tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post7483905260941405053..comments2024-03-06T06:34:42.881-05:00Comments on EconoSpeak: Robert Samuelson Whines About Muddling ThroughUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-21656015592887118002013-12-21T21:01:27.211-05:002013-12-21T21:01:27.211-05:00Hence, I don't fell sorry for him, Fred Hiatt,...Hence, I don't fell sorry for him, Fred Hiatt, Jeff Bezos, or Katherine Weymouth, for whom a one month social security check would be equal to the cost of one small dinner party for friends, son hence they don't see the significance of eliminating it..rickstersherpa@msn.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14489905720399087036noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-164493014352411482013-12-21T20:56:13.495-05:002013-12-21T20:56:13.495-05:00RJS has made a small fortune singing this tune (at...RJS has made a small fortune singing this tune (at least small compared to the huge fortunes of his paymasters), so I think we have another example of the truth discovered by Upton Sinclair: <br /><br />Upton Sinclair — ‘It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.’rickstersherpa@msn.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14489905720399087036noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-43839481278329519172013-12-20T00:04:51.995-05:002013-12-20T00:04:51.995-05:00Needless to say, Bruce, I fully agree. At some le...Needless to say, Bruce, I fully agree. At some level I feel sorry for Robert J. Samuelson, but not all that sorry. That WaPo crowd really needs to face up and fess up, but they are in no hurry to do so.rosserjb@jmu.eduhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09300046915843554101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-73441713444135075622013-12-19T00:08:42.666-05:002013-12-19T00:08:42.666-05:00Barkley as you well know from our many past conver...Barkley as you well know from our many past conversations the fundamental problem for RJS etc is that they have invested themselves so heavily in 'Social Security is the problem' largely but not entirely to prove the Reagan case that 'Government is never the solution' that they are backed into a corner.<br /><br />It is kind of the opposite of "Conservatism cannot fail, it can only be failed". In this case the arguement runs:<br /><br />"Social Security cannot succeed, so it must BE failed" Otherwise several generations of "bi-partisan" "centrist" "sensible" conclusions dating back to at least the Kerrey-Danforth Commission of 1994 would have to be conceded as abject nonsense. And worse perhaps a certain Dean Baker (and Mark Weisbrot) as authors of 1999's "Social Security: the Phony Crisis" would have to be acknoweledged as having been right. Again. (With some spinoff credit to people like you and me that, you know, actually paid attention in real time).<br /><br />And God Forbid we let the DFH's win. (or numerate economists like Dean and you).Bruce Webbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13222670342780912788noreply@blogger.com