Re: When WaPo Calls for 'Honest' Debate, Check for Your Wallet (fwd)

[robert <http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert>]

Jeff Bezos?

 > From: Noelle <noelle>
 > Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2017 08:00:04 -0700 (PDT)
 >
 >  > From: [** utf-8 charset **] FAIR<http://www.fair.org/~fair>
 >  > Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2017 18:47:41 +0000
 >  > 
 >  > Fred Hiatt (Washington Post, 4/9/17) argues that Democrats can be &#
 >  > 8220;honest&#8221; by offering an &#8220;entrepreneurial vision&#8221; 
 >  > rather than &#8220;pie in the sky.&#8221;
 >  > The Washington Post editorial page is, of course, famous for absurdly 
 >  > claiming, in an editorial defending NAFTA, that Mexico&#8217;s GDP had 
 >  > quadrupled between 1987 and 2007. (According to the IMF, Mexico&#8217;s GDP 
 >  > increased by 83 percent over this period.) Incredibly, the paper still has 
 >  > not corrected this egregious error in its online version.
 >  > This is why it is difficult to share the concern of Fred Hiatt, the 
 >  > editorial page editor, that we will see increasingly dishonest public 
 >  > debates (Washington Post, 4/9/17). Hiatt and his team at the editorial page 
 >  > have no qualms at all about making up nonsense when pushing their positions. 
 >  > While I&#8217;m a big fan of facts and data in public debate, the Post&#
 >  > 8216;s editorial page editor is about the last person in the world who 
 >  > should be complaining about dishonest arguments.
 >  > Just to pick a trivial point in this piece, Hiatt wants us to be concerned 
 >  > about automation displacing workers. As fans of data know, automation is 
 >  > actually advancing at a record slow pace, with productivity growth averaging 
 >  > just 1.0 percent over the last decade. (This compares to 3.0 percent in the 
 >  > 1947-to-1973 Golden Age and the pick-up from 1995 to 2005.)
 >  > If Hiatt is predicting an imminent pick-up, as do some techno-optimists, 
 >  > then he was being dishonest in citing projections from the Congressional 
 >  > Budget Office showing larger budget deficits. If productivity picks up, so 
 >  > will growth and tax revenue, making the budget picture much brighter than 
 >  > what CBO is projecting.
 >  > It is also striking to see Hiatt warning about automation, the day after the 
 >  > Post editorial page complained that too many people have stopped working 
 >  > because of an overly generous disability program. That piece told readers:
 >  > At a time of declining workforce participation, especially among so-called 
 >  > prime-age males (those between 25 and 54 years old), the nationâ??s 
 >  > long-term economic potential depends on making sure work pays for all those 
 >  > willing to work. And from that point of view, the Social Security disability 
 >  > program needs reform.
 >  > Okay, so yesterday we had too few workers and today we have too many because 
 >  > of automation. These arguments are complete opposites. The one unifying 
 >  > theme is that the Post is worried that we are being too generous to the poor 
 >  > and middle class.
 >  > 
 >  > Economist Dean Baker is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy 
 >  > Research in Washington, DC. A version of this post originally appeared on 
 >  > CEPRâ??s blog Beat the Press (4/20/17).
 >  > Messages can be sent to the Washington Post at http://www.washpost.com/~letters, or via 
 >  > Twitter @washingtonpost. Please remember that respectful communication is 
 >  > the most effective.
 >  >