It seems that if you were going to decide the worst imaginable platform for a candidate to run on, it would have to involve healthcare he couldn’t use and jobs he couldn’t do.
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Now, see, if I had known I could make a living on eBay, I would have skipped going to college. And getting my Masters. And getting dressed every morning…
Sure, all you need to make money on eBay is an endless supply of stuff made by other people, originally purchased by other people with money they earned at real jobs and then passed on to you, and another group of people with real jobs to earn the money to buy stuff from you. Obviously the whole US economy should transform itself to this model.
“They’re the same ones that didn’t predict this housing crisis we’re in. They’re the same ones that didn’t predict the dot-com meltdown. They’re the same ones that didn’t predict the inflation that’s staring us in the face today.”
...actually there were plenty of economists who predicted every one of those things. But because they were saying things the people in power didn’t want to hear, they were ignored and shunned. The economists who were endlessly supportive of whatever big finance/government wanted were/are handsomely rewarded…
It’s very similar to the way there were plenty of people who thought a “preemptive” invasion of Iraq was a very bad idea. Of course, the people who were wrong (but cheerleaders) were rewarded with NY Times opinion columns and such, while the people who were correct are still considered DFH’s - and ignored…
I’ve begun to understand what Cassandra must have felt like…
Nah, Cassandra at least didn’t get called a dirty fucking hippie. What’s so amazing about the current situation (for me, at least) is how people whose entire track record consists in having been egregiously wrong every time for the past decade still get treated as if they have some kind of credibility.
Interesting that at one point in the article, one of the interviewees mentions that most of the people making a living off eBay are retirees. Who, presumably, can afford to make their living off of eBay because they don’t have to worry about medical insurance, and if they have a slow month they can use their Social Security benefits to get by.
Hey, if that is what John McCain wants for everybody in America, I’m all for it. Somehow I suspect that’s not the point he’s trying to make, however.
So McMaverick’s plan to get the American economy going is for us all to become junk dealers. At some point this plan falls apart, as sales depend upon someone else being willing to pay for the junk you have to sell. As incomes decline and get eaten up by other costs (gas, food, RE taxes) folks won’t have much left over to buy stuff on eBay or at your neighborhood junk dealer.
And with the rising cost of oil, we can’t depend on an export market for our junk. If you are an up and coming affluent in India, why buy junk on eBay from the US, when you can get junk closer to home (China, Malaysia, etc).
My personal plan to add a little extra income involves tapping into the local oil pipeline and setting up a gas station on my front lawn.
``You know the economists?’’ McCain said June 12 at Federal Hall, near the New York Stock Exchange. ``They’re the same ones that didn’t predict this housing crisis we’re in. They’re the same ones that didn’t predict the dot-com meltdown. They’re the same ones that didn’t predict the inflation that’s staring us in the face today.’‘
Hey, look at that, McCain’s cribbing talking points from Hillary Clinton now.
Though something tells me that all this pooh-poohing of elitist, ivory tower economics is going to go right out the window the instant that someone suggests to McCain that supply-side economics doesn’t work, or that lasseiz-faire economics may possess limitations.