Comments on: The Next New Deal

The Next New Deal

Kwantsar — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 18:27:33 -0800

The Next New Deal With the vaunted post-Cold War "Peace dividend" evaporating, the United States found itself unable to invest adequately in either its infrastructure or its children. Eventually people began to talk of another Great Depression, before the coming of the next New Deal.

By: StrikeTheViol

StrikeTheViol — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:18:19 -0800

See, this is interesting, but it's a single link to a magazine article from 1992. Still, it's nice to know that some reform proposals are fairer minded than others, even if including a COLA would mean I actually get more money, thus making conservatives heads explode.

By: JaredSeth

JaredSeth — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:37:08 -0800

Actually what makes it interesting is that it's an article from 1992.

By: puckish

puckish — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:39:18 -0800

Thanks for this link, Kwantsar!

By: mwhybark

mwhybark — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:39:27 -0800

In the motherfucking Atlantic, first to the barricades for torture in the days after 9/11.

By: Chinese Jet Pilot

Chinese Jet Pilot — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:55:51 -0800

I have such fond memories of the 1991-1992 U.S. recession. Of course, I had just turned 21, I earned about $22k a year, and in the first presidential election I was old enough to vote in, I selected Bill Clinton because he seemed like a regular guy. The recession was too abstract for me; I was generally HAPPY in spite of it. This time around I'm solidly middle-class, a homeowner, a well-informed voter, and ENRAGED.

By: caddis

caddis — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 22:49:25 -0800

and nothing has really changed since then... if you really want to watch entitlements munch your budget, look at the state level. ouch. well at least in NJ. I have a buddy who is an attorney and has a part time municipal job, 10 hours per month. Each year he works this municipal job he accumulates a year of state pension benefits. If he retires from his private sector job, with pension, and then works for a few years as an attorney for the state, he will get a second full pension based on his state attorney job salary and on his years of service as a part time municipal employee. Aren't you going to get two full time pensions? Don't you want to fund his second pension? He really is a nice guy. Wouldn't you give up your shore house so that he could have one? He really likes the ocean.

By: brandman

brandman — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 05:58:53 -0800

One thing that caught my eye was the example given of how "government experts" predicted the demise of Medicare by 2006: "In 1991 Medicare spent nearly $19 billion subsidizing the health care of households earning $50,000 or more. That year government experts projected that the mounting cost of Medicare would cause the program to collapse within fifteen years, and that if current trends continued, total health-care spending would rise to an economy-shattering 44 percent of the gross national product by 2030. No one listened." Of course, 2006 came and went, and Medicare is still around. Granted, I'm certainly no expert on this, and I know Medicare's still a huge problem, but I think it's predictions like this that cause people to think "hey, they keep saying Medicare/Social Security/Entitlement Program X will fail within n years, but it never happens, so I can ignore the latest warning."

By: dances_with_sneetches

dances_with_sneetches — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 07:01:41 -0800

What's all this talk I hear about nude eels?