Seems odd, but this strategy should result in victory . . .

. . . because Romney doesn't seem capable of being a strong enough candidate.  And even moreso because what - 57% now? - of Americans receive a government check.

yes, it's us

I rather enjoy thinking about politics, policy, etc., even if doing so is often quite discouraging on several levels.  But this is important stuff; it matters even if folks (no doubt including me, more often than I'd like to think) prefer to be in denial, fatalistic or ignorant. 

I copied below a few paragraphs recently written by a pretty well-known doom-monger.  The concepts aren't that original - plenty of folks offer up similar thoughts (in fact, more everyday as more of those who have been in denial are finally waking up).  But I think this explanation is more effectively worded than most.

Politicians will always be hopeless panderers.  And perhaps voters will always be hopeless takers.

But, fortunately or unfortunately, simple math will now overwhelm the widespread grabbing that has dominated our politics for so long.

------------------------- 

" . . . the unsustainable "bubble" is not student debt or subprime mortgages or anything else. The bubble is us, and the assumptions of entitlement. Too many citizens of advanced Western democracies live a life they have not earned, and are not willing to earn. Indeed, much of our present fiscal woe derives from two phases of human existence that are entirely the invention of the modern world. Once upon a time, you were a kid till you were 13 or so; then you worked; then you died. That bit between childhood and death has been chewed away at both ends. We invented something called "adolescence" that now extends not merely through the teenage years but through a desultory half-decade of Whatever Studies at Complacency U up till you're 26 and no longer eligible for coverage on your parents' health insurance policy. At the other end of the spectrum, we introduced something called "retirement" that, in the space of two generations, has led to the presumption that able-bodied citizens are entitled to spend the last couple of decades, or one third of their adult lives, as a long holiday weekend.

The bit in between adolescence and retirement is your working life, and it's been getting shorter and shorter. Which is unfortunate, as it has to pay for everything else. This structural deformity in the life cycle of Western man is at the root of most of our problems. Staying ever longer in "school" (I use the term loosely) leads to ever later workplace entry, and ever later (if at all) family formation. Which means that our generation is running up debt that will have to be repaid by our shrunken progeny. One hundred Greek grandparents have 42 Greek grandchildren. Is it likely that 42 Greeks can repay the debts run up by 100 Greeks? No wonder they'd rather stick it to the Germans. But the thriftier Germans have the same deathbed demographics. If 100 Germans resent having to pick up the check for an entire continent, is it likely 42 Germans will be able to do it?

Look around you. The late 20th century Western lifestyle isn't going to be around much longer. In a few years' time, our children will look at old TV commercials showing retirees dancing, golfing, cruising away their sixties and seventies, and wonder what alternative universe that came from. In turn, their children will be amazed to discover that in the early 21st century the Western world thought it entirely normal that vast swathes of the citizenry should while away their youth enjoying what, a mere hundred years earlier, would have been the leisurely varsity of the younger son of a Mitteleuropean Grand Duke.

. . . Any functioning society is like an orchestra. When the parts don't fit together, it's always the other fellow who's out of tune. So the Greeks will blame the Germans, and vice-versa. But the developed world is all playing the same recessional. In the world after Western prosperity, we will work till we're older, and we will start younger – and we will despise those who thought they could defy not just the rules of economic gravity but the basic human life cycle."

echo

I have all sorts of thoughts about policy and politics.  But they generally aren't sufficiently coherent to do much more with than to muse about things from time to time.  And occasionally get into a conversation with folks, but that often doesn't go very far either.  I do believe that policy and politics matter; that it is possible to change the character of a nation over time via policy; etc.; yet many basic themes do endure.

Reading Robert Penn Warren's "All the King's Men" (1946), the echo from our current divider-in-chief was unmistakable.  Southern demagogue Willie Stark is making his first run for governor.  This being his first run, he is not yet a fully-developed demagogue.  Willie has a carefully thought-out tax plan that balances various competing interests; he presents this to the voters at various speeches; he is ignored, because absorbing policy nuances would require some thought and effort from the voters.

Jack Burden (newspaperman assigned to cover Willie's campaign) tries to straighten out Willie as to his approach:  "Maybe you try to tell 'em too much.  It breaks down their brain cells."

"Looks like they'd want to hear about taxes, though," [Stark] said.

"You tell 'em too much.  Just tell 'em you're gonna soak the fat boys, and forget the rest of the tax stuff."

**sigh**

"Interesting" times indeed . . .

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that the country is going through some unusually interesting times from an economic standpoint.

Very recent housing bubble and consequent "fixes" by our government. At staggering cost.

Timed frighteningly closely to the ascension of huge Democratic majorities and a president with supreme confidence in himself and in "government by experts." (I'm pretty sure it would be most difficult to find any useful evidence to support this confidence, but that's another story.) Empowered in large measure by Bush backlash (I often hear "if you think this is bad, consider how much Bush screwed up" - but even if true, I was hoping for better reasoning than that in support of these policies.) Cap and trade, health care "reform," permanent and drastic program expansion masqueraded as "stimulus," taxes, spending, amnesia about campaign commitments; you name it, we have it.

As best I can figure it, the goal is to pass as many laws and regulations as possible while media adulation persists and before the public wakes up to the cost and/or policy implications. If the initiatives continue to be as poorly conceived as other major initiatives in the last few months - well, that's tomorrow's problem. Yet I think the prez has some skills . . . I don't understand the continuous headlong plunge.

But enough of that. The purpose of this post is to list a few bloggers that I find helpful in sorting all this out. Right or wrong, the discussions are pithy and interesting. Typically it's professors musing, but not always.

These folks are definitely crowding out other news/information sources that I previously looked at - much higher value.

Recommended:

1. Don Boudreaux et al.

2. Econlog.

3. Greg Mankiw.

4. John Stossel. (Of all people - but he (or his writers) has a pithy way of repackaging items covered in more detail by 1-3 above. Plus he comes up with a few original things.)

5. Stephen Bainbridge. (law professor)

6. Larry Ribstein. (law professor)

7. Then there is Paul Krugman - but unfortunately I don't get much out of his writings. (I do try to stick with it given that it isn't ideal to live in an echo chamber.)