Stirling Newberry explains the cost of conservatism:
The costs of conservatism, in a bi-partisan form, are those things that can’t be fixed by a Democratic President because they have become part of the political landscape: over-financialization of the American economy, the waste of privatized health care, over militarization of the American economy, and the externalization of global warming. …
…The cost of not having comprehensive national health care is roughly 5% of GDP because America spends 15% of GDP on health care, and a comprehensive system generally saves 1/3 over privatized systems. The cost of over financialization is estimated by Krugman to be 3% of GDP. The difference between the Bush defense department, including the neo-colonial wars, is 2% of GDP, that’s defense plus .
The costs associated with global warming are harder to pin down, but Stirling does some figuring and comes up with 2 to 4 percent of GDP.
These problems reinforce each other, insurance companies shift output from other activities, to financial ones. Spending on wars means there is less productive manufacturing, and more war manufacturing, pushing effort into juggling money. Tax breaks drain investment from private enterprise, making it harder, seemingly to shift the economy. In other words, we are like the person who drinks too much because they smoke too much.
The sad thing is, this nation has the wealth to afford decent living standards, retirement and health care for citizens, but we are squandering that wealth in stupid ways. Thanks to conservatism.
Heres an interacive game where you try to hit Bush with a shoe.
http://sockandawe.com/
Doug, enjoyed that.
Conservatism is a misnomer. What it conserves is illusions – and that, of course, causes suffering.
“The sad thing is, this nation has the wealth to afford decent living standards, retirement and health care for citizens, but we are squandering that wealth in stupid ways.”
Well, we still have excellent living standards, Gallup recently found a large majority saying they were satified with their health coverage and quality, and Social Security provides a safety net for the elderly. We are having an econonmic crisis now that has little to do with “conservative” policies, which would have done the exact opposite of what the Greenspan Fed did and the Democratic Fannie and Freddie giveaway did.
You should really get your facts straight, and certainly you should quit reading Firedoglake on that score.
I just lost my job, so I’m kind of speachless.
30+ years of conservative rule have brought us to the very brink of disaster.
To listen to our Republican Senator’s bitch about the wages of the UAW, while forking over BILLIONS to the finanacial sector, was a joke.
A bad one, at that.
Wake up, you Consvervative idiot’s – you can’t have a consumer economy if the only ones who can afford to cunsume are the rich! We can’t have them consuming caviar while we try to do with “Dollar Menu’s.”
Let’s address that first…
Then there is no more ME, there is WE. WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER!
You can sink alone, or in a group. As a TV ad in NYC back in the ’60’s and ’70’s said about swimming – ‘there’s safety in numbers, and more fun, too!’
Oh, Doug, that was excellent.
(My score was terrible from laughing so hard! I’ll keep practicing.)
The pathetic thing is, “Americaneocon” (#4) will believe everything is just fine until it hits him. And then he’ll blame liberals.
“We are having an economic crisis now that has little to do with ‘conservative’ policies…” Americaneocon
So you think the tooth fairy brought us the recession – which may turn out to be a depression which riavals the Great Depression? Of the lsat 10 years we have had a Republican majority in Congress for 8 years. Of the last 10 years we had a Republican in the WH for 8 years. Of course neocons are saying Bush was not a ‘real’ conservative now that the economic shit has hit the fan.
Do explain to me, if Bush was not implementing ‘conservative’ policies over the last 8 years, where was the opposition from Republicans who marched in lock-step and rubber-stamped his every whim? The ‘do-nothing’ Congress of ’06 – Republicans.
OK – If Bush is not a ‘conservative’, and Firedoglake is not a reliable source, and the recession is not your fault, where do we go for enlightnement? Limbaugh & O’Reiley? Puhleeese!!!!!
Did you notice that the site where you throw virtual shoes at a dodging Bush was sponsored by Natualizer shoes. Got to love Wall Street. That’s like Lorena Bobbit being a sponsor for Ginsu knives.
You should really get your facts straight, and certainly you should quit reading Firedoglake on that score.
AmericanNeoCon, I refuse to be lectured by someone who’s living in fantasyland. I’d like to see a link to your poll by Gallup. I can show you numerous polls that show overwhelmingly the country believes it’s on the wrong track.
Satisfied with health care in this country? You gotta be kidding me. It’s broken and everyone knows it. Studies show it costs more than socialized medicine and delivers less. Think about it – every doctors office in the country has to have someone fulltime who does nothing but deal with dozens of for-profit insurance companies. Healthcare costs – that foreign competitors don’t have to bear – are part of the reason why the Big Three automakers are on the ropes.
True conservative policies may not have responded to the economic crisis the way Paulson et al. did, but anti-regulation, starve-the-government conservative ideology is squarely responsible for creating this monumental disaster in the first place. Learn the difference between the two. And get your facts straight.