A good explanation of why the mainstream Left is  failing the (low income) working class.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/opinion/democrats-averted-disaster-but-the-workin...


"The reason he and other prominent Democrats haven’t done any such thing is that this isn’t the kind of pro-democracy message they have any interest in promoting. As Thomas Frank argued in his indispensable book Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People, the current version of the Democratic Party has been thoroughly shaped by the cultural sensibilities and political worldview of affluent middle-class professionals, who see social justice as a matter of removing any barriers to the best and brightest from each demographic group rising to the top—so they can craft the smartest technocratic solutions to our problems.

They believe in democracy in so far as they believe that Democratic politicians shouldn’t have elections stolen from them. But they don’t really believe in asking a bunch of people who don’t have postgraduate degrees (and probably haven’t even read Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility), how they want to solve society’s problems.

And of course they won't look at a Job Guarantee as a way to eradicate systemic entrenched poverty.

.

thegreatdivide wrote on Nov 11^th, 2022 at 8:18pm:


That's a simplistic view, meant for all the brainwashed retards here.

Shellenberger abuses Thunberg:

https://michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/narcissism-in-climate-and-woke-victi...

Narcissism In Climate & Woke Victim Movements
Psychologist Sam Vaknin on why we need a politics of overcoming, not victimhood

Michael Shellenberger
Nov 7

“We have transitioned from the age of dignity to the age of victimhood,” argues Israeli psychologist and narcissism expert, Sam Vaknin. “Every single political and social movement nowadays has converted itself into a victimhood movement. Many ideologies, which were not victimhood-oriented, have become victimhood-oriented.”

Such is the case with the climate change movement. “This is all wrong,” said Greta Thunberg at the United Nations. “I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us, young people for hope. How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.”

You can probably tell why Vaknin’s warning resonates with me. I have changed my mind about many issues over the last two decades. But for nearly 20 years I have warned that victimhood movements are disempowering, toxic, and dangerous. My essay last year, “Why I am not a progressive,” explained why the Left’s orientation toward victimhood led me to reject that label.

My observation:

The problem with economists like Shellenberger is they are trapped in the neoliberal economics of scarcity, rather than seeing an MMT-based economics of sufficiency, so his concept of "the politics of overcoming" will be crippled from the start. 

Eg, the economics of scarcity insists we can't properly support people on Jobseeker...as Jim Chalmers keeps telling us, because "we have a $1trillion debt".

Gross lies.

And so we have Shellenberger citing "narcissism expert" Sam Vaknin..

The blind leading the blind.

Tweet today from Stephanie Kelton (author of The Deficit Myth).

It is heartening to see @RichardJMurphy getting such good engagement on this thread (re balanced govt. debt mythology). Batting this stuff down is nearly a full-time job at this point, but he manages to keep pounding** (pun intended) away. Eventually, the damn will break.

**the thread deals with a comment from the new UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt "we cannot max out the national credit card this morning".

Most tweeters who replied to Murphy's refutation of Hunt's "national credit card" comment now agree Hunt  is spouting BS., a good sign for the progress MMT is making in the electorate.    

MMT is catching on in the mainstream...AFR (Australian Financial Review):

https://www.afr.com/markets/debt-markets/the-reserve-bank-can-never-go-broke-202...

The Reserve Bank can never go broke
Tim Hext
Nov 6, 2022 – 5.00am

"The pandemic forced the rewriting of conventional economics to fit the real world. For central banks this was a world best described by Modern Monetary Theory – the great economic buzzword of the COVID-19 era, which told us not to always worry about printing money".

Tim has it correct (unlike many MMT critics who say MMT claims the CB can always create more money: .... "not to always worry" about printing money, which is not the same as saying the CB can always create more money without worrying about the consequences). 

http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=50914

Champagne socialists in the banking sector reaping millions from public money

The increasing interest rates are also delivering massive cash injections to the banks who hold reserve accounts at the central banks. Why? Because the quantitative easing programs from the past have resulted in a massive buildup of excess reserves which are liabilities for the central banks. They (CBs) are paying support returns on those reserves, which are scaled against the rising policy target rates. So the payments have escalated significantly and delivering a massive corporate welfare boost to the banks while the same interest rate rises are causing hardship to borrowers, especially those on low incomes. And amazing redistribution of income towards the ‘champagne socialists’ all via our central banks.

Commercial banks 'laughing all the way to the bank' - at our expense.