Post by robeiae on Dec 10, 2016 16:40:40 GMT -5
Paul Krugman's op-ed piece at the NYT: Trump and Pruitt will make America gasp again.
The piece opens by admonishing those who think Trump can bring back the America of the 70's (economically), noting that the manufacturing base simply can't be returned to those levels, but then saying the following:
The rest of the piece is about global warming, how bad pollution was before the EPA, and of course, how the Koch brothers are going to benefit from a crackdown on the EPA.
Actually, he doesn't really make that last point, he just implies. Really, he doesn't make many points at all, at least not using anything one might consider actual evidence. Typical Krugman, right? We should take him at his word because he's really smart and won a Nobel Prize...
But two things I can't help but point out:
1) No one is asking for a return to the economy or the world of the seventies. People want a BOOMING, growing economy, not stagflation and gas lines.
2) If Krugman is right--and I think he is--insofar as the manufacturing base in the US cannot become what was decades ago, then there's little chance of the air suddenly not being safe to breathe, right? After, the cars of today are not the cars of the seventies. Trump's not going to impact that; we're not suddenly going to have gas-guzzling V-8s all over the road, replacing typical economy sedans, smart cars, Priuses, etc. Where is all this new air pollution going to come from, if not from cars and new factories?
And I have to think Krugman is actually smart enough to know he's talking shit here, right? So, the question: do you think Krugman wrote the piece first, then he or someone else came up with the title? Or did he come up with or hear "make America gasp again" somewhere, then manufacture a story around it?
The piece opens by admonishing those who think Trump can bring back the America of the 70's (economically), noting that the manufacturing base simply can't be returned to those levels, but then saying the following:
But in other ways Mr. Trump can indeed restore the world of the 1970s. He can, for example, bring us back to the days when, all too often, the air wasn’t safe to breathe. And he’s made a good start by selecting Scott Pruitt, a harsh foe of pollution regulation, to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Make America gasp again!
Actually, he doesn't really make that last point, he just implies. Really, he doesn't make many points at all, at least not using anything one might consider actual evidence. Typical Krugman, right? We should take him at his word because he's really smart and won a Nobel Prize...
But two things I can't help but point out:
1) No one is asking for a return to the economy or the world of the seventies. People want a BOOMING, growing economy, not stagflation and gas lines.
2) If Krugman is right--and I think he is--insofar as the manufacturing base in the US cannot become what was decades ago, then there's little chance of the air suddenly not being safe to breathe, right? After, the cars of today are not the cars of the seventies. Trump's not going to impact that; we're not suddenly going to have gas-guzzling V-8s all over the road, replacing typical economy sedans, smart cars, Priuses, etc. Where is all this new air pollution going to come from, if not from cars and new factories?
And I have to think Krugman is actually smart enough to know he's talking shit here, right? So, the question: do you think Krugman wrote the piece first, then he or someone else came up with the title? Or did he come up with or hear "make America gasp again" somewhere, then manufacture a story around it?
