On The Real News Network, I just found a recent interview with economist James K. Galbraith. This whole economics puzzle is something I would like to understand better. Galbraith blames our dismal situation on the deregulation of banks and other financial institutions. I wonder if former true believers in the notion that “government is the problem” ever connect the dots and see that what is happening in our economy is a direct consequence of a rush to fulfill their free market, no regulation, ideas?
In these videos, Galbraith makes a strong case that social security payments should be increased, not decreased. I’m going to take some notes and improve this post with some excerpts.
This is Galbraith’s bio shown on Real News:
James K. Galbraith teaches economics at the University of Texas where he is a Senior Scholar of the Levy Economics Institute and the Chair of the Board of Economists for Peace and Security. The son of renowned economist, the late, John Kenneth Galbraith, he writes a column called “Econoclast” for Mother Jones, and occasional commentary in many other publications, including The Texas Observer, The American Prospect, and The Nation. He is an occasional commentator for Public Radio International’s Marketplace.He directs the University of Texas Inequality Project, an informal research group based at the LBJ School.
It’s time to come right out and say it. After a generation during which incomes among working people stagnated and those of the upper 5 percent increased astronomically, a generation during which a vicious class war was carried out against the middle and working class by the upper classes, including pettty bourgeoisie entrepreneurs, those who benefited the most have to start contributing to this country more than their Chicago school of economics bullshit about supply side economics and monetaristic fixes for our economy.
Eliminate the income cap for FICA contributions and the system fixes itself. Those who make more contribute more, too f*****g bad if they don’t like it. Let them take the money they’ve stolen from us and move to the Cayman Islands or wherever the hell they think they can live better (although I think they’d have a hard time watching their backs displaying that much wealth among a really poor pissed off population).
Obama has only one mandate from the Wall Street people who put him in office: do away with Social Security. You’re a black Democrat, you can get away with it.
The sad thing is he probably will.