or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
December 03, 2007
I See The Future, Sort Of
Two weeks ago I tried to explain why it's such a bad idea for Obama to start talking about the terrifying Social Security "crisis." And it's even worse when Clinton responds that Obama's proposed fix would be a trillion dollar tax increase. Inevitably, I said, this would cause us to hear this on right-wing radio in 2012:
HANNITY: How can you criticize Republican proposals to privatize Social Security, when even Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton agree we should be VERY VERY WORRIED and that the only alternative to privatization is a MASSIVE TAX INCREASE?
I got the date wrong, however. Here's Paul Krugman, today:
Why I get mad at Obama about Social SecurityPosted at December 3, 2007 06:44 PMSo I just spent a fairly unpleasant 15 minutes on right-wing talk radio. And the host said — this is rough, not a verified quote — “Look, everyone knows that Social Security is going bust, and we’d all be better off if we could put out money in 401(k)s. Even Barack Obama says so!”
Well, we can all see the future, sort of.
Winning the lotto involves getting the number right on the right day. The fact that you thought it would take until 2012 for this to come up, is sort of...innocently cute.
I like Krugman because he's the anti-Greenspan, for now, but put the guy in charge of something, and I could come to hate him and his policies pronto.
It's hard to take these guys seriously because they can't call a spade a spade. The underlying issue wit the economy is cheap money and usuary, and that includes cheap credit to consumers as well as the subprime thingee going on right now. The negative savings rate is fueled by credit of all sorts that creates lifetime wage and credit slaves and a wholly institutionalized, approved and accepted method of passing wealth to the overclass. If we had a pot to p*ss in, the average rube wouldn't be as concerned about SS as they are.
But that's not likely to be addressed because credit is the only fuel that this economy has left, and economy is politics.
Posted by: Ted at December 4, 2007 08:23 AM
