. some males will miss the support the former support system provided, for the new males its more freedom, and for women too. im over 65 and i play that then and now game and growing up now is probably better.
at the time they had Vietnam, and they didnt say pretty please. when you got back from there, there were no jobs, unless you could swing a hammer all day, (they didnt have nail guns then) most people thought government jobs were second rate, boring no money meager retirement. now the USG is the employer of choice. a color TV cost a fortune, and there was no cable so you had an antenna which you had to turn to get on of the 12 shows on the tuner. cars werent as good, now you can buy 700 horsepower off the assembly line, what greaser would have died for that in 65? and credit cards? huh whats that? healthcare, well if you had a government job.
thing are much better now for the average white male, and in 200 years they will be so much positvely better that we are all going to look like cavemen look to you and me today. poor bastards. we wont live to see it probably but a massive change is coming, already under way. if you all want to live like Alley Oop thats your business, the die is set. get a haircut
While you make some relevant points, you completely overlook the anti-white racial politics of our era...
I've noticed that while it is ABSOLUTELY FORBIDDEN to say what we politely call the "N-Word", it's ok to call for the mass killing of whites, or as they are better known, "Crackers".
Yes, that's all part of your white/male/straight "privilage".
Ryan will do what Boehner could not. The Evil Do'ers got to Boehner. Ryan is a man of the light.
Reaganomics = Cutting taxes on producers who create real prosperity so they can expand and hire more Americans with good jobs.
Obamanomics = Printing trillions out of thin air to give to money manipulators who only create misery and hope they hire an American to wax their cars.
Oh yes, those "producers" will certainly hire high-salaried Americans in preference to cheap foreign laborers. Tell us another story.
Sweden will start to see results from their own "cultural enrichment" soon enough.
Good post, but I might argue they are already reaping their rewards... Sweden is the rape capital of Europe.
and nobody cares.
I have long said remove the white male who is the protector of the white female first, then the white female is the target with no support.
stupid feminists.
They've had 40 years to see it, and it's hard to miss. The only place the Sweds don't see it is in their press or being mentioned by the politicians that gave it to them.
I am sure the entire new class is baffled by the darkness spreading across the world. How could taking away a young person's stake in society go wrong? http://incapp.org/blog/?p=2407
I’ve found this topic interesting for a while now. People are waking up to the reality that our system is beyond saving. It must and will collapse in order to finally be cured of all the various forms of corruption that have taken root. That's a pretty scary realization and I expect many try to avoid it with substance abuse or burying themselves in any of the various forms of available electronic entertainment/pacification. Those that have begun accepting that reality may feel despair at the loss of whatever bright future they thought they had in front of them.
Despair and self-destructive behavior may consume some, but others should be able to find positive outlets. The prepper movement comes to mind. I realize these are not a unified group of people all sharing the same concerns and some may well be nuts, but many are just taking the prudent steps to be able to weather whatever storm they see coming. Beyond having the material goods to help survive during and after a crisis, be that the one they expected or the one that surprisingly shows up, there’s the added benefit of some peace of mind. Further positive outlets that come to mind could include focusing on physical fitness, developing skills, and educating yourself.
History is full of examples of empires that went into decline or collapsed. There’s a lot to be learned from studying these examples. Having a rough idea of what the future might hold is bound to help a person be prepared to deal with it. When the corrupted West comes unraveled there will likely be many that will prosper as a result, and I’m not referring to those that are currently prospering from the corruption. In this piece the example of post-Soviet Russia was mentioned in regards to alcoholism, but what wasn’t mentioned was how some of the world’s richest individuals are Russians that gained their wealth in that turbulent period. That may not be the best example, but it is food for thought.
Russians have been heavy drinkers long before communism.
Those that got extremely rich in Russia did not do it honestly. Same thing happened in the other
countries of the former Soviet block.
Formula was rather simple. Those in government
that had the authority to sell state assets were bribed by those who had international money connections and
real assets were sold for cents on the dollar.
Check how much of these assets are owned by tribe
members.
All fair points, and it wasn't my intent to promote becoming a "robber barron", just that there's two sides to wealth transfer/destruction. The site is called zerohedge after all.
Couple of things which I should mention:
I don't work for other people. Don't collect a paycheck. I keep what I earn.
Most people, when they lose their jobs, freak out, and immediately begin looking for another one, when, in fact, they should be re-examining their lifestyle, expenses and choices.
Most people have little to no imagination, thus, they can't envision themselves running their own business. It scares the crap out of them (I've been doing my own thing since I was in my 20s for the most part. I was fortunate enough that my father instilled in me a do-it-yourself attitude).
Free-thinking and a free market would cure a lot of what's wrong in this country, but, there's a severe shortage of both of those. They've been replaced by fear. Fear of loss is a huge motivator. Lose your job, lose your home, lose your health (actually most people are more concerned about losing their healthCARE, than their health), lose your money, lose your mind.
The oligarchs, politicians and slave-masters have almost won. Sadly, for them, some of us haven't even begun to fight, and we will fight dirty.
