As I write, almost a million unemployed have lost their benefits. Could be above two million by the new year:
The elephants are producing a cliffhanger of a particularly melodramatic form this time.Will the folks tumbling off the UE log get a Xmas rescue... somehow? Will these GOP stalwarts suddenly go through a conversion? Buy the Chuck Schooomer sub-million-dollar compromise? Or will Ohbummer knuckle under to the nasty mean Scrooge party extortion and allow a re-up of the entire Baby Bush rich man's tax cuts?
Frankly, why not? Obsessive fantasy tax attacks on the rich are mere moral hygiene for merit-class Holy Joes. Proles, the ever level-headed delightful Esau class, prefer the benefits now to some sanctimonious farce of ritual forced sacrifice at the margin.
Progressive tax revanchism is for the dark side of the merit moon.
Comments (4)
A million people is a pretty big march on Washington.
Are there no guillotines? Are there no pikes?
Posted by Trail of Tears | December 4, 2010 7:38 PM
Posted on December 4, 2010 19:38
What does this mean?
"moral hygiene for merit-class Holy Joes"
"Progressive tax revanchism is for the dark side of the merit moon."
What is the structure of the author's income sourcing? What % of the income is fully taxed "earned income" and what % is favorably taxed "qualified income".
You can argue that all the Federal tax revenue will be misspent or badly spent or evilly spent. Or that the sundowning of the Bush cuts will slow the pace of recovery. But to argue indirectly for the extension of an unjustifiable tax policy, which this post appears to do by dismissing opponents of extension as blue nosed prigs, suggests the author may have a special personal interest in the outcome of the debate.
Posted by lunch, economics primitive | December 4, 2010 7:47 PM
Posted on December 4, 2010 19:47
Bismarck and Disraeli did not invent unemployment insurance.
The Jacobins did. The "40 sous a day" of 1791.
There is no unemployment insurance without the specter of heads on pikes.
Liberals (in the English speaking world anyway) never seem to remember this.
My guess would be that there are enough food banks and private charities to keep people from rising up and hitting the streets.
But there will be a breaking point at some time in the future. I'm guessing that if Congress sees any signs that "this is the breaking point" they'll restore the extended benefits.
Posted by Trail of Tears | December 4, 2010 7:54 PM
Posted on December 4, 2010 19:54
ToT, food banks and charities are nothing compared to television sets.
Posted by Michael Dawson | December 6, 2010 12:56 PM
Posted on December 6, 2010 12:56