I’m just agog at the spin the Obama apparatchiks are putting on the 2.5 million job loss due to ObamaCare
Count Polly Lower among those who quit their jobs because of the health-care law.
It happened in September, when her boss abruptly changed her job description. She went from doing payroll, which she liked, to working on her boss’s schedule, which she loathed. At another time, she might have had to grit her teeth and accept the new position because she needed the health benefits.
But with the health-care law soon to take effect, she simply resigned — and hasn’t looked back.
“It was wonderful. It was very freeing,” said Lower, 56, of Bourbon, Ind., who is now babysitting her 5-year-old granddaughter full time. With the help of federal subsidies that kicked in Jan. 1, she is paying less than $500 a month for health coverage for herself and her husband.
“Federal subsidies” means Other People’s Money. Does Mrs. Lower have any twinge of conscience about having her neighbors pay for her lifestyle choice?
Magically, liberals argue it is a good thing that Americans will drop out of the labor market and a “lie” to claim that Obamacare is the impetus for impeding job growth.
Yes, for an estimated $1.2 trillion over the next decade, we can subsidize your freedom. In ordinary times, if a projection found particular legislation to be the impetus for more than two million people dropping out of the labor force during serious economic stagnation, newspapers might have reported it in a negative light. […]
What was once a story about Obamacare’s discouraging work and impeding job creation is now a dispute about semantics. Mission accomplished.
Welcome to Dependency Nation.
Heck of a job, Barry!
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Politico Magazine runs whiny Why do Republicans Want Us to Work All the Time?, a litany of the horrors of work full of hippie-esque caricatures and assertions that:
Work is now viewed as an economic end in itself rather than a means to better purposes. Work for more work has become the organizing principle of society, embodied in public policy and in the politician’s mantra: JOBS, JOBS, JOBS.
The best explanation for the advent of work without end, I now believe, is a failure of imagination. We’ve forgotten that the purpose of life is to be happy, and to pass that happiness on to future generations—not simply to keep acquiring more stuff.
However, the real punch line is that the author of this trite piece:
Benjamin Kline Hunnicut is professor of leisure studies at the University of Iowa and author of The Forgotten American Dream.
Heh.
I hear the cold lies of the pusher in this media spjn.
Seems to me we should remind ourselves regarding prosperity generally speaking — and with ourselves remind others — of Bastiat’s parable of the broken window, as these sophisms of the political left appear to fall into the category of what is seen and what is unseen.
“Professor of Leisure Studies”. Congratulations, prof, on having reached the apex of stoner culture. The ‘Chair’ of said prof a recliner, or sun lounger, no doubt.
Work is a beautiful thing.
Note ye well the age group who is finding this “liberating”.
The Democrats seek to pick up crowd support by offering as much ‘free’ stuff as they can get away with, to stupids who don’t know any better, because they’ve never experienced or learned the real value of..stuff. Pathetic and immoral creatures, but that’s how Democrats like to keep their base: unquestioning their motives, and always standing there with their hands held out.
Makes it easier to clap on the irons when that time comes around. And likely it will.
OT, but this makes me sick. It’s like a veritable sea of She Who Shall Not be Named, attacking this hero.
this country needs a really good exorcism
“Professor of Leisure Studies?”
Paging Van Wilder, paging Van Wilder….
There are so many people out there who need a swift punch in the nose.
My kid often remarks that we need to bring back dueling.
People like Polly stand as Exhibit A as to why “Let it Burn” is becoming the default position for people like me.
Polly deserves to be beaten senseless, but there are a lot of people who will be making similar choices for similar reasons because of the onerous incentives in ObamaCare. (Making those decisions without being such self-absorbed douchebags, I mean.)
It’s exactly the same as the problem of marginal tax rates. The loss of subsidies for a mandated expense could mean that it is not economically feasible for one spouse to work or for someone to work too much overtime or for someone to get an extra job. Therefore, they make the choice to live in straitened circumstances because they do not have the capacity to improve those circumstances because of the government. Same with marginal tax rates — $1 more in earnings could result in thousands of dollars in additional taxes.
I don’t know how to explain it in “leisure studies” terms, but that’s generally a bad thing, that leads to diminished qualities of life for lower economic classes.
And, just to say, unlike income taxes, people no longer have the option of avoiding buying health insurance. Their choices are thousands of dollars in fines, thousands of dollars in premiums, or reducing their income by thousands of dollars in hopes of a subsidy. It is very much a no-win situation.
Huh. Hunnicutt’s book. That image was on my Intro to Psych textbook, waaaay back when.
Tyler Durden’s take on the WAPO article…
Obama’s America: Unleashed and Untethered..from your jobs!
