A Brief Bit of Dumping on Matt Yglesias

Since nobody can comment on posts, a few more posts to read couldn't hurt in the meantime.  And Matt said a couple of pretty egregious things today. 

First up: "The United States in 2011 was a richer country than the United States in 1999 but people felt much better about the U.S. economy when GDP and incomes had been growing for years than they did during a period of stagnation and collapse."

WTF?!  Matt, my boy, "people felt much better about the U.S. economy" when they were earning more money.  The U.S. in 2011 may be a richer country than the U.S. in 1999, but that doesn't mean a rat's ass if the difference, and then some, has been pocketed by some subset of the richest 1%.

From Table A-2 of Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010:

Median household income, 2010: $49,445

Median household income, 1999: $53,252*

And that is why people felt richer in 1999.  They were richer in 1999. 

One thing that keeps coming back to me is this: people were almost as rich in 1973 as they are now.  Let's add one more line:

Median household income, 1973: $46,109*

You know, when liberating the free market makes "the United States" richer, it doesn't do a damned bit of good for most of us unless some of that extra richness finds its way into our pockets.  But when the median household in 2010 is only 7% richer than the median household in 1973, despite the fact that we're clearly way, WAY richer as a nation, that means our economy has failed in a very essential way.  It's succeeded admirably for the top 0.1% who actually run the country, but it's sure failed the rest of us.

*In 2010 dollars.

I had a 'next up,' but it looks like I'd better get back to work.  Maybe I'll have some time after the kid goes to bed tonight.

Comments

[scott]

I'm a little surprised that I'm the first one commenting on this post, which I love, unless it's because everybody agrees with it and doesn't think it can be improved. Maybe it can't, but I just wanted to applaud the way it skewers MY's spectacularly tone-deaf brand of neo-liberal cheerleading. At least when people make "rising tides lift all boats" or "trickle down" arguments there's at least an attempt to show that the average guy will get something out of it, even if it's way less than the people at the top. But here they actually don't get anything out of it and do worse! But MY doesn't even know that or care about it. Some people really admire him, but I find him pretty cold and quite blind to the grim personal realities faced by people on issues like this. He's a schmuck.

[kathy a.]

scott -- comments were down for a few days; more posts went up in the meanwhile.

[Sir Charles]

Scott,

My post would have been a comment, but comments were down. But it is quite a fine post.

I get the sense that Yglesias is actually a nice guy. I think he is sometimes a bit young and inexperienced in life terms.