I have explained how Governor Romney and Representative Ryan have self-destructed because they have followed Charles Murray's demands that the wealthy denounce working class Americans' supposed refusal to take personal responsibility for their lives by refusing to work. Murray is the far right's leading intellectual. Murray's Myth is that the wealthy are rich because they are morally superior to the lazy poor and that the poor are not employed because they are lazy. Murray's explanation for his support for Governor Romney says it all: "Who better to be president of the greatest of all capitalist nations than a man who got rich by being a brilliant capitalist?"
Consider the missing aspect of Romney's famous denunciation of the 47% -- jobs. A careful reading shows that Romney implicitly embraced Murray's Myth.
There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.
That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what...These are people who pay no income tax....
[M]y job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.
I propose that America test Murray, Romney and Ryan's claims about the supposed refusal of the 47% to take "personal responsibility." Romney says "I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives." I think that Murray, Romney, and Ryan's claims that the 47% are unwilling to take personal responsibility are false. I think that the issue has nothing to do with Romney's persuasive abilities. I also know how to test the validity of their claims.
Even Romney knows that his claims about the 47% fail on many levels. First, many of the 47% vote for Republicans.
Second, Romney knows that many of the 47% are in no position to avoid being "dependent upon government." Tens of millions of the 47% are minor children. Tens of millions are elderly and retired. Millions are profoundly disabled -- hundreds of thousands of them injured veterans.
Third, the adult members of the 47% overwhelmingly took personal responsibility for their lives. They paid taxes -- income, social security, sales, and property and corporation taxes. (A word about tax "incidence" -- the people who actually bear the economic cost of a tax frequently differ from the entity that nominally pays the taxes. Economists generally believe that businesses pass on sales taxes to customers, landlords pass on property taxes to their renters, both the employer and employee portions of Social Security are borne by workers, and that corporations generally pass on corporate taxes to their customers in the form of higher prices.) These members of the 47 percent eventually became elderly, sick, disabled, or unemployed.
Fourth, hundreds of thousands of the 47% are "dependent upon government" because they took "personal responsibility" and cared for our lives at the risk of their lives and health. These are the veterans, police officers, and firefighters who were injured protecting the public, and the families of those who died protecting the public. These are the government employees who sacrificed their health or even their lives to protect us. The disabled former government employees are in fact victims, but they generally do not view themselves as victims. Those that die protecting us often leave minor children who are "dependent on government." Many of them will choose to follow in their deceased parent's path and protect us by routinely risking their lives and their health when they become adults.
In his rant against the 47%, Romney implicitly adopted Murray's claim that the unemployed lack jobs not because of the Great Recession, but because they are shiftless and refuse to work and take personal responsibility. (Romney and Ryan often make inconsistent claims that unemployment is caused by regulation, or taxes, or whatever is their complaint de jour against Obama.)
Testing Murray's Myth
We can test the claim that unemployment is high because the unemployed are shiftless. My colleagues at UMKC have detailed how to create a job guarantee program that offers a job to everyone who wishes to work. Our experience is that such jobs prove very attractive to the unemployed. A jobs guarantee program creates many winners. The public gains from the services provided by the newly employed. The unemployed gain not only income but far greater psychological well-being. The government gains greater tax revenue. Businesses see increased demand for their goods and services.
Americans overwhelmingly seek to take personal responsibility for their lives. Indeed, Americans work extraordinary hours. American mothers with young children frequently work outside the home. So let's put the vicious abuse that Murray urged the wealthy to heap on the purportedly shiftless unemployed a rest and actually test his claims through a job guarantee program.
I predict that the Republicans will fight ferociously to prevent us from testing the truth of their abuse of the poor. They cannot allow a test because they know they are slandering many millions of Americans. Their first nightmare is a job guarantee program that leads to television images of millions of Americans eagerly signing up to jobs. Murray's Myth would be destroyed in full public view. Their second nightmare is that the job guarantee would speed the recovery and provide useful projects and services that Americans would love. The slander is despicable, but the fact that they will do anything to prevent a test of Murray's Myth compounds the slander with a toxic mix of cowardice and hypocrisy.
This post originally appeared at Benzinga.
 |
 |
|
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
===
Oh, stop it. That's not what Romney meant, and that's not what Romney's audience heard. The 47% may be a statistic, but "the 47%" is Republican code for blacks, Hispanics, and single mothers.