They won’t tell you that you can’t freely speak anymore. Instead they’ll tell that you are free from being bullied, harassed, lied to, and offended by the crazies who were ruining your life before THEY stepped in to fix things.
– Having to be all but horse whipped to take out the trash has finally become a social movement.
…the fuck? What subsentient drivel spigot taught that to Politico’s idiot scribe? Howzabout a little Bobby Kennedy, progglodyte?
The purpose of life is not to be happy but to do and thereby achieve happiness.
It may make me happy to murder my neighbor or an idiot like Hunnicut and take everything they have but, it is not recommended.
The loss of subsidies for a mandated expense could mean that it is not economically feasible for one spouse to work or for someone to work too much overtime or for someone to get an extra job. Therefore, they make the choice to live in straitened circumstances because they do not have the capacity to improve those circumstances because of the government.
Nah, they’ll just make sure that their income goes unreported. I live near a full-time contractor whom the State thinks is only working about four months a year. I’m sure he’d be happy to share his tricks with the rest of us.
It’s of a piece with the “Irish Democracty” that Insty has been going on about lately. When the rules are rigged against you, it’s time to stop playing by the rules!
Squid, I had a friend in MN who worked for a concrete contractor. The concrete guys would work for cash under the table as much as possible and squirrel away copious amounts of cash for the winter. Obviously, during the winter the contractors all got laid off, collected unemployment and supplemented with the cash they’d saved. I was astonished at how much cash the guys would have around the house.
>It’s of a piece with the “Irish Democracty”<
i'm doing the illegal alien gig as much as possible.
Did someone say: When the rules are rigged against you, it’s time to stop playing by the rules!
Hmmm…
#ShamlessBlogwhoring
– The WH did another “OMG we have to find SOMETHING to give away or we’re going to lose the Senate” move.
– Bumblefuck has now become his own Congress. Makes laws at will.
– We need rid of this bastard and his party of Marxists by any means.
The Ross Douthat piece struck me in in more than a couple of ways.
First, it had the feel of the Star Trek: Next Generation episode when the crew defrosted a bunch of folks from the 21st century, only to inform them that the pursuit of money had no value any more. I noticed that this theme was never again used in any Star Trek episode across all of the franchises.
It must have raised more questions than could be answered, like .. why would anybody be a “serf” in such an enlightened age ? .. who would want a dangerous task ? .. why wouldn’t they all want to be Captain of a Star Fleet vessel ?
… this brings me to the second point, on the conservative side, things are somewhat clearer. Who would be able to survive a Zombie Apocalypse ? In the such an event, the Progressive bastions, the cities, who look like “World War Z.” None of them would survive.
Lastly, Douthat thinks we live in a ‘post-scarcity society.’ Isn’t the whole underlying political point of AGW that oil is scarce, non-renewable ? .. notice that in the AGW mindset of politicians, it isn’t that carbon is completely bad, it’s that fossil fuels aren’t renewable.
‘Post-scarcity society’ fits in the Obama-esque world that is also post-partisan and post-racial … these fit so well in the world with unicorns.
Which world that is ? .. I have no idea.
“First, it had the feel of the Star Trek: Next Generation episode when the crew defrosted a bunch of folks from the 21st century, only to inform them that the pursuit of money had no value any more. I noticed that this theme was never again used in any Star Trek episode across all of the franchises.
It must have raised more questions than could be answered, like .. why would anybody be a “serf” in such an enlightened age ? .. who would want a dangerous task ? .. why wouldn’t they all want to be Captain of a Star Fleet vessel ? ”
That is one of the central background themes of the Culture novels by Iain Banks. And it is such a strange, self obsessed, mutable, fashionably indolent, hobby centered, and meddling society (utopian anarchic communism made possible by benevolent hyper intelligent robots/AI’s and technology nearing that of the Monolith in 2010) that he almost always has to tell the story from the point of view of outsiders, expatriots, and weirdos so it will mean anything to the reader.
I recommend The Player of Games, Use of Weapons, Look to Windward, or Consider Phlebas to get started.
No, the point is that they hate humanity and want us all to die and/or live like (vegetarian) cavemen.
“Lastly, Douthat thinks we live in a ‘post-scarcity society.’ ”
We live in a reduced scarcity society FOR THE MOMENT when compared to the societies of the past.
Post Scarcity is a singularity futurist word that we are no where close to. It implies sufficient material resources, energy, infrastructure, technology, and labor(probably mechanized or automation based) to produce finished goods and services far in excess of the total demand for such goods.
It’s when the magic robots bring you whatever you want whenever you want such that you don’t care about property or wealth because they do the same for everone else.
It’s a long way off and probably total bullshit.