George Will (cc photo: Keith Allison)
If you tuned in to ABC's This Week (5/27/12) to hear the panel of pundits discussing the economy, you may have George Will say this about Barack Obama:
He's made clear what the choice is this fall, and it really became clear, I think, this week. The president wants capitalism without casualties. He wants dynamism but no dislocations. Now, remember, this is the president who says that ATMs and airport ticket kiosks cause unemployment. That gives you his grasp of the economy.
ATMs and ticket machines–what's George Will talking about? it turns out there's some back story here–none of which helps George Will.
This ATM story was popular on the right for a little. During an interview on the Today show last year, Obama was asked a question about a report that said businesses were spending a lot more on equipment than on hiring workers. He responded by saying that businesses were "making decisions based on what they think will be good for their companies." He went on to mention ATMs and ticket machines as examples of such spending:
A lot of businesses have learned to become much more efficient with a lot fewer workers. You see it when you go to a bank and you use an ATM; you don't go to a bank teller. Or you go to the airport, and you're using a kiosk instead of checking in at the gate. So all these things have created changes in the economy, and what we have to do now–and that's what this job council is all about–is identifying where the jobs for the future are going to be.
The right-wing media laughed about Obama's apparent cluelessness. But what exactly is wrong with the understanding of the economy he expresses here? Plenty of economists will be happy to explain to you that, yes, technological advances contribute to unemployment. But people like George Will find it self-evidently absurd. From a guy who doesn't believe in climate change and dismissed talk of a housing bubble, that's pretty rich. Thanks to ABC, we get to enjoy this kind of wisdom almost every Sunday morning.
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Not only does Will turn an economic truism into an absurd gaffe, he lies about Obama's attitude about it–suggesting that Obama opposes ATMs and ticket machines, rather than seeing them as examples of inevitable disruptions that you have to prepare for.
Will is the foremost advocate of greed-based lunacy on all the major dangers currently threatening mankind. That ABC makes him a regular every week on "This Week" demonstrates how beholden the network has become to the foolish focus by corporate managers on short-term profits at any long-term cost.
As an example of how far he will go to ridicule any sort of economic sanity, here's the conclusion of a his October 13, 2007, Newsweek column on global warming:
"If nations concert to impose antiwarming measures commensurate with the hyperbole about the danger, the damage to global economic growth could cause in this century more preventable death and suffering than was caused in the last century by Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot combined."
There is no reason to side swipe Obamas misunderstanding of the economy as this article does..There are so many examples more direct and crushing in their impact to prove he has not a clue as to how to run our economy.
Will objects to speaking of the fact that technology has always replaced human labor.
This is no secret to the millions who have had their skills become obsolete, who understand that a labor saving device is a labor eliminating device.
This is as absurd as trying to keep the bombing of Afghanistan a secret from the Afghans.
michael e, I didn't know it was the job of a President to "run our economy." Thanks for enlightening me.
Will someone ask Will what the Republican grasp of the economy is? Where are the jobs John Boehner said he would create? I've watched him cry about his personal life. I watched somebody read the Declaration of Independence. I've watched Tea Party extremists swept into Congress in 2010 (in the House) vote 200 times to undermine environmental regulations. I've watched them pass an indeterminable number of anti-abortion bills in the Congress and at the state level and in what I would label as pure treason, vote down anything that would help Obama improve the economy.
Instead, of course, George Will focuses on an economic fact to deride the president.
I'm sorry, but I have to ask: who listens to this guy? He appears on a show that broadcasts on Sundays. Only losers have nothing better to do with their time than watch a news propaganda show on a Sunday. The vast majority of us have better things to do on the weekend than listen to (or even read) George Will. He's speaks for/to losers.
george will has been an intellectual hit man for the right wing for a long time, so what else is new?
I recall some time ago when George Will made some sense. I was always impressed by his thoughtful columns. I don't know what happened to George, today he is not worth reading.
Wasn't it George Will who referred to Donald Trump as a "bloviating ignoramus"? If so he must not be wrong all of the time.
The Republicans don't have a platform to run on so they have to attack Obama and make him look like a socialist. This will not only give them a strategy for defeating Obama, it will help pull the Democrats further to the right. Of course, the spine-less Democrats move to the right to stop being criticized. That's how we have two parties in the pockets of the rich. Obama has surrounded himself by Wall Street insiders and because he got (and is getting) most of his campaign funds from Wall Street, his hands are tied. He cannot do the bidding for the ordinary people (i.e. the 99%) because his money comes from Wall Street. This is why the economy is bad not because Obama doesn't know how to lead; he just can't…
FreeSpirit: With Citizens United, it is predicted that a billion dollars will be raised to defeat Obama. Where is the money coming from? Who knows, but the Koch brothers have already pledged tens of millions. The money could come from foreign governments, for all we know.
