Heard Robert Reich on NPR this morning promoting the documentary "Inequality for All". I hope to go see it soon, but wanted to put down a few thoughts on the interview before I forgot them.
The CEO making $10M-$30M per year saying he doesn't know where all his money goes, and the poor would be better off with it because they spend - highly anecdotal, but I should watch to see what the full story is. However, that does raise a good point: when economists and politicians are considering particular policies, is there a metric for how much of the money will enter the market, and how much will be absorbed? Dollars spent, in either production or consumption, per dollar of stimulus? I know traditionally production is preferred, but since we are such a consumer market, is consumption close to as good? In a recession, is consumption required to entice greater production? I really need to brush up on these basics.
Reich supports increasing the minimum wage as a way to combat technology and globalization. Going back to my last post, that is just a band-aid!
The call-ins were obtusely simple, like, "tax the capitalists who are profiting from all the machines that are replacing workers." ...and who do you suppose made those machines? The reason they say technology "displaces" jobs rather than "destroys" is because the job the machine does is replaced by jobs to make, sell, and repair that machine.
Also, should read Tip and the Gipper, and find some other first hand accounts of political history, not just the historical outcomes.
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