Worth Reading

Robert Reich tells us that The Super Rich Get Richer, Everyone Else Gets Poorer, and the Democrats Punt. No kidding.

FDL's Phoenix Woman insists that it is futile to use "game theory" or "change theory" in politics, that when individual Dems do so, they inevitably lose elections. I have two objections to this thesis: one, what she describes is not game theory; two, the main way Dems are assuring a loss in this election is by alienating their base, deliberately, unabashedly and with no apology.

Paul Krugman tells us this isn't structural unemployment, it's unemployment deliberately allowed to fester for the financial advantage of business owners:

So what you need to know is that there is no evidence whatsoever to back these claims. We aren’t suffering from a shortage of needed skills; we’re suffering from a lack of policy resolve. As I said, structural unemployment isn’t a real problem, it’s an excuse — a reason not to act on America’s problems at a time when action is desperately needed.

(There's also a repeated slide-over box advertising a Douthat column; I didn't have the stomach to read it.) (Quote added after initial posting.)

A private company, L.S.S.I., is taking over public libraries. Some people are as unhappy about that as I am; there is no way a for-profit business can provide diversity of resources, imperviousness to book-burners, and resistance to the notion of cutting costs... hence cutting services and book purchases... for the sake of profit. A private corporation has one and only one obligation, and that's to its stockholders, not to the public. A library has one and only one obligation, and that is to the general public. But I'll bet good money it will be proposed in Houston sooner or later. When someone does propose it, I plan to be present at the City Council meeting, ready to use my well-practiced librarian's SHHHHHH!