Republicans are also actively going after unions, as we know, because unions have traditionally given to Democrats. With unions out of the way, there is no countering the money that multinationals will pour into this election (not that unions could counter that kind of money anyway). So I guess Obama has to court the big money as well because only about 1% of funds raised come from individual, ordinary donors.
It's very depressing. Until we get money out of politics, it just keeps getting worse.
Will is also for rescinding minimum wage laws.
Even the Japanese found out you can't automate and have a good economy. Oh you save some on the automation but then how to employ the people you have? It is illogical to automate when you need people paying for things to keep the economy going. Eventually the Japanese removes much of that automation to keep the economy from falling apart. It has been in a bad state anyway and having robots do the work of people was stupid. Something things you don't do even if you can.
Will is one of the surviving Republican Conservative intelligentsia. So he is very good with words but the concepts are still wrong but put into much nicer packages.
Larry…..Good catch but I meant exactly that.President Obama wants to run our economy.And that is exactly what is wrong with his agenda.You are 100% correct.It is NOT the presidents job to run the economy.The best thing he does is get the hell out of the way.
Freespirit you say the Rs have nothing to run on.Well yes and no.Lets face it ;Obama has had nothing but failure and disaster.The Rs dont need a platform.Just point ,laugh and say "you know we can do better than this guy".
Elaine the Rs have no power as of yet to do much of anything to create jobs, and build this economy.They have held the obama free fall in check.That is all they can do till november.You will see a change i believe within a week or two of the Obama over throw.Yes you can absolutely, positively ,categorically hold me to that. Business needs to know this guy is gone
Especially liked it when the Republicans voted to KEEP tax breaks for companies that outsourced jobs and to keep tax subsidies for oil companies that earn the biggest profits on the planet. Lots of money for corporate welfare. Our welfare–not so much.
As Nick Hanauer told us, "job creators" are the middle classl. Somehow the middle class doesn't count for these Sunday panels. My solution, turn off TV, listen to Pacifica radio, and buy nothing but what you must. The last part is what will stop all thise criminal nonsense.
Elaine, I concede the point to you that Obama had/has to raise money from any source to compete. But did he have to surround himself with Wall Street insiders some of whom were the very engineers of the abolition of Glass-Steagall Act?
His administration has had four years to educate Americans on the evils of private money but they have done nothing about it. They are not interested in chaging the system. That will only have to come from us!
FreeSpirit: I agree with you. It's not that I think the Dems are so much better (though obviously, I like progressive Dems). It's that I believe the Republicans are so much worse. They are a collection of far right wing ideologues who would take the American worker back to the turn of the last century and we are seeing this played out across the country—smash unions, end collective bargaining rights, end benefits, privatize Social Security, end Medicare, keep outsourcing, grow the Pentagon (meaning that all other spending, like human services, must shrink), shutter the E.P.A. (environmental regs interfere with profits), etc.
Some Republicans, like Mitt Romney, do not understand (or refuse to accept) that Americans are sick of war and the trillions it has cost but yet he supports more military intervention. We cannot police the world but neocons still rhapsodize over global domination. There is no deficit when that's the goal.
How does the change come from us? The Tea Party was able to do it because it was funded by big bucks. Ordinary folks cannot raise the kind of money that enables Congressional candidates to run for offices across the country without the backing of huge sums of money, like the kind that comes from the Koch brothers who have already pledged tens of millions to the Romney campaign.
FreeSpirit, they want it all.
I like George Will, I just wish he would stick to Baseball! He is surly and elistist.
Thanks Elaine.
Elaine …How is Walkers state doing now that he has installed a few conservative measures?Billions in the hole ,now hundreds of millions in the clear.That is why he won again.How about Christie?Same story.Strange isn't it how true conservatism gets everything back on a paying basis while Liberalism is the proverbial money down the rat hole?Folks we have passed through a super majority with a keneysian /socialist belief- and we have seen the results.So before you downgrade anyones ideas please look at the wreckage all around you.Bush with his spending and other non conservative ideals also made mistakes.With Obama it is no mistake.It is planned idiocy.Soon we will be in charge .We will have the same success that Walker and Christie have had but on a massive scale.Of course If we fail ….throw us out.We would deserve it.Here is a hint………DONT COUNT ON IT.You better get ready to put the best spin you have ever delivered on the coming resurgence in tis economy.My guess is you will try to take credit for it -as we slash taxes, as business and wealth is recreated and the coffers balloon.How you will do it will be as good as any SNL skit.