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Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
I haven't read the book, but it's Reich's schtick, and I'm pretty familiar with that.
Something that is critical that I think Reich generally underemphasizes that you pick up on here is really brought out well in those Hans Rosling videos if you have seen them. We do need consumers to have a robust economy, and traditionally the US middle class has been the biggest body of consumers anywhere in the world. But as the rest of the world catches up, especially India and China, there's just not as much incentive on the global stage for the US to keep it's big middle class. I think there are serious economic forces that would push the class separatiosn in both the US and India and China to move more toward each other - more stratified in the US, with more poverty, but with more wealth and a greater middle class in India and China. Yes, we need consumers, but they don't have to be here.
Kind of meta, but I see those tendencies every day in my work. And I don't think they're particularly good for us.
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I think Reich knows this, but doesn't want to raise it. Undoes his argument from an angle he doesn't deal with in the text.
You're dead right. And that's the kind of thing that gives policy wonks in DC who actually know what's going on night sweats. And if I might be cynical, I think that's what secretly drives many neocons and GOP stalwarts to push for/hope for things like war with Iran, etc. I think a lot of people feel we need some form of massive disruption to reassert dominance... set the emreging markets back a peg. I hope that's just a dark suspicion.
