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Saturday, August 30, 2003
Happy Capital Day!

As usual, E. J. Dionne hits the bullseye.

Do Jobs Not Matter Anymore? (washingtonpost.com): "After all, aren't we now a 'nation of investors'? Isn't most business reporting, especially on television, about stock prices and 'returns on capital'? If you care about wages and working conditions, you must be some sort of dinosaur."
It's a good read, with particular attention to what utter nonsense is being spouted when Grover Norquist talks about "the 70 percent of voters who own stock", and the following observation about supply-siders:
Supply-side theories on the urgency of cutting taxes on the rich were exploded when Bill Clinton raised taxes on the wealthy and -- contrary to the supply-side predictions -- helped unleash a remarkable period of economic growth.
It would be good if people recalled how the Republicans said at the time that they washed their hands of any responsibility for the economy, and that Clinton's tax increase drew prophecies of gloom and doom from the likes of Phil Gramm.

And he ends with a potent dose of common sense:

I am all for a nation of owners and investors. But most people need jobs. For 25 years, we have been hearing that labor depends upon capital. It's time to resurrect the other, buried truth: that capital depends upon labor. Our prosperity really does require keeping the "Labor" in Labor Day.
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