Payback's a bitch, folks. I suggest doing something unkind to any public employee as a good beginning of the new civil war. It really is us (taxpaying, free market public) versus them (public employees, politicians, FSA, rich people).
Choose a side and don't look back.
Seems pretty simple to me. People are depressed because there's nothing to not be depressed about. Men find clutter and financial problems to be the most depressing things in their lives. Women cause the former and fuckheads like Krugman cause the latter in cohorts with wall street and DC.
>Yet there is a darkness spreading over part of our society.
>And we don’t really understand why.
What you mean "we", Krugman?
Moronic statements from high-ranking officials like Krugman, Obama, Pelosi are a leading factor for despair. We can cope with problems that are being addressed. It is when obvious problems are denied, and obvious solutions are avoided, that despair sets in.
I nominate Paul Krugtard for the Tone Deaf Nobel
For the better part of three decades Krugman and his ilk have been telling white people they're the problem with the world. What does he expect exactly?
if u are white and male you are guilty
The link is to productivity. When someone is productive they have less time to focus on what ailes them. They also have a sense of control over their lives, in essence they have hope. When there is no productive outlet, there is no hope. No universal healthcare plan, monetary policy or minimum wage law is going to fix that. America needs productive job opportunities, not more state sponsored welfare.
Another sure sign of societal decline is that everyone wiith an internet connection feels competent to speculate about broad social issues without the slightest bit of justification.
Mr Deaton nails it. Krugman can go suck a dick. And the middle class needs to shift its anger from the government to the corporations that actually control the government.
Yes, and STOP BUYING their crap!
If there were no levers of power there would be nothing for the madmen to control.
“With job growth at rates not seen since the 1990s, with the percentage of Americans covered by health insurance hitting record highs, the doom-and-gloom predictions of his political enemies look ever more at odds with reality”
ROFL. The Banana Republic propaganda continues….
“Yet there is a darkness spreading over part of our society. And we don’t really understand why.”
“We” don’t understand because “We” are the reason the nation is dying.
To honest, hard working people, an honorable death is preferable to living as a serf in this politically correct, centrally managed gulag that “We” have created where failure and corruption are rewarded while young entrepreneurs can not even open a lemonade stand or wash cars without government goons attacking them and/or demanding “donations”.
Here is a hint: STOP HELPING. Those who demand handouts are parasites and those who do not want your busybody handouts do not want them forced down their throats.
"Those who demand handouts are parasites"
Are the aged and infirm parasites? Should we euthanize them if they ask to be fed and sheltered? Should we gas the children of the poor because they were wicked enough to be born to parasites? Tell us about your program of just punishments for parasites.
Thoughtful responses are at a premium...
If you are attempting to apply some PC “shame”... it does not work here. Toughen up. None of us live forever.
Feel free to provide for whomever out of YOUR pocket.
Not surprising. I immigrated here in 1966, as an engineer.An engineer could support a stay-at-home wife, four kids, a couple of cars , a large ranch style house and felt like they had a decent life style.
Plenty had boats and/or planes, and adequate savings for retirement.
And now? Inquiring minds want to know.
Ha, ha Krugman. BIG FUCKIN' IDIOT.
Poor Paul. He believes the government manipulated and distributed statistics. The labor participation rate tells you all you need to know about the long-term health of the economy.
Unless and until Middle America rejects those things taking away their freedoms then nothing can change. I am specifically talking about items that have become daily life for many: cell phones, cable TV, inflated and fraudulent health insurance, banks and direct deposit, new cars every couple of years, big-box shopping, professional sports, Christmas exploitation, etc.
The list is long but if you woke up tomorrow--and had none of those things just mentioned--would you miss them?
We are a manipulated mass. We are actually manipulated by each other and our federal government.
I do my best to reject it all whenever possible. Convincing others to do so, however, is not so easy.
While I admire your intent, your strategy is wholly inadequate.
"There are none so blind as those who will not see" Krugman is a prime example
Next Krugman column: Monetizing Despair: A New Economy
The loss of freedom and growth of slavery is cause for depression.
Tyler needs to put this one in the "Full Metal Retard" category of pure insanity....
Now let's see....
We sanction them by freezing their asset(s) internationally... Overthrow a sovereign government on their border that has killed more than 60,000 in the past year in Ukraine... Blow up a train station in Volgograd before they host the 2014 Winter games as a warning for them not to interfere with the takeover of Crimea and Eastern Ukraine... Blow up a passenger jet as a warning that they must leave "Syria" and ally and business partner of more than 1/2 a Century...
Now WE DO THIS!...
I'm beginning to suspect that the U.S. military is fully prepared to go down with "the USD" after this and that that Trident test is indiciative of how far reachingand far gone this Country is!!!
My apologies if this one has already been posted.
Kruggie please come down from your phony scientific ivory tower.
Tell you what Krugman, give 99.9% of your money away, get fired, watch you house get forclosed on etc. Then go get one of these higher min wage jobs and let us know how it works out.
99.9% of the population will go to hell, the fuckheads in DC will still be making millions.
