DISQUS

cnulan · 1 year ago

This is an interesting take on the public and political response. Along the lines of what this article discusses. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/science/09obenvy.html

Elite governance depends upon the skilled manipulation of such insight and associated methods for controlling these impulses. While I'm inclined to agree that this may indeed by symptomatic at least in part of what is underway, I'm somewhat more strongly persuaded to believe that a "once bitten twice shy" reflex is at work here. i.e., given what folks have observed about the financial services system bailout, we've been made jaded about not only the fundamental fairness of socialism for the wealthy, but also its basic utility.

More fundamentally Les, I think folks are beginning to realize that they're in a "Titanic" economy. i.e., the rich will be saved but steerage is being locked down until all the life boats are gone...,

rikyrah · 1 year ago

The anti-blue collar bias has never been more evident. They asked for 2 percent of what they gave those crooks on Wall Street, and the hoops they had to jump through has been ridiculous.

DarkStar · 1 year ago

For some it isn't about anti-blue collar bias, it's about corporate welfare.

Can we agree that tax payer money is involved here?
Can we agree that the government doesn't do a good job being involved in private business?

Why should Chrysler be bailed out when they are owned by, essentially, a hedge fund who got taken on the deal by Diameler?

blacksmythe · 1 year ago

This doesn't explain much about the sentiment against the automotive industry. The first two questions you asked were pertinent when the corp was AIG. Why the difference? Is it that the 700 billion dollar package wasn't corporate welfare but this is?

DarkStar · 1 year ago

I wasn't down with the AIG and financial bailout either.

MIB · 1 year ago

It turns out the foreign manufacturers in southern, 'right-to-work' states have been equally proficient as the Big 2-1/2 at getting public largesse. So much for the integrity of those shouting "corporate welfare"!

The one lesson very few Americans seem to be learning here is we're beyond a point where ideological solutions are viable. There are times when the state's intervention
in the market -- done responsibly -- is an appropriate course of action. This is especially true when widespread socioeconomic reformation is needed.

I'm not sure if what we're seeing is anti-blue collar bias as much as anti-union bias, the latter of which I believe is explained by Americans' relative economic unsophistication.