Who's keeping you from getting a job?
In a word, a group of elected representatives in Congress who believe that if you direct money to the stinkin' rich and starve the needy, everything will get better.
I'm not kidding. Paul Krugman is sensibly worried about this prevailing Congressional "wisdom." Others among us are also very worried that so many nutcases hold so much power.
Here’s where we are: growing GDP, but mass unemployment still the law of the land, with only tiny progress so far. What can be done? Well, we could have more fiscal stimulus — but Congress is balking even at the idea of extending aid for the ever-growing ranks of the long-term unemployed. Fiscal responsibility, you see — hey, and let’s make sure estate taxes stay low! ......Shibboleths and conventional wisdom are blocking all routes out of this slump. And I worry that policy makers will just sit there, for years and years, all the while congratulating themselves on the soundness of their policies. ...Krugman blog
More to the point:
What’s the greatest threat to our still-fragile economic recovery? Dangers abound, of course. But what I currently find most ominous is the spread of a destructive idea: the view that now, less than a year into a weak recovery from the worst slump since World War II, is the time for policy makers to stop helping the jobless and start inflicting pain....Krugman column
You'd think they enjoy inflicting pain on the most afflicted. Well, okay, I do think that. Yessir, I think they enjoy inflicting pain on the most afflicted. Wouldn't it be crazy to draw any other conclusion?
Stimulus making things better? Quick! Cut off the stimulus!
Take that, you pathetic, jobless jerk.
