The Worse The Better?

The news about the economy seems to get worse by the day – by the hour.  Estimates of revenues to the state, already down from last year, are revised downward, again.  For the moment, the budget for 2010 is estimated to be in deficit by more than $230 million.  State workers will soon be joining the more than 10,000 Vermonters who lost their jobs in 2008.

This is not unwelcome to some.  The recession is a validation of their convictions about the nature of free markets and contemporary American society which they have wanted to fail.  The better to bring on ... what?  The revolution?  The new age of equality?  Greenness and sustainability?  Take your pick.  The point is ... they wanted a crash and, buddy, they are getting it.

If this seems harsh and over the top, then consider this essay, written by a Vermonter.  James Cramer said recently that it appears we have elected a Leninist as President and there is a serious debate, among serious people, about whether or not the Obama administration is consciously manipulating the economy into near (or not-so-near) depression so that it may remake it according to some radical vision.  One finds it hard to credit anyone in Washington with that much conspiratorial skill.  Incompetence seems a better explanation for, say, Timothy Geithner. 

But it is true that there are people who prefer the state to markets and who want the entire free-market enterprise to crash and, in Vermont, they have been saying so for a while now.  We've been saying, on this site, that Vermont needs economic growth and that there are powerful forces in the state opposed to the policies that would promote it.  At the extreme, there are people who desire economic destruction.   They are getting their way and we are seeing what no-growth and a shrinking economy looks like.

How do you like it?

(ed. note: the original of this post was lost as the result of some clumsy strokes on the keyboard.  The comments seem to have been lost, as well, which is regrettable since there were some good ones. If you submitted a comment and saved it, please resubmitt and our apolgies for the ineptitude of the webmaster.)

Comments

[trice]

I had submitted a comment to the effect that none of what is happening should be a surprise given what we DID know about Obama, the Marxist bent of his parents, grandparents, and mentors, and current handlers. Everyday brings new revelations, but not in the MSM, which is so invested in the democrat party and the image of a savior that they have helped to establish, that the majority of the population is still in the dark about his administration.