STOP PRETENDING THAT BIDEN AND THE DEMS CAUSED INFLATION

By

David Gottfried

President Gerald Ford’s 1974 address to the nation on inflation.  It was so boring that it’s sort of funny – if you’re smoking a joint.  Essentially, he said that all economists agreed that we must “Whip Inflation Now.”  This memorable mantra gave rise to WIN buttons which disseminated his uplifting and sage pronouncement that we must whip inflation now.

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Most Americans, of course, never took a course in economics, can’t recall anything they ever learned in a history course, and never bother to analyze news stories.   (I know I sound like a bitter, evil schoolmarm, but hell: Most of the talking heads and social media maggots on the internet deserve to be whipped for sheer stupidity.)

The media munchkins do know how to do one thing:  Blame the incumbent for whatever problems exist.  A problem may have been germinating during the term of a president’s predecessor, but such subtle but salient truths are too much for a media cretin’s  tender brain to grasp.   A problem may have had many causes that have nothing to do with the President, but the people don’t know what may cause a problem, such as inflation, and so it’s so much more fun to just blame the current president. 

Besides, people feel so impotent – of course they are impotent; they are ignorant, know nothing about political activism and they suffer the delusion that shouting “lock her up” constitutes meaningful protest – that they think they are asserting themselves, in a productive way, when they bawl like a nine-year-old having a tantrum.

Inflation occurs when  more money chases the same amount of goods.    A lot more money has been chasing the same number of goods.   Let’s see:  Are any dummies on Fox News able to see why more money is chasing  the same amount of goods.

The answer is simple:  The pandemic.   Production went down because of the pandemic.  The government wanted to prevent an economic collapse and so it gave people plenty of checks.   The result:  More money was chasing the same or a fewer amount of goods.  Inflation was inevitable. 

This is not a problem caused by the Democrats.   Most people, left and right, were in favor of sending cash to the American people.  The Trump administration bestowed hundreds of billions of dollars on Americans, knowing full well that this could be inflationary.   This was worth it because a deflationary spiral, ala the Great Depression, would be much worse.

And please don’t tell me that the reduction in the production of goods and services went hand in hand with a seemingly interminable vacation for blue collar workers.   In my experience, wealthier white-collar workers were luxuriating in an endless vacation.  White collar workers worked from home, on their computers, and I’m sure they spent dozens of hours, working from home, looking at personal ads, porn, crossword puzzles and if they were young, male and hot and bothered they probably jacked off half the time. 

Of course, now that we have inflation, we must do something about it.  What, pray tell, do you want Biden to do ?    Of course, he could dramatically cut down on spending, but Federal spending on so many domestic programs have been repeatedly cut since Ronald Reagan became President.   We have endured so many cuts that the FDA, I have read, now only has 40 inspectors to assess the wholesomeness of all drugs and foods which enter this country.    

There is another way to fight inflation:  Increase taxes.  I ask you, Republican rednecks and rabble rousers from the peanut gallery, are you willing to all pay higher taxes.  You should.  You’ve been sucking the life blood of working Americans for decades and its time to levy titanic taxes on your ugly hides. 

There is another way to fight inflation:  We can have wage and price controls.  They were instituted in World War Two, and you Republicans have shifted so far to the right that you probably don’t recall that Richard Nixon went on national television, in July 1971, to announce that effective midnight all wages and prices would be frozen.  Of course, if we did that, you would say Biden was a crazy socialist.   

Would you be happy if Biden wore a WIN button like Gerald Ford ?