Fiddling While America Burns

Krugman:

Yet a strange thing has happened to policy discussion: on both sides of the Atlantic, a consensus has emerged among movers and shakers that nothing can or should be done about jobs. Instead of a determination to do something about the ongoing suffering and economic waste, one sees a proliferation of excuses for inaction, garbed in the language of wisdom and responsibility.

So someone needs to say the obvious: inventing reasons not to put the unemployed back to work is neither wise nor responsible. It is, instead, a grotesque abdication of responsibility.

[...]

So what did the O.E.C.D. have to say about high unemployment in its member countries? “The room for macroeconomic policies to address these complex challenges is largely exhausted,” declared the organization’s secretary general, who called on countries instead to “go structural” — that is, to focus on long-run reforms that would have little impact on the current employment situation.

[...]

So there are policies we could be pursuing to bring unemployment down. These policies would be unorthodox — but so are the economic problems we face. And those who warn about the risks of action must explain why these risks should worry us more than the certainty of continued mass suffering if we do nothing.

The message out of Washington (and really, the developed world) is that if you're out of work, struggling to keep your home, or otherwise destitute - you are on your own. Get a job, you lazy slob - the free market Jebus will touch you soon enough. We have scary things for the grown-ups to deal with, like the deficit. They have made the concerted decision to fundamentally ignore the lower 90% of the country. As Krugman said, most politicians don't even speak of unemployment anymore - including Obama.

And it also bears mentioning that enacting "unorthodox" policies of which Krugman spoke are only for real emergencies - bailing out the banksters so they can get their bonuses and make their next payment on their house in the Hamptons, bombing brown people in Libya, re-authorizing the unchecked, sweeping power of the Patriot act. These are the things that must be done. Enacting policies that would actually benefit average Americans or improve their quality of living requires months of debate, hand wringing, the gnashing of teeth, and cutting a deal with the Republicans to include a bunch of tax cuts while they whine incessantly about how much the legislation is going to cost.