What he was saying is that blacks, Hispanics, and single mothers won't take responsibility for their lives and will vote for Obama. That's what you need to argue against. Otherwise, you just look silly, arguing over the elderly and military vets while conservatives giggle at your mistranslation.
Out here in TX I'm constantly amazed at the amount of people that claim to be Repubs that are constantly vying for Social Services. They take w/ one hand and slap w/ the other.
Amazing, again thanks for the clarification. Cheers
1. remove all support except government support by removing religion from society , weaken the family , take mothers out of their homes ,put them to work supporting the state, take over raising and training and educating the children,destroy respect for the dignity of the individual by promoting abortion and marginalizing the old. once this is done the rest is easy people have no where left to turn but to government programs because the government has taken or destroyed all the resources that were formally counted on and necessary for everyday life. There is no compassion in this new society just power and control over the lives of citizens.
The original economists, Smith and Ricardo for example, firmly believed in the ultimate virtues of the aristocrats, land owners and the emergent new capitalist class while everyone believed that any increase in income of the poor would only result in drunkeness, more babies and bad workers. This neoclassical school still dominates the economic profession, dispite all evidence to the contrary. They tout 'the market' as the perfect 'invisible hand', but fail to tell you that those ideas only apply, and only apply in theory, to a 'perfectly free market'. The problem is, there is no such thing as a 'perfectly free market'; never has been, never will be. The 'invisible hand' is a visible lie.
I reminded my dad that up until about 5 years ago when my brother became to old to claim, he was part of the 47%. As a widower with two children, not only did he get deductions for each of us, but he received social security checks for each of us as well. In the end, considering his income, he probably didn't pay taxes.
He defended it with "well, the video was filmed illegally!" Says about enough. It made me very sad.
Neither my dad nor Romney said anything close to what you're saying. You're just making up what you think they meant on the subject. Please stop.
That is not an "inarticulate" statement...it cannot be seriously described as a "campaign strategy"...it is not a statement from somebody that truly cares...that is not a statement that can be spinned or explained away for being "taken out of context"..In short it is an unforgiveable comment.
It is one the most arrogant and condescending comments ever recorded from a wealthy candidate running for president. It doesn't excuse the insult to make the claim that he really doesn't feel that way; he was just telling the donors what they wanted to hear! That's just makes it worse!
If Mitt Romney really doesn't feel this way then he needs to acknowledge the severity of the statement and give a real apology. He needs to say he was wrong and not that he was just being inartful or explain that he didn't know he was being recorded. He needs to convince the American people that he regrets the ideas expressed not that he regrets getting caught making them.
He reminds of a defendant who claims innocence during the trial but once convicted of the crime only expresses remorse during the sentencing phase. The remorse is only because he didn't get away with it.
But, the onus may be on 'you' to explain 'normal' behavior.
The average american watches 35 hours of TV a week (and doesn't read any real books).
The average american is fat, sliding towards obesity.
The average american barely graduates from high school (only 58% graduate on time)...we're talking about C/C- level students.
The average american, despite being 2 paychecks from being broke, chooses to have children...
What kind of behavior is this? The life of the 'average' american sounds pretty pathetic...and they're clearly not working as hard as they need to, to compete.
The land of the obese people who hate family planning.
BTW "average" anything is bulls**t. Show me someone with 1.8 kids or 2.2 kids - whatever the average number is for an American family. Being poor in this country isn't the same as being poor somewhere in Africa, or in Haiti - that's human suffering on a completely different scale, but to suggest that poverty exists because of laziness is absurd. Poverty exists becasue wealth exists, you can't have one without the other because they are measured against each other. Trump wants the shiftless masses to watch TV - so does every CEO out there with a product to sell to the 47%.
"What kind of behavior is this? The life of the 'average' american sounds pretty pathetic...and they're clearly not working as hard as they need to, to compete."
Using a few uncorrelated facts does not automatically suggest a conclusion about the quality of the "Average American". Are there profound problems to be dealt with? Of course. But coming to judgmental conclusions is not helpful.
And, worse yet, they don't even realize that Romney was talking about them when he said they were all lazy moochers who don't take responsibility for themselves.
And lo and behold, once kicked off, they failed to die in the streets, and most found jobs!
Welfare reform took many off wekfare who graduated to the more generous benefit of ssi.
Most of the jobs can only supplement welfare as many cannot live off a 10 hour a week job in retail.
Welfare reform was passed in 1996 and the average GDP growth throughout the 1990s was 3.2%.
A well meaning, but short sighted JFK is responsible for those dying in the streets, not welfare reform.