The Depression is ALL YOUR FAULT, WORKERS!

Here is a perfect example of the sort of thinking that voters are getting ready to put back in office this November, from Kevin Hassett, director of economic-policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, and former advisor to Ol' Honest John McCain:

"Your Fat Paycheck Keeps Your Neighbor Unemployed

That's right, workers- the economic collapse was all your fault.

"The biggest problem with the labor market right now is that wages are too high...Economics teaches that full employment would be reached if wages adjust downward, to a level that better reflects current circumstances. At lower wages, employers would desire more workers."

Perfect reasoning, and an extremely logical argument for reinstituting slavery, since if all workers worked for free, you bet they'd all have jobs. All we have to do is to agree to give up a hundred years of progress for the middle class, and corporations will let everyone have a job. What a deal, right?

"A number of reasons help explain why wages don’t and won’t drop, beginning with federal and state minimum-wage laws."

This assertion, of course, has never been backed up with any kind of evidence whatsoever, but the paid lackeys of the rich, at places like the American Enterprise Institute keep trotting it out.
Let's do away with the estate tax, paid by about 2500 rich families a year, and make up the money by reducing the pay of burger flippers everywhere in the country. That's fair, right?

"Second, because union contracts generally cover multiple years, adjusting wages in response to economic circumstances would require a return to the bargaining table, which rarely happens."

Economic circumstances would "require" a return to the bargaining table; i.e. when the rich, through their insatiable greed, have nearly destroyed the economy, the answer is for the non-rich to voluntarily allow the rich to walk away from their legal, contractual obligations, in return for which, the non-rich get to keep their jobs at two thirds the pay, rather than having the rich export the jobs to China. Think I'm kidding:

"Third, the natural reluctance of workers to accept lower pay is amplified by how their wage helps define their identity. A $60,000-a-year office worker might have an extra-hard time coming to terms with becoming a $40,000-a-year worker."

I see. It's all an issue of identity and ego. It's not the money. The extra-hard time workers would have at giving up a third of their pay (so that the rich can continue the plundering that caused our economic problems, without paying any kind of price at all) is just a matter of their egos. Just buck up and get back to work, peons.

"In an example of poor policy timing, Democrats chose to lift the minimum wage during the worst possible time, just as wages should have been reduced."

Poor policy timing. The minimum wage was not adjusted for inflation from 1997 to 2007- the period during which Republicans controlled Congress, and the longest time in history that the minimum wage was not raised. It wasn't "poor policy timing" that the Republicans were content to let the poorest workers among us see their real wages decline year after year, but it is "poor policy timing" that the Democrats corrected the problem when they had the chance.

It also wasn't "poor policy timing" when Ronald Reagan and the Bushes did away with the regulation that protected us from an economic collapse for seventy years, thus causing our current problems. It wasn't "poor policy timing" when they gave trillions to the rich while spending more trillions on a useless war- two real causes of our economic collapse. It wasn't "poor policy timing" when they actively encouraged the export of our jobs to third world countries. But it will always be a poor time to help American workers.

"State unemployment insurance programs usually limit benefits to 26 weeks. However, between various state and federal programs to extend benefits during the recession, unemployment benefits can continue up to a total of 99 weeks, giving people less incentive to pick up and move on when they lose their jobs."

They talk so glibly about community and family values, but if your boss can make more by sending your job to China, well, give up your community and your family and go somewhere else. Where, I don't quite know, seeing as how there are five job seekers in America for every job. Maybe they could become illegal immigrants in China.

"Another complication is the American culture of homeownership. In today’s market, lots of people couldn’t sell their house and relocate even if they wanted to. So chalk one up for renting."

Yeah, workers, give up your homes. Give up your dreams of a better life for yourselves and your kids. Learn to live with nothing. Learn to accept poverty as an acceptable alternative to starvation. That's the new American dream- nothing. Unless you're rich. Give up a third of your pay, give up your house, give up the idea that when you enter into a legal agreement with your employers, they have any obligation to keep that agreement, give up your unemployment insurance, give up your community and your family, and maybe, just maybe the rich will keep their end of the bargain, and agree to exploit your labor until the next time they wreck the economy, at which point they will want another third of your income back, and want you to live in hobo jungles in order to keep your jobs.

I have said before that American workers had better face the fact that either third world incomes will come up to theirs, or theirs will go down until they aren't making any more than someone living in a tin shack next to an open sewer in Jakarta. Apparently, with the American people's full cooperation, the rich are going to make that choice for us.