Evading responsibility...

Mr. Bob Herbert, a thoughtful individual, makes excellent points in his serious column about the current economy- An American Catastrophe. He writes that "...Detroit and its environs are suffering the agonies of the economic damned because of policies, crafted at the highest national and corporate levels, that resulted in the implosion of crucially important components of America’s manufacturing base. Those decisions have had a profound effect on the fortunes not just of Detroit, or even Michigan, but the entire U.S. economy. “We’ve been living with the illusion that manufacturing — making things — is so 20th century,” said Mr. Shaiken, “and that we could succeed by concentrating, for example, on complex financial instruments while abandoning the industrial base that sustained so many American families.” The idea that the fallout from the wrongheaded economic concepts of the past 30 or 40 years could be contained, with the damage limited to the increasingly troubled urban areas while sparing prosperous suburbia, has now proved as phony as Bernie Madoff’s fortune. Americans, whether they live in big cities, suburban towns or rural areas, need jobs, and when those jobs are eliminated (for whatever reasons — technological advances, globalization) without being replaced, the national economy is guaranteed at some point to hit a wall..."

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Unfortunately, the mindset of many citizens and politicians is such that government is criticized and blamed and minimized during the good times. When the situation turns negative, everyone rushes to the government for aid- whether it is unemployment insurance or health insurance or the big financial bailouts. Mr. Herbert does not address the fundamental conflict- that capitalism in its raw form is a high risk game- winners can win big, but there are many losers, and the losers lose big. In such a system, the losers are at the mercy of the winners. Losers have to beg, and winners can choose to help by donating to charities and creating foundations. However the operative word is "can choose to help." USA is not short of wealth- one just needs to look at the bonuses paid out by the Sachs crooks. If a system that provides for the many is desired, there are a number of models- Sweden, for example. But the Swedish system does not provide for the big wins as much as the USA does. Before blaming the government and globalization and industrial policy, Mr. Herbert and others should dig deeper and debate the fundamental system that has caused this outcome. The biggest problem, from this writer's point of view, is the lack of true education in the public, and a lack of desire in the public to get educated.