If You Don't Work, You Die

Things are looking bleak for the blues in the midterms. Inflation, crime, cultural insanity, a bear market and recession are adding up to a well-deserved thumping for the Democrats. Wretchard the Cat has a decent essay about this, but I think he misses the mark. Here's a sample paragraph.

The problem facing the Democratic Party is that it based its plans on a future that never materialized without adequate provision for a failover. Its economic managers overestimated the fault tolerance of the American system and are now searching for a way out of the crisis they find themselves in. Their chief short term hopes of distraction lie in two directions: Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin: civil war or second cold war.

The problem is actually that their plans can't possibly work. We managed to conceal their failures with mountains of printed money, but even Modern Monetary Theory has its limits and those limits have been hit. I've yapped about this in the past.

From Life's Pricing Structure Is Broken:

Our pricing structure is broken. We no longer connect sacrifice with possessions. This is what I meant when I blogged yesterday, "It looks to me like American society has turned out the lights of reason and turned on the black lights of subjectivism. We're all kind of stumbling around, learning as we go just what this means."

From the post referred to above, When The Cat's Away And Not Coming Back:

The general problem really hit me today when I read about Modern Monetary Theory, MMT. MMT holds that any government that can print its own money and whose debt is denominated in that same currency, need not worry about debt. Print all you want until inflation hits. Inflation, not debt, is the critical measure of whether or not you can keep printing.

This is obvious nonsense. If you have mountains of debt, inflation, which leads to higher interest rates, immediately starts a chain reaction of printing and inflation that quickly spirals out of control and wipes out the economy. MMT can't possibly work. See also: Republic, Weimar.

But nonsense is OK, right? Sense is patriarchal or racist or mathematical, which itself is patriarchal and racist.

The problem isn't messaging and all the fund-raising in the world isn't going to matter.

Neither will it work to blame Putin.

🚨: NY Times' Jim Tankersley asks Biden, "How long is it fair to expect American drivers to pay that premium" for the war in Ukraine?

Biden: "As long as it takes." pic.twitter.com/PnRX95xT48

— John Cooper (@thejcoop) June 30, 2022

Looking like a complete maniac probably won't do the trick, either.

Sam Brinton on Twitter: "It’s official. As of June 19th, I now serve my nation as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Office of Nuclear Energy in the Department of Energy."

No, I'm afraid that The Gods of the Copybook Headings have returned and all we can do is work our way out of this. Well, the first thing we need to do is get rid of the biggest parasites in our governing class, but after that, it's up to us.

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!