Re: [Pen-l] Is Summers correct about this?

[Sandwichman <lumpoflabor@xxxxxxxxx>]

Swami Antonio, if you please, Jim... What I meant is that you've got "your optimism of the will, pessimism of the intellect" beanie on backwards. And where did I say anything at all about unemployment, let alone "deny the existence of involuntary unemployment"? I would say that the statistical measurement of unemployment becomes increasingly suspect to the extent that employment becomes more precarious and unstandardized. That's another story.

Down the road to nihilism? So you're saying GDP is God, then? If that's what you're saying, I'll gladly go down that road. GDP ain't just pining for the fjords, man. It's dead.

On Sat, Mar 14, 2009 at 11:11 AM, Jim Devine <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Sandwichman wrote:
> No, your pessimism is too optimistic, Jim.

thanks, Swami Onandonda.

> It is not meaningful any longer
> to talk in terms of potential or sub-potential GDP. The numbers can be made
> by other than rational means. As I said, the metric is broken. It became too
> much an index of success to remain an objective measurement of anything. The
> bottom line is there is no bottom line there. One ton nails to meet the
> quota... Enron was symptomatic of a characteristic of the system. This is
> not a problem that can be ironed out by putting a squeeze on workers' living
> standards. When the food is unfit to eat, it doesn't rectify things to serve
> larger portions.

so you deny the existence of involuntary unemployment, i.e., people
being forced by market conditions to reduce their number of paid
work-hours per year? Mass unemployment is the solution to
environmental destruction? Who will volunteer first?

by the way, Tom, you seem to be going down the road to nihilism.
--

Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own
way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
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-- 
Sandwichman
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