Feeling No Pain By PAUL KRUGMAN

[kpete]

Op-Ed Columnist
Feeling No Pain

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: March 6, 2006

Am I saying that we should try to stop outsourcing? No. But if you don't feel conflicted about the effects of globalization, if you don't worry about the many losers from the process, you aren't paying attention. And American workers deserve a better answer to their concerns than yet another assertion that a rising tide raises all boats, because that's manifestly untrue.

The fact is that we're living in a time when most Americans are seeing little if any benefit from overall income growth, because their share of the economic pie is falling. Between 1979 and 2003, according to a recent research paper published by the I.R.S., the share of overall income received by the bottom 80 percent of taxpayers fell from 50 percent to barely over 40 percent. The main winners from this upward redistribution of income were a tiny, wealthy elite: more than half the income share lost by the bottom 80 percent was gained by just one-fourth of 1 percent of the population, people with incomes of at least $750,000 in 2003.

And those fortunate few are the only people Mr. Bush seems to care about. Look at what he had to offer after asserting, in effect, that workers get outsourced because they don't have the right education: lower taxes, deregulation and fewer lawsuits. Funny, that doesn't sound like "pro-growth" policy to me. Instead, it sounds like a wish list for wealthy individuals and big corporations.

Mr. Bush once joked that his base consisted of the "haves and the have-mores." But it wasn't much of a joke. His remarks in India show that he really can't imagine what it's like not to be a member of a privileged economic elite.

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/03/06/opinion/06krugman.html?hp

[depakid]

1. "....if you don't feel conflicted"

Lately, I've been sensing that Paul's been VERY conflicted over his past support of so called "free trade" and globalization.

First step toward admitting he made a huge mistake?

[LizW]

3. The economists always knew there would be winners and losers

in the free trade and globalization movement. Frankly, they were okay with it. But they vastly underestimated the greed of the winners and the number of losers.

[nolabels]

4. To say nothing about the sustainability of the whole system

We are living on borrowed money, borrowed oil and borrowed time. Regardless if it goes out with a bang, thud or whimper, it's going to eventually be gone. We can blame who ever we want, but it is our collective whole that is responsible. We the unwitting child that believes fairy tales will come true

[enough]

2. morning k&r