Washington Post: The Problem is YOU, Not "We"

Imagine a major national newspaper that never saw an $8 trillion dollar housing bubble. Suppose its most often cited expert on the housing market was the chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, who also authored the 2006 bestseller : Why the Housing Boom Will Not Bust and How You Can Profit From It.

Yes, I'm talking about the Washington Post, which had the gall today to run a column by Jim Hoagland complaining about how "we" are passing on a bad world to our children. The "we" in the column is meant to refer to the generations currently in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, who he claims are leaving huge problems to our children.

He's right about the problems, but he's wrong about the "we."

The reality is that the Washington Post and the elite clique for which it is a mouth piece have badly failed us and our children. The housing bubble was easily recognizable. The economic disaster that we are now facing could have been easily avoided if the Washington Post and its elite friends (e.g. Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin, and Henry Paulson) were not too incompetent or corrupt to see the evidence of problems everywhere. Needless to say, those of us who did try to issue warnings were ignored by this elite crew.

The Washington Post has whined endlessly about the long-term deficit problems facing the country. But how often has it told its readers that the long-term deficit problem is almost entirely the result of the broken U.S. health care system: a system that costs more than twice as much per person as the health care system in most of the countries who enjoy longer life expectancies than we do?

Perhaps the Post does not choose to share this information because it identifies with the wealthy people who run the insurance companies, the pharmaceutical companies, and the highly paid medical specialists, all of whom get rich off the waste in our health care system. (Perhaps the fact that these industries advertise heavily in the Post also affects its willingness to print pieces exposing the enormous waste in the U.S. health care system.)

The Post also has been a big proponent of a trade policy that is based on selective protectionism. The Post's trade policy subjects less educated workers (those without college degrees) to competition with low-paid workers in the developing world, while leaving the most highly educated workers largely protected from such competition.

Since the vast majority of the workforce falls into this unprotected category, most of our children will see lower standards of living because of the Post's trade policy as it redistributes income to its elite friends. The Post even applies the euphemism "free trade" to its policy of selective protectionism to make it more palatable.

I could go on at considerable length. The list of the failings of the Post and its elite friends is long -- lying to get us into the war in Iraq would be the next obvious item on the list.

The point is that the Post and it crew of cronies have badly failed the world in a large number of ways and continue to do so. The Post and Hoagland's efforts to attribute the blame to the rest of us for the trouble caused by the greed and incompetence of their elite clique deserve nothing but contempt and ridicule.

Comments

[Libarchist]

The Washington Post is a tool, for the Military-I­ndustrial-­Congressio­nal-Comple­x.

[BarryS]

True. I have pointed out for many many years that I was right, and THEY were wrong about the War in Vietnam. Not just overall, but at every step of the way. The same is true for the current financial crisis. Big auto, etc. their problems are all due to the medical establishment who rejected national health care all these years. The lack of regulation; the acute favoritism to the rich via [YOUR] tax policies. All of this contributed to our current downfall. And, they are still stealing from us.

Time's up! spend the 80 Billion and give us medical care already.

Stop saying that you are friends to Gay people, and do something, other than giving creadence to Rick Warren and explaining why Dont Ask Dont Tell, EDNA, and equal rights, can wait 3-4 years until Obama no longer has any clout.

These politicians, with Politburo style benefits and salaries, and guarenteed lifwetime jobs as lobbyists have no shame. And neither does the Washington Post.

[jigme31]

Thanks a lot for this one. It is cogent, clear and concise. It deserves to be put around. Happy New Year for Thursday.

[Soulsurfer]

Thanks for the post, I feel the same way, and then some. Those of us who have taken the warnings on major emerging issues (climate change, over population, environmental degradation, accumulation of debt instead of savings, ARM mortgages, illicit wars, corporate greed and excess,etc.) seriously have been called the worst of names, and yet.......­..........­..........­.......her­e we are. I don't necessarily need to have the perpetrators admit their guilt (they never will anyway), but don't include me with this "we" sh*t!

[bayside]

Very good article Dean. Since Reagan dismantled the regulations, in 80s.. Then 90s more right wing deregulation and finally the Gramm republicans let the wolves be in charge of the hen house..This was all republican and blue dog dems (Clinton) doing. Complete with buying up and stealing our media for propaganda ..Think about this HDTV requirement in feb. for all TV. Why would govt. spend 8 billion dollars to give us a better reception. They wouldnt...I doubt its to give us better reception or to free up bandwidth..They are up to something. Fool me once...

[Agent420]

Digital TV is the product of the IP owners of movies and TV shows. Unlike analog TV, you cannot record digital TV without their permission. This is all part of the plan to make patents, copyrights and other "protections" for the "user" and make the "consumer experience" better by extending their rights forever.

