Quote:
Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield
Bollocks. I'm not arguing the parties are entirely similar. They are not. I am arguing that when it comes to goring the most important ox (profits and future revenue streams accruing from global trade), everyone - everybody - is talking his book.
Business people, including me, are more than willing to do anything to help the losers, just as long as it doesn't involve raising wages to levels that provide dignified lives to those low end workers. We'll give them all sorts of things like health care (of course business likes single payer... it takes a huge cost off the books!), welfare, some BS retraining. We'll fiddle at the margins. But what would really improve those low end workers' lives? Well, I see two things. One is protectionism (but that'd be short lived at best and only accelerate automation). Another is leveling with them. Instead of pretending we'd be willing to forego some profits accruing from labor arbitrage (and automation), people of both parties argue about how much pittance noblesse oblige to shower on the poor fuckers. The victims see a false debate between their betters and don't realize how screwed they are, which if they realized, they might work harder to escape.
Look. I'm not suggesting Ds aren't better for at least giving a hint of a shit about these people. They are. But anyone suggesting that Ds trying to give Old Joe on the Streetcorner a free carton of eggs and some stale white bread is markedly different than the Rs ignoring him is deluded.
And you, a defender of the gig economy, have zero moral standing to call me selfish. I am selfish. The only difference between us is I'm willing to say it. You're pretending you're not harming these people with one hand while throwing them crumbs with the other to placate them.* Bullshit, man, bullshit. We're all doing that.
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* If you haven't noticed, we're running out of time to keep placating these people. They're pissed, and though many remain credulous, a lot of them are becoming just smart enough to realize people like you and me are full of shit in most of our explanations for why they are where they are. And that our politicians are terminally full of shit and don't give a fuck about them.
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Old Joe is better off with the eggs and bread than nothing. Do I wish we could do better for him? Absolutely. Like health care. The ACA wasn't placating anyone -- it was health insurance for a lot of people who otherwise didn't have it. The major reason why it wasn't better was Republican opposition, not Democrats only pretending to help people. If you don't care to lift a finger to help other people, that's your choice, but if you really believed in your principles you would just defend them instead of pretending that everyone else is as cynical as you are. If you say that you are full of shit, fine -- I won't argue -- but don't tell me that I'm full of shit. I took a pay cut to do government work in the public interest. I work for and give money to progressive candidates and causes. Could I do more? Sure, and change is hard. In large part because of the disinterest and opposition of people like you.
eta: Historically, a lot of the reason that Democrats were neoliberals was that Republicans were market-oriented, and Democrats thought that bipartisan legislation was more likely to get passed and more likely to work well. As Republicans have become uninterested in any bipartisan compromise, a lot of Democrats have moved to the left, figuring that there is no point in compromising with people who don't want to compromise. The fact that this is happening contradicts the theory that Democrats are purely motivated by self-interest. Accordingly, like the ACA, you just ignore it.
eata: I am completely sympathetic to the idea that center-left parties like the Democrats have lost support because they haven't pushed an agenda that will make more of a difference in the lives of real people, and because they haven't done a good job of communicating what they are doing. But I'm not interested in here those criticisms if their point is to absolve selfishness.
