Not new. But still relevant.
Dean Baker in his "Beat the Press" blog at the Center for Economic and Policy Research writes
NYT Misses Story on Redistribution: Maybe People Don't Want Government Policies that Rig the Deck for the Rich:
Neil Irwin had an interesting Upshot piece that noted polling data showing people do not favor much higher taxes on the rich. It questioned why it was that people were opposed to redistribution even though inequality has become a major national concern.
A major problem with this sort of analysis is that it treats distribution as though it is only a function of tax policy. This is clearly secondary. The upward redistribution of the last 35 years was overwhelmingly the result of government policies that structured the market to favor the wealthy.
For example, trade policy has been quite explicitly designed to put manufacturing workers in direct competition with low-paid workers in the developing world. The predicted and actual effect of this policy is to reduce their wages and also the wages of non-college educated workers more generally. By contrast, doctors and other highly-paid professionals (who comprise much of the one percent) have been largely protected from international competition. The argument for exposing these professionals to competition is the same as the argument for trade more generally: it will lead to lower prices and more economic growth. But because of the political power of these groups, free trade in the services of doctors and other professionals is not even discussed in polite circles.
The Federal Reserve Board has also quite explicitly adopted policies that keep unemployment higher than in the years prior to 1980. Higher rates of unemployment not only deny workers jobs, but they also reduce their bargaining power, therebypreventing them from getting wage increases. The government's labor policies have also been much more hostile to workers over the last three decades, making it far more difficult to form unions. And, the government handed out trillions of dollars in below-market interest rate loans to rescue Wall Street banks and prevent the market from working its magic.
Given a whole set of policies that have redistributed a massive amount of income upward, it is understandable that many people would not trust the government to be taxing the rich to help the poor and middle class.
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2010—McCaskill and Whitehouse on Judicial Nominees, GOP Holds:
Claire McCaskill and Sheldon Whitehouse took to the floor this morning to try to shed a little sunlight on the nearly 80 secret holds Republicans have on Presidential nominations.
She had a list of 18 judicial nominees with her, and asked for unanimous consent for each one of them, forcing the holder of those nominees Jon Kyl, to object to each.
She promised to come back to the floor with the remaining 60 some nominees.
Sheldon Whitehouse also spoke about the obstruction of the Republicans, even of those candidates who had unanimous votes out of conference.
This direct pressure on the Republicans might not have been enough to get rid of these holds, but it might have actually shamed them a little. The end result today was two confirmation votes. Lael Brainard was confirmed as Treasury undersecretary for international affairs with a 78-19 vote. One of Obama's most controversial nominees, Marisa Demeo, was confirmed to the D.C. Superior Court, 66-32.
Tweet of the Day
Department of Interior Opens Gate for Risky Oil Drilling in #Arctic, 75% chance of large OilSpill.
http://t.co/... #oceans #wildlife
— @iamgreenbean
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show: Gyrocopter guy baffled over distraction from his message. Lazy, shiftless workers skip out on their jobs. Oh, I mean, patriotic first responders express "safety concerns." Big story of the day: for decades, the FBI's crime lab techs helped convict defendants based on seriously flawed hair "matching" analyses. But the flaws are way, way bigger than the analyses themselves!
Arliss Bunny helps us explain why. Did Tulsa Co. falsify Robert Bates' training records? The records he's provided don't actually measure up. It's no surprise that the wealthy want/need the rest of us to think of free markets as "natural." Just how far off the mark might that be?
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