The New Normal

Paul Krugman's latest column dishes up the depressing:

What lies down this path? Here’s what I consider all too likely: Two years from now unemployment will still be extremely high, quite possibly higher than it is now. But instead of taking responsibility for fixing the situation, politicians and Fed officials alike will declare that high unemployment is structural, beyond their control. And as I said, over time these excuses may turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy, as the long-term unemployed lose their skills and their connections with the work force, and become unemployable.

I’d like to imagine that public outrage will prevent this outcome. But while Americans are indeed angry, their anger is unfocused. And so I worry that our governing elite, which just isn’t all that into the unemployed, will allow the jobs slump to go on and on and on.

But why are we facing such a grim future?

But the fearmongers are unmoved: fighting deficits, they insist, must take priority over everything else — everything else, that is, except tax cuts for the rich, which must be extended, no matter how much red ink they create.

The point is that a large part of Congress — large enough to block any action on jobs — cares a lot about taxes on the richest 1 percent of the population, but very little about the plight of Americans who can’t find work.

That's right - because Congress is effectively waging class warfare against the electorate at this point. Extend the tax cuts for the rich because you wouldn't want to raise taxes in a down economy would you? They might have to settle for a smaller yacht or skimp on that next Rolex. And you unemployed jerks are just lazy. Maybe if you got off your ass once in a while, you could find the bootstraps you need to pull yourself up.

It will probably take mass riots and street violence before anyone on Capitol Hill gets a clue about the gravity of the average American's economic dilemma. And as Krugman says, that won't be happening anytime soon. We are simply too complacent and have probably the highest tolerance for being shit upon in the developed world. It's almost as if we've become accustomed to it.