Worthwhile following this thread
Via Robert Waldmann via Paul Krugman: The central fact of U.S. political economy, the source of our exceptionalism, is that lower-income whites vote for politicians who redistribute income upward and weaken the safety net because they think the welfare state is for nonwhites to Noah’s opinion : A few people have noticed me tweeting a lot more about racial/cultural issues in the last two years, and less about the nuts and bolts of economics. Well, let me explain why.
I am expecting balkanization to increase, at least for a while. I note two polls from Pew.
In the first one looks at responses to “Racial discrimination is the main reason blacks can’t get ahead”. Agreement is as follows:
White 35%
Black 59%
Hispanic 45%
So on this question about the condition of Black people, hispanics fall between whites and Blacks, but slightly closer to whites.
Now, look at % of Americans who say immigrants are making American better in the long run:
White 41%
Black 44%
Hispanic 61%
This is more of a Hispanic issue, and in it, Blacks are between Whites and Hispanic, but much closer to Whites.
We’re moving from a world where minority essentially meant Black a few decades ago to one where there are multiple groups, and none are in the majority. Plus the various groups don’t agree with each other. Blacks agree with whites when the question has to do with hispanics. Hispanics agree with whites when the question has to do with Black people. My bet is that black people and hispanic people agree with each other when the question has to do with white people.
It used to be that whites voted Democrat v. Republican, and Black people voted more or less monolithically for Democrats. Hopefully something will change the trend, but I wouldn’t be surprised if in a couple of decades whites and hispanics start voting more monolithically too. Note that I am not endorsing that outcome – I hope it doesn’t happen, and I would prefer a melting pot over one where every ethnic group has its own agenda, goals, grievances and political parties.
But… let me the first to welcome you to Lebanon.
Smith: a lot more about racial/cultural issues in the last two years, and less about the nuts and bolts of economics
In America, we have had under-investment and political dysfunction for decades because a significant chunk of white Americans don’t want to pay for stuff that benefits black Americans. … In the airport line. Met some Trump fans from Louisiana. They kept saying the EITC gives money to lazy black people who game the system.
Don’t need to pay for very much stuff for anybody if we had a healthy labor economy: that’s called high (at least not today’s uniquely US morbidity level) union density. PS, EITC transfers all of 1/2 of 1% of income while the bottom 40% earn less than what we think the minimum wage should be ($15) — so not a big issue. We want a healthy patient, not a collection of bandages.
This means that economists can write optimal tax models and do minimum wage studies all day long, but the people in power are not listening. They’re not going to listen. … They’re not going to listen because ethnic divisions (a polite euphemism for “racism”) have made Republicans care much less about repairing roads and bridges, funding science, providing quality education, helping the poor, and tons of other stuff that makes a nation work.
They will get busy repairing roads and bridges and health care, etc., when labor concentrates the same money as (former) oligarchs and most all the votes!
or at least, the policy-focused part of econ – is about recommending optimal policies to leaders who will take your advice.
Try advising the general public that the core pathology of most or our most exacerbating problems is labor’s loss of market power through de-unionization — which happened invisibly to most people, a la the slow boiling frog thing We can wake up anytime we want — we can mandate certification and re-certification elections at every work place (stealing a page from the Republican anti-union play book in Wisconsin, et al!).
I would add the wrinkle of voting for one, three or five year re-certification to cool rancorous arguments with employees who are not sure they want to organize — plurality rules.
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Why Not Hold Union Representation Elections on a Regular Schedule?
November 1st, 2017 – Andrew Strom