Chris
02-14-2014, 10:15 AM
Here's an interesting article, albeit focused on NYC, but just the same one that I think truly seeks to understand the progressive agenda. All too often we see politicians, pundits, press and others put out strawmen to attack Democrats, Republicans, conservatives, libertarians, liberals, etc etc, and defenders must first explain no that's not what they stand for and argue that rather than actual issues. So here's a chance for progressives to proclaim what their agenda really is.
Trying To Understand The Progressive Agenda (http://manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2014/2/13/trying-to-understand-the-progressive-agenda)
Many on the Left are excited by our new Mayor Bill de Blasio. Yesterday in his first budget presentation as mayor he emphasized once again that he intends to govern as a "progressive." Here is Brent Budowsky in The Hill yesterday channeling the excitement:
[T]he left is lifted by the possibility that he could evolve into a modern-day Robert Kennedy or a New York City FDR, turning city government into a laboratory for big ideas put into action.
Well, forgive me, but I'm trying to get a handle on what the progressive program actually is and how it could possibly work, and I just can't figure it out. When I listen to the self-described progressives, I hear soaring rhetoric about fairness and the crisis of income inequality. But when I look at the actual programs proposed, every single one of them looks to do absolutely nothing about "fairness," absolutely nothing about income inequality, and instead constitutes a giveaway to one or another favored constituency, almost always labor unions that provide political support, and whose members are nearly all well into the top half of the income distribution.
Granted, I'm about the farthest thing from a progressive, but I'm trying to look at the world from their perspective. If you take their rhetoric at face value, the overriding problem of the world today is the unfairness of unequal distribution of economic goods by the capitalist system. In his victory speech after winning the election, de Blasio called income inequality "the defining challenge of our time." President Obama used the exact same phrase -- "defining challenge of our time" -- in talking about income inequality in his speech on December 4.
Well, if I were a progressive, and my overriding concern was income inequality, the first thing I would do is recognize that addressing this problem in a way that would meaningfully swing the numbers will take huge resources, and we have limited resources, so we must use every dollar effectively in order to have enough to address income inequality. I would also insist on getting accurate data on real income inequality so that I would have some metrics to know whether anything I did was working. For example, I would insist on correcting the fraudulent data currently used by the government by which nearly $1 trillion annually in in-kind handouts to low income people are excluded from income data, and the incomes of high earners are counted pre-tax even though they pay half or more of that income to the government already. And finally, I would apply whatever spending I could muster for curing income inequality to a program that actually raised the measured incomes of the poorest people.
...
Well it goes on about NYC specifically, but you get the idea.
If you're a progressive, what do you see as the overriding issues and what is your agenda for solving those issues realistically?
Trying To Understand The Progressive Agenda (http://manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2014/2/13/trying-to-understand-the-progressive-agenda)
Many on the Left are excited by our new Mayor Bill de Blasio. Yesterday in his first budget presentation as mayor he emphasized once again that he intends to govern as a "progressive." Here is Brent Budowsky in The Hill yesterday channeling the excitement:
[T]he left is lifted by the possibility that he could evolve into a modern-day Robert Kennedy or a New York City FDR, turning city government into a laboratory for big ideas put into action.
Well, forgive me, but I'm trying to get a handle on what the progressive program actually is and how it could possibly work, and I just can't figure it out. When I listen to the self-described progressives, I hear soaring rhetoric about fairness and the crisis of income inequality. But when I look at the actual programs proposed, every single one of them looks to do absolutely nothing about "fairness," absolutely nothing about income inequality, and instead constitutes a giveaway to one or another favored constituency, almost always labor unions that provide political support, and whose members are nearly all well into the top half of the income distribution.
Granted, I'm about the farthest thing from a progressive, but I'm trying to look at the world from their perspective. If you take their rhetoric at face value, the overriding problem of the world today is the unfairness of unequal distribution of economic goods by the capitalist system. In his victory speech after winning the election, de Blasio called income inequality "the defining challenge of our time." President Obama used the exact same phrase -- "defining challenge of our time" -- in talking about income inequality in his speech on December 4.
Well, if I were a progressive, and my overriding concern was income inequality, the first thing I would do is recognize that addressing this problem in a way that would meaningfully swing the numbers will take huge resources, and we have limited resources, so we must use every dollar effectively in order to have enough to address income inequality. I would also insist on getting accurate data on real income inequality so that I would have some metrics to know whether anything I did was working. For example, I would insist on correcting the fraudulent data currently used by the government by which nearly $1 trillion annually in in-kind handouts to low income people are excluded from income data, and the incomes of high earners are counted pre-tax even though they pay half or more of that income to the government already. And finally, I would apply whatever spending I could muster for curing income inequality to a program that actually raised the measured incomes of the poorest people.
...
Well it goes on about NYC specifically, but you get the idea.
If you're a progressive, what do you see as the overriding issues and what is your agenda for solving those issues realistically?