With the Democratic senate caucus still away in Wisconsin, the GOP caucus has found a loophole to pass its anti-worker bill. The policy and social justice implications of this move are obvious, and it’s unnecessary to belabor them here; simply put, this is a bad, bad, bill- a brash political move to seize the upper hand against workers for good.
But it will backfire. It didn’t take long for the opinion polling to demonstrate clearly that Scott Walker’s overreach would earn him ill repute in a state with a proud history of labor rights. Walker and his GOP lackies chose to plow ahead, amid ceaseless protests in the Capitol (which have only grown tonight, of course). Now it’s time for the reckoning. This anti-worker bill will be used in every coming election, both in Wisconsin and around the country, as a way to show that the GOP has gone too far.
I was wondering when the tipping point would come; my economics training taught me about social structure of accumulation theory, in which an economic downturn can resolidify support for various policies that will restore economic balance. We didn’t quite get that in 2008, because of politics. Instead, we got a half-baked stimulus and a dead-on-arrival Employee Free Choice Act. We got a weakened health care bill that was a Phyrric victory and has been a political football since the minute of its passage. We got a climate change bill that passed only one house, again, dead-on-arrival in the Senate.
Social structure of accumulation theory, as I wrote in an assignment in November 2008, would predict that we’d have many restorative policies by now. Instead, somehow, the pendulum swung a little left, and then was dragged way right by shrill voices with the worst of intentions. With this anti-worker bill, I think, the pendulum will swing back. We needed a tipping point to restore sanity (not just the Jon Stewart kind) in this country. We needed a wake-up call to show moderates that Republicans don’t care about fiscal rectitude- instead, they are out for their own political gain and for the economic gain of the well-heeled. This short-term success spells long-term doom for the GOP.
Or so I hope.
This is the swan song of Reaganism in the US, coincident with that of Thatcherism in the UK, and European neoliberalism in the EZ. I suspect that there will another crisis that will bury this failed ideology politically, and it will cease to be fashionable economically.
There is going to be fierce blowback lasting several years. I expect the social, political, and economic revolution predicted by Ravi Batra to be the dominant trend for the foreseeable future globally as a new generation of leaders comes to the fore.
Hosni Mubarak, welcome to Wisconsin. Muammar el-Qaddafi, we have a place for you, too!
It’s occurred to me that what the people of the middle east are trying to eliminate, our governor is trying to establish. But just because we have Walker’s number doesn’t mean he won’t succeed. He was, after all, elected. So were his republican bullies in the Wisconsin legislature.
Walker has almost a full term left to overcome this moment of bad press, and an unlimited amount of money with which to control the debate. We will find that with his new budget Wisconsin will balance its budget. Corporations will do well. Tax breaks all around! The headlines will spell success. But back on page 50, there will be evidence that people aren’t doing well – - in the articles about exhausted workers at food banks, industrial accidents, potholes in streets, and broken water mains that take days to repair. And the arrests for graft, will they ever stop?
I fervently hope that people don’t forget and ACT upon that knowledge. If they do forget, we will one day wake up to President Walker. It’s happened before. We call him George W. Bush.
When people are hurting badly, and are desperate, they will follow the charlatan who most convincingly promises them the quickest fix. The subtleties of reality are ignored. Thus, Sarah Palin and the Tea Party.
The “tipping point,” requires the mob to stop, take a deep breath and think about the facts. I’m not sure we are there, yet.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
i think you misrpepresent ssa theory. i have not read it claimed anywhere in the SSA literature that as soon as a realization crisis happens there will be restorative policies. indeed, a major SSA theorist and professor at umass says this in an SSA paper analyzing the crisis: “Also, there is a difference in the managerial capacity of the state at the end of the two types of institutional structure of capitalism. When regulated capitalism enters a crisis, the state has recent experience at managing the economy, which facilitates the resolution of the crisis. However, when liberal capitalism enters a crisis, the state has been through a long period of hollowing out and has little capacity for effective management of the economy. Despite the Roosevelt Administration’s bold programs, the U.S. economy did not fully emerge from the Great Depression onto a new path of vigorous accumulation until after World War II, some fifteen years after 1929. In the current crisis we have witnessed the difficulties experienced by the Obama Administration due to the lack of recent experience of, and commitment to, active state management of the economy. The economic stimulus program of February 2009 was designed to create or save only 1.6 million jobs, compared to 15 million who were officially unemployed by late 2009, and its implementation has been very slow.”
link to the paper:http://people.umass.edu/dmkotz/Marxist_Cr_Th_09_12.pdf
another quote: However, against the above considerations must be balanced the conclusion that the
structural crisis following a liberal institutional form of capitalism is not likely to be easily or
quickly resolved. If the current crisis continues for some time, the demobilizing effects of
neoliberalism may be replaced by the radicalizing effects of a prolonged and severe economic crisis.
In the early part of the Great Depression in the US, there were some protests, but the period of major
labor and radical upsurge was 1934-39. Although any historical analogy is highly imperfect, we are
now at a time analogous to 1930-31 — that is, the first year or two of the current structural crisis.
Thank you, Nathan- I probably did sell SSA theory short- it was a drive-by topic that stuck out to me in one course. The article that inspired these thoughts was by Gordon, Weisskopf, and Bowles- “Power, Accumulation, and Crisis: The Rise and Demise of the Postwar Social Structure of Accumulation.” If you’ve read it, I would appreciate your take on it (the physical text is long from my grasp).
After a casual glance I am wondering if this site pertains to Economics or Politics? As a student of economics for 30 years I am always fascinated by how little reality impinges on the current crop of Political Economics aka Neo-Liberal Econ. I find it interesting that a site evidently associated with an IN university would not be aware of how well the IN economy has performed with a Governor that has practically decertified Public Union bargaining as well as applied Free Market economics leading to subsequent re-election.
The WI play-acting by the astroturfed leftest hoardes has already failed. All onlookers are now aware of the obvious selfishness of Public Unions, the infantile reaction and brutish responses will not be received well and the failed economic neo-Keynesian policies of the Neo-Libs will further drive serious voters away form this infantile ignorance.
Westie:
The University of Notre Dame neighbors the city of Elkhart, which with its 18.8% unemployment rate in spring of 2009 made it the focus of much national media attention as one of the areas hardest hit by the recession in the entire country. This is not an economy I would characterize as “performing well” thanks to free market policies.
But in regards to your question/comment, politics and economics are deeply intertwined and perhaps inseparable; I personally prefer to call the field associate with this blog “political economy” as it was originally termed in the 18th century. This suggests an interdisciplinary approach that studies the interactions among society, culture, political systems, legal frameworks, and economic environments to understand how and why we produce, consume, and exchange as we do.
Sources:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2009-02-08-elkhart_N.htm
http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/29/news/economy/metropolitan_area_unemployment/index.htm?section=money_latest