Conventional Stupidity
A number of people have linked to James K. Galbraith article, Actually, The Retirement Age Is Too High, for the Unconventional Wisdom section of Foreign Policy. The point is simple, we need jobs for the un- and underemployed, so an increase in the retirement age will make the situation worse, not better. This was the reason for the massive demonstrations among young people in France over the decision to increase that country’s retirement age. France’s college students realized that it meant they were going to have to wait another year for a job to open up.
Jamie Galbraith also writes for New Deal 2.0, the latest addition to my blogroll.
Marshall Auerback is another writer at ND 2.0 and he has a nice piece on Drinking Austerity Kool-Aid in 2011.
You will rarely, if ever see these guys on the talk shows as they have committed the unpardonable sin of getting things right. Talk show time is limited to John McCain and people who have a record of bad analysis. As long as you are willing to spout the “conventional wisdom” of the Versailles dinner party circuit, you obviously deserve to be on television to agree with the corporate owners.
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New Deal 2.0 has, over the past few months, become one of my favorite sites.
I don’t always agree with all of the writers on the site, but it isn’t because they haven’t done their “homework”. People aren’t required to agree with me for me to read them, they are only required to present a reasoned, cogent argument based on facts.