Re: new thread: PKT and ecology

["Canova, Timothy" <CANOVA@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Clifford Poirot writes:
>All that said, I haven't heard many arguing that 4% unemployment is full
>employment-simply that its better than what we have had in the past. I
think
>one point that has come through on this list is that we can do better than
>the current 4%, though there are differences about how to get there. Also,
>PKT'ers do a better job at looking at income distribution and changing
>structural factors in the economy.

my response:  i won't name names, but i have read PKTers in the Nation and
American Prospect accepting the premise that we were at full employment.

>Clifford Poirot writes:
>I never cease to be amazed at what we have accepted in the name of the war
>on drugs. Could you have a Keynesian analysis of the Drug War? . . .
>The drug war is a much harder nut to crack. It is not about Keynesianism,
>and only partially about race. Deep down it is about Americans' peculiar
>sense of morality. How Keynesian economists can address that, I do not
know.

my response:
The peculiar sense of morality to which you refer is peculiar because of its
racial bias.  80 million Americans have "experimented" with illegal drugs,
but the population convicted of drug offenses is disproportionately black
and brown.  Clinton, Gore, George W. have all explicitly or implicitly
conceded past drug use.  They can vote, even hold office.  Those at the
bottom of the social hierarchy, those who cannot afford expensive legal
counsel, are the ones who end up convicted of drug-related felonies and
sometimes lose their voting rights for life.

There could certainly be a recognition (consistent with Keynesian) that the
underperforming economy in the drug consuming and drug producing regions has
led to rational economic behavior of producing drugs and the irrational
behavior of consuming drugs.