It gets worse.
I have to preface this post by saying that, from where I'm sitting, every damn left wing whack-job in the US is riding a wave of euphoria that we'd hoped to never see again. That is the only explanation for what I'm hearing and reading lately. Today's radio listening brings forth some musings from a midget I'd thought we'd dispensed with during the late, unlamented Clinton administration. Somehow, I'd hoped he'd become the feature attraction is a minor league toss the dwarf contest in Saskatchewan but apparently Robert Reich is alive and well in Berkeley, CA.
Mr Reich advocated industrial policy back in the early 90's and it was fortunate that the economy was doing so well that President Clinton was able to appoint him Secretary of Labor and he was effectively never to heard from again. Until now.
Comes Mr. Reich to his natural turf, the airwaves of People's Radio International, or whatever the hell PRI stands for, to proclaim the revival of the welfare state!
Mr. Reich proclaims that we need to restore welfare as we knew it because...
1) Welfare benefits are currently capped at 60 months lifetime.
2) Part-time workers are not eligible for unemployment benefits.
He sees some things that fail to penetrate my cognitive core. The first is an unemployment rate of crisis proportions. We have a jobless rate of 7.2%. Now that's hardly desirable but we should bear in mind that Michigan has exceeded that rate for the last five years and the trains are still running on time though, they can't seem to pass a smoking ban. No problem as seen from the smoking section. And it wasn't until the Reagan recovery took hold that we considered anything under 6% unemployment to be impossible in a modern society. I mean, it was accepted statistical wisdom that 6% was about the rate of people who just didn't want to work. In any event, I think the "crisis" is prematurely announced.
Next on the docket is the lifting of welfare limitations. For those in Detroit I'd offer the rough calculation that 60 months is the equivalent of 5 years in some parts of the nation. That's about one year more than the average NFL career which, from where most of us are sitting, is of far more pressing concern. That's a college education, even allowing for getting really drunk on spring break and pursuing a short career on
Girls gone Wild.
If that's not enough to get your attention, I'd refresh your memory as to Mr. Reich's claim to economic fame. He published a couple of books that were well received at places like the Kennedy School of Government and that's largely how he ended up as Slick Willy's batman. His treatises were on the subject of industrial policy, specifically government's role in determining what industries should be helped by government.
His latest,
Supercapitalism, backs away somewhat from his prior desire to see government pick winners out of the soupcon of industry but still advocates massive government involvement in the workplace and industry. Just reading the reviews on Amazon of the book will suffice to give you a flavor of his thinking.
Amazon.com: Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life (Vintage): Robert B. Reich: Books
Why should we be concerned? All four foot, ten inches of Mr. Reich is on President-elect Obama's transition team, economics division. Let's hope it's merely a sop to the left.
The larger point is that I'm hearing an awful lot of what sounds like a Great Society renewal effort, by Mr. Reich and quite a few others. Apparently nothing appeals like an old, bad idea. It was bad enough when all the talk was of a new New Deal.
Um, without sounding too crass, dare I say, thank goodness there's a war on? Of course, I'm assuming they've noticed.
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