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"Everything is fine,"
says David Brooks, the NY Times op-ed columnist. What is
worrisome is the spread of ideas from the "angry fringe."
Brooks'
columns are like Ritalin. Designed to reduce our hyperactivity to
make us be calm in class. Listen to the teacher. Behave.
Swallow the mis-information. And smile.
Today Brooks cannot
understand why America worries so about the trade deficit. A
study says that the U.S. is number one in competitiveness, he
says. And we have values.
Classic misdirection. Don't solve problems. Just don't
talk about them. Change the subject. Express exasperation
that people don't recognize all the good things in life. He points this out:
Even Republicans, by a two-to-one majority, believe free trade is
bad for America, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll.
Reality, Mr. Brooks, reality.
U.S. citizen's incomes are down in real terms, their good paying job with benefits has
been replaced by two jobs... one at Dunkin' Donuts and one at
McDonalds. It's okay because some group of people in Europe
believes our country's "competitiveness" is high. Quit whining.
Then Brooks says:
not every economic dislocation has been caused by trade and the Chinese.
More misdirection. That sentence is true, means nothing, and
implies that the "angry fringe" actually argues that EVERY JOB lost was
caused by trade.
The true statement is that a tremendous number of jobs were lost
because of the trade deficit. A net job loss. And a
gargantuan loss in job quality and stability. Instability is
bad. Just ask Wall Street. But Brooks does not engage on
those points. He talks about something else. Saying we should be happy, and are unreasonable if we are not.
So he ignores the trade deficit. Our inability to produce for
our military. Our food trade deificit. The housing credit
crisis. Income inequality. He ignores their causes.
Brooks'
techniques deserve deconstruction. He is losing the battle of
idea and is worried most about that. He has a good job that makes
him happy, but a world view that is being proved untrue by reality.
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