[open mic night 54321]

Everybody should read this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/25/AR2008122500758_Comments.html

She said we should teach our kids that ALL their electronic communications will be and should be monitored by parents, employers, teachers. This includes cell phones and private e-mail accounts.

It's one thing to warn your children that their MySpace or Facebook is public and say not to do anything they wouldn't want the general public to see. Monitoring cell phone conversations and private e-mail (as opposed to company e-mail at work) is something else entirely. She thinks we should teach children to quietly submit to this from employers, coaches, or any person whatsoever? I can't imagine Americans putting up with something so outrageous. There is and should be a reasonable expectation of privacy on cell phones and private e-mail accounts.

It is time to have this debate.

[Sioen]

Destroy the corporate mass media. Replace it with decentralized shared information gathering. Monetize information as little as possible. Less infrastructure, fewer costs. True freedom and democracy.

[entopticon]

As usual, Dean Baker is right on target.

[NoPCZone]

The Washington Post these days is a Rethugnican rag, despite it's historical reputation as a Democratic Paper. It also suffers badly from the Beltway mentality.

One cannot go and spend time inside the beltway without hearing the disparaging attitudes of many toward the rest of the country as 'hicks' living in 'fly-over country' or 'hooterville'. The arrogance is stunning, their ignorance of their own country is unbelievable.

To the WaPo and the beltway morons:
I didn't vote for George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan because I knew that this was exactly what would eventually happen with Republican (Yes- Clinton is a Republican-Lite) leadership.
I didn't borrow more than I could afford, didn't overpay for a chipboard McMansion in Northern Virginia, didn't use my home as an ATM, lived within my means and even invested toward retirement.

All you bureaucrats had to do was your well defined stinking jobs. Instead, the regulators and bureaucrats hired to oversee banking, investment, insurance and other financial services sold themselves to the highest bidder and forgot who they work for. You should all be fired and banned from your career field for life.

The WaPo bought into this NeoCon fantasyland, cashing the check from the real estate advertisers and all the rest, meanwhile spouting the mantra of tax cuts and deregulation as the answer to every ill. You also forgot who you work for. You should be banned from journalism for life.

[unfoxworthy]

AND...
the only thing FREE about this market...'is the FREEdom of large corporations to buy this Government!
Look into Measure T...it started in CA. (It needs to spread everywhere.)
The reason why corporations should not be able to influence the government (i.e., lobby):
They don't SEE the world like people do.
They don't PLAN the way that people do.
They can't FEEL compassion the way that people do.
They don't SAVE the way that people do (because if they did they be bought and pillaged...that's capitalism!
I like corporatio­ns...don't get me wrong, but, just as with religious views and influence, there should be a separation between business and state.

[bigmadd]

The we part is that we as voters voted to put republicans in power unchecked for so long,We where more worried about ourselfs. If your family isn't doing good then my family isn't dong good in the long run.It was all about ME when it should of been all about WE.

[CAPlatt]

What is this "we voted" crap, kemosabe? They voted twice for an idiot, but there was really only one vote that mattered - Sandra Day O'Conner's. Without her vote, Bush would have been held check in Texas and Cheney, et al would have had to find another patsy, like McCain, which we narrowly missed because of "their" votes. And of course, the real answer is that "we" are all responsible, not because of who we voted for, but because we have tolerated a world where complete idiots who inherit large sums of money and sop the world's resources based on passive investments are made out to somehow deserve to do so. If you are serious about a "we" policy, then ultimately you are in favor of a more socialistic approach to sharing and distributing the world's resources. If a person who is rich by accident of birth deserves to be treated like a king or queen then a person who is poor by birth deserves running water and food, regardless of their "contribution to society."

[k8k9]

Lighten up "Kemosabe!" Seems to me bigmadd talks about an approach to human life. A government run for "we" instead of "me" would be a government truly by and for the people. That does not equal socialism. Idealistic perhaps, but "we" can see what happens with a government based on ME-ME-ME-ME!!! If this entire issue is due to Sanda Day O'Connor's position, things are worse than they appear. It does come down to "me" vs. "we." The "me"-mentality does precisiely anything and everything to maintain "me" - to the detriment of "we."

[DeSwiss]

Excellent. Very well put!

[schatsie]

thank you for callling a spade a spade... you are so correct... the Capitalist FREE MARKET has saddled us with this healthcare (hellcare) system that costs 10 times what it does in Cuba with the same results and they send DOCTORS all over the world...

[roselaw]

I also don't recall the Post or its editorialists complaining about fighting their precious wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and "hopefully" Iran on borrowed money. I don't recall them complaining about the borrowed money used to arm and support Israel to the tune of billions of dollars a year.

[DontSpin]

you guys should read this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-sedaei/on-abortion-pro-choice-is_b_152744.html