{"id":13172,"date":"2012-12-29T21:43:40","date_gmt":"2012-12-30T02:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/?p=13172"},"modified":"2012-12-29T21:44:18","modified_gmt":"2012-12-30T02:44:18","slug":"deprogramming-progressives-indoctrinated-into-supporting-austerity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/2012\/12\/29\/deprogramming-progressives-indoctrinated-into-supporting-austerity\/","title":{"rendered":"Deprogramming Progressives Indoctrinated into Supporting Austerity"},"content":{"rendered":"

William Black has the article Deprogramming Progressives Indoctrinated into Supporting Austerity<\/strong><\/a> on New Economic Perspectives <\/em>web site.<\/p>\n

A little bit of economics can be a truly terrible thing, for the introductory classes in micro and macro-economics are the most dogmatic and myth-filled part of the neo-liberal curriculum.\u00a0 Dogmas that have been falsified for 75 years (such as austerity) are taught as revealed truth.\u00a0 The poor indoctrinated student is then launched into the world \u201cknowing\u201d that austerity is the answer and that mass unemployment and prolonged recessions are small prices to be paid (by others) to achieve the holy grail of a balanced budget.\u00a0 Students are taught that national budgets are really just like household budgets.\u00a0 These dogmas are not simply false, they are self-destructive and cruel.\u00a0 Neo-liberal economics is so bad and has gone downhill at such a rapid rate that it now worships the economic analog to bleeding patients \u2013 austerity \u2013 as a response to a Great Recession.\u00a0 Millions of people are indoctrinated annually into believing this long-falsified nonsense, and that includes people who consider themselves progressives.<\/p>\n

The remarkable aspect of neo-liberal economics is that the power of its myth has survived for many progressives even after its failed dogmas caused massive economic destruction, massive elite fraud with impunity, and crony capitalism so corrupt that it cripples democracy.\u00a0 Indeed, the brainwashing they received is so effective that even after the eurozone ran a massive experiment with austerity that proved (again) to be a catastrophic failure they remain neo-liberal acolytes.\u00a0 This column discusses three examples that exemplify the problem.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then on his weekly Fraud report on The Real News Network<\/em> he has the following conversation, Fiscal Cliff: Going Nuclear and the Grand Betrayal<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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