Thread: Great op ed by Naomi Klein

On the economic crisis and the stimulus package:

Hundreds of thousands of jobs can be created by rebuilding the ailing public infrastructure and making it more friendly to public transit and renewable energy. Need start-up funds? Close the loophole that lets billionaire hedge fund managers pay 15% capital gains instead of 35% income tax, and adopt a long-proposed tax on international currency trading. The bonus? A less volatile, crisis-prone market.

The way we respond to crises is always highly political, a lesson progressives appear to have forgotten. There's a historical irony to that: Crises have ushered in some of America's great progressive policies. Most notably, after the dramatic market failure of 1929, the left was ready and waiting with its ideas -- full employment, huge public works, mass union drives. The Social Security system that Moody's is so eager to dismantle was a direct response to the Depression.

Every crisis is an opportunity; someone will exploit it. The question we face is this: Will the current turmoil become an excuse to transfer yet more public wealth into private hands, to wipe out the last vestiges of the welfare state, all in the name of economic growth? Or will this latest failure of unfettered markets be the catalyst that is needed to revive a spirit of public interest, to get serious about the pressing crises of our time, from gaping inequality to global warming to failing infrastructure?

The rest:

Why the right loves a disaster - Los Angeles Times

I can't give you a green as yet. I will have to owe you.

Originally Posted by johnlocke

I can't give you a green as yet. I will have to owe you.

Thanks, but all credit goes to Ms. Klein. She really nails it.

The New Deal over again? worked last time...

Originally Posted by Latherty

The New Deal over again? worked last time...

Last time I checked we're not in a depression... yet.

Originally Posted by BiRdo

Last time I checked we're not in a depression... yet.

If you're waiting for Bush or CNBC to alert you when it arrives, don't hold your breath.

Right. The Socialist Security Ponzi Scheme if finally going bankrupt, let's hurry up and replace it with something equally criminal and, don't forget, steal enough money to prop up Socalist Security yet once again.

Originally Posted by Freedom for All

Right. The Socialist Security Ponzi Scheme if finally going bankrupt, let's hurry up and replace it with something equally criminal and, don't forget, steal enough money to prop up Socalist Security yet once again.

Oh no, we should just give all our tax money to defense contractors. Maybe they can figure out a way to feed the Iraqis we've liberated with ground up old people and orphans.

Originally Posted by Blueneck

Oh no, we should just give all our tax money to defense contractors. Maybe they can figure out a way to feed the Iraqis we've liberated with ground up old people and orphans.

We should not only expect but demand that our politicians run our government inside the boundaries established by the Constitution.

What FDR did was outside the Constitution. It still is.