Friday, December 06, 2013

Growth

It's not just that unequal income distributions are just, well, you know, bad.  And that it's worse that working hard and following the rules doesn't work so well anymore.

But what's getting lost in the ZOMG, inequality! discussion is that supply-side and austerity policy regimes have lowered growth rates--that the result has been idle capital and idle labor sacrificed to the confidence fairies.  Every economist is supposed to agree that more growth is better than less.  Policies that increase inequality AND lower growth rates should be uniformly rejected by Serious People and politicians alike.

The only thing worse than crappy wages is not being able to get a job at crappy wages, while factories degrade and earthmovers rust.