The Competition Myth - Krugman

[groovedaddy]

Meet the new buzzword, same as the old buzzword. In advance of the State of the Union, President Obama has telegraphed his main theme: competitiveness. The President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board has been renamed the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. And in his Saturday radio address, the president declared that “We can out-compete any other nation on Earth.”

This may be smart politics. Arguably, Mr. Obama has enlisted an old cliché on behalf of a good cause, as a way to sell a much-needed increase in public investment to a public thoroughly indoctrinated in the view that government spending is a bad thing.

But let’s not kid ourselves: talking about “competitiveness” as a goal is fundamentally misleading. At best, it’s a misdiagnosis of our problems. At worst, it could lead to policies based on the false idea that what’s good for corporations is good for America.

About that misdiagnosis: What sense does it make to view our current woes as stemming from lack of competitiveness?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/24/opinion/24krugman.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212

[Ozymanithrax]

1. Moments are only teachable if the students desires teaching...

The financial crisis of 2008 was a teachable moment, an object lesson in what can go wrong if you trust a market economy to regulate itself. Nor should we forget that highly regulated economies, like Germany, did a much better job than we did at sustaining employment after the crisis hit. For whatever reason, however, the teachable moment came and went with nothing learned.

Republicans in control of the House, their base, and a lot of other Americans are ardent devotees of the religion of "Americapitalism" whose dogmas are Smaller Government - Lower Taxes- Less Regulation
and whose prophets are corporations.

True believers can be converted by sufficient misery, but they can not be taught.

[DirkGently]

2. Conservative buzzwords are flying from the Whitehouse these days.

[groovedaddy]

3. When the Japanese were becoming an economic power, much was made of their culture and

how this made for better workers, more productivity, etc. The U.S. simply could not compete with this "advantage." When SONY built a plant in California, the prevailant feeling at the time was that it wouldn't fly, at least in terms of productivity. But the U.S. plant ended up out-producing any of its counter-parts in Japan. Imagine that!

[Yavin4]

8. And Now Apple Has Literally Eviscerated SONY

Yes. A U.S. coporation founded by an ex-hippee kicked Japan's ass.

[northernlights]

4. want to make US bidness more competitive?

How about relieving it of responsibility for health insurance? And switching to single payer?

[groovedaddy]

5. That makes too much sense. Big insurance says "NO WAY!" and the bigs get their way! n.t

[girl gone mad]

6. kick

:kick:

[Taitertots]

7. Using economic terminology, almost no sector of the US economy is competitive

Every sector would best be described as monopolistic.