Shrill, very shrill: In the short run they are cowards, in the long run we're all dead

In the short run they are cowards, in the long run we're all dead

by digby

Krugman:

[T]he attempt to shift the discussion away from the short run is not, as often portrayed, an act of vision of courage. On the contrary, it’s an act of cowardice, an attempt to evade responsibility for a disastrous state of affairs that we could fix, but choose not to.
Keynes had it right:

But this long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the storm is long past the ocean is flat again.

Not just economists, but politicians too. It's hard to do what has to be done to spare the pain that average people are going to endure. It requires a lot of explaining and persuasion and actually fighting the reactionary forces of the right and the Big Money Boyz at the top rather than trying to appease them. Much easier for these wealthy privileged leaders to call for the people to "sacrifice" rather than risk their own positions by doing what's right. But I hate to tell them --- in the long run they'll all be dead too.

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