three chords and the truth, part 1

Things are looking a little better, but not nearly good enough. We need to have a national government (and state governments, too) who are absolutely committed to full employment. If they can't do that, what good are they?

That's your "G" chord, as in "Gee, I never thought of that before."

And we need to stop talking about how we're going to meet our energy needs in the future, and decide what we're doing, and do it. It's obvious to everyone that electricity is the future, because, the grid, plus we know how to do it.

So we need renewable forms of electrical generation, chiefly solar, but also wind and hydro. Mainly, we need to stop jawing about how hard this will be, and start implementing. And no more petroleum subsidies -- I mean, what the hell are we thinking of?

And tbat's your "C" chord, as in "See how simple this is?"

Besides that, there's not much left to do. We'll have to bring back the graduated income tax and shore up Medicare and Social Security, since those three things together are the most effective and efficient income re-distribution program the world has seen yet.

If you don't know why income re-distribution is necessary, see the history of capitalism.

And end the wars, of course, and cut back war ("defense") spending by half to start, and then bring it down further after that. This last couple of items are so obvious that they'll serve nicely as a "D" chord -- D for "Duh."

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Click on the Scariest Chart Ever for full size. This chart of the Great Recession is the work of the economics blog CalculatedRiskblog.com.