Doctorow many times. Giblin not sure. The Smiling Man has some branding issues about the term…
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Not really a Commie (unless one was a Bircher), but…
“The modern conservative is not even especially modern. He is engaged, on the contrary, in one of man’s oldest, best financed, most applauded, and, on the whole, least successful exercises in moral philosophy. That is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. It is an exercise which always involves a certain number of internal contradictions and even a few absurdities. The conspicuously wealthy turn up urging the character-building value of privation for the poor. The man who has struck it rich in minerals, oil, or other bounties of nature is found explaining the debilitating effect of unearned income from the state. The corporate executive who is a superlative success as an organization man weighs in on the evils of bureaucracy. Federal aid to education is feared by those who live in suburbs that could easily forgo this danger, and by people whose children are in public schools. Socialized medicine is condemned by men emerging from Walter Reed Hospital. Social Security is viewed with alarm by those who have the comfortable cushion of an inherited income. Those who are immediately threatened by public efforts to meet their needs — whether widows, small farmers, hospitalized veterans, or the unemployed — are almost always oblivious to the danger.”
-John Kenneth Galbraith, Wealth And Poverty (1963)
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Galbraith was the most quotable (and the funniest) economist ever.
“The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.”
“The complaints of the privileged are too often confused with the voice of the masses.”
“Trickle-down theory - the less than elegant metaphor that if one feeds the horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows.”
And my favourite economic burn:
“Milton Friedman’s misfortune is that his economic policies have been tried.”
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She co-wrote Chokepoint Capitalism with Doctorow, which sort of forms the backbone of his enshittification concept.
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Don’t piss on my head and tell me it’s finally trickling down.
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I saw this on Facebook.
Instead of millions in bonuses for CEOs just throw them a pizza party.
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Kate Wagner of McMansion Hell fame is also a sports journalist. She did a brilliant piece on F1 racing for Road and Track. It was pulled by a bootlicking editor but lives on in the Wayback Machine.
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She didn’t follow the “bread and circuses” brief of sports journalism? Actually commented on the activity as a social function? No wonder it got yoinked.
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It’s your yearly reminder that International Women’s Day is on the anniversary of the February Revolution that got rid of the Tsar.
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Also, this might be of interest…
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