You mean you don't make $200,000 as a tenured professor at Princeton will all the bennies?
They ship the jobs out, brainwash the youth to be marxists, poison the water, unleash unlimited third world immigration, poison the food, destroy savings, keep everyone in perpetual debt, raise the costs of medical treatment, ruin retirements, then have the audacity to wonder why older Americans are giving up.
These fools are becoming intolerable. Before any old man offs himself, he should take one of these charlatans with him. Killing is evil, though, and these are decent people.
Starting over isn't that appealing at 64.
Don't forget even if the illegal immigrants find work a vast majority of them will have to have their housing, food, and medical needs subsidized by the taxpayer - likely forever.
Amen to that my friend. I no longer know where to even begin...
"Taking people with you" is a pretty sensitive matter. I sympathize with the general idea, and occasionally with the execution (e.g. Joseph Stack versus the IRS), but too many guys seem to snap and start shooting Black security guards or Filipino postal workers.
If you're going to go that route, please be damn selective, and at least take a genuine banker with you (and not a bank teller, security guard etc.).
Thank you in advance for your understanding.
Everyone has heard of Marie Antoinette's famous quote, "Let them eat cake," upon being informed that hungry peasants were rioting outside her palace. In truth, she probably didn't really say this, but the quote encapsulates the public perception that sparked a bloody revolution. Her words are typically cited as evidence of her contempt for the lower classes, but that's a misreading. It symbolized her ignorance of their plight. "Bread" was the staple food of the time, and ferociously expensive, taking up to 50% of the average income. "Cake," or "brioche," in French, was an even more expensive, buttery pastry. No doubt, brioche was in plentiful supply in Antoinette's palace, but way off the menu for peasants. Even more than contempt, the quote displays her obliviousness to the plight of the lower classes at the time. It demonstrates a near schizophrenic disconnection from reality. Antoinette was known for her lavish living and recklessness with the public purse. Her critics dubbed her Madame Déficit, living large while the common man suffered. She was so sated, so stuffed with pastry, that she was unaware the peasants were enduring any hardship, even as they starved and rioted outside her front door. When the tide of history turned against her, she was clueless. Her proposed solution to the problem of hunger was absurdly impossible. Her quote then, apocryphal or not, embodied the frustration of the masses with an elite that had become oblivious, immoral and decadent in the extreme. The "let them eat cake" moment was the final nail in her coffin. In a very real sense, it was also the end of aristocracy and monarchy in France. Antoinette's quote can be marked as the end of an epoch, sweeping away her head and the entire feudal order with it.
Today, the average American struggles, fails and dies while the elites gorge themselves on delicacies with money they stole from us. They take multi-million dollar junkets on the public nickel and hand out sweetheart government contracts to their cronies. They destroy everything they touch and ignore the misery this imposes on the people. When the plight of the poor and middle class is brought to their attention, they write columns wondering why everyone is so depressed (Krugman) or why they aren't shopping more (WSJ). Then they impose ridiculous and impossible solutions. If the people can't afford medical insurance, they force us to buy it, for instance. If we still don't buy it, they send the IRS to rob us. This article by Krugman is the latest example of ignorance from an elite grown dangerously disconnected, unhinged and out-of-touch. There is palpable anger simmering underground and they don't see it. America is buying guns and ammo while they diddle their pages. America is approaching its "let them eat cake" moment and the elites in this country would do well to learn the lessons of history before its too late.
Revolution is not imminent. America is populated by sheep that do not recognize the extent of their own freedom, today. The French Revolution did not solve the poverty problem in France, by the way. Everything immediately got enormously worse but revolutions are never about fixing the economy, anyway. They're about a bloodthirsty mob in search of revenge.
Krugman is a hack - never once looks at bad central bank money printing to extend and pretend. America will cleanse itself when hacks like him are hanging from lamp posts.
Why are Americans depressed?
The same reason everyone in the Soviet Union was depressed. Because they knew all the Pravda about prosperity and how well the average Comrade was doing was absolute bullshit. Krugman lives in the Ivory Tower with his bullshit statics that tell him everything is great he's never walked in the shoes of the average American he has no idea how much harder it is compared to even 10-5 years ago. Inflation which doesn't exist is eroding most people’s salaries and savings out from under them. The young have no way to accumulate the capital and experience needed to jump start their lives and a college degree is the equvilant of borrowing a 100 grand digging a hole and then setting it on fire. Most people don't think about these things at least not consciously. The sad truth of today is the average American runs from complex thoughts like the devil does crucifixes but they do feel it. They feel it in the back of their minds even if they can't vocalize the idea that something is wrong gnaws at them and it making them depressed angry and violent.
It's the food. We went from well balanced diets to slowly embracing more and more killer, processed foods. Direct result of declining income, layoffs, the usual.
When you can no longer eat "Healthy", foods then you eat the cheap processed crap.
They want us dead so we won't weigh down the economy as we age. 60 fucking years I slaved so I could be tossed out as garbage.
The darkness is the conspiracy to kill off the dependent. Can't get much darker...