#2 One other thing the author of the critique didn't mention - it was the caving in during the period of the '50's - '70's by management to union demands for retirement plans and health care that is the single most powerful factor eroding the competitiveness of U.S. business today. Those times may have been good for the workers, and these times may be good, too, in terms of pensions and income stream security for those workers in retirement, but the havoc big labor and a cowardly management class wreaked on the nation was considerable.
But the rest of his article is spot on, and lying propagandists like Krugman need this type of response, particularly critiquing the mythology that the type of affluence of the 1950's is something that can be duplicated ever again. It was a unique time in history, with a unique set of circumstances that won't ever happen another time. The notion that we can somehow get back to that scenario by promoting labor and government regulation would actually make for a worse scenario, not a better one, of far fewer jobs in today's world where the labor market is increasingly global. Krugman's fairy tale needs to be dispelled, as often and loudly as possible. |