Do We Have to Watch Their Wretched Movie All Over Again?

Townhall.com ^ | July 30, 2021 | Michael Barone

[Kaslin]

Why do I feel that I have seen this movie before?

I would like to think that learning is cumulative. But I'm beginning to think that every generation or two, people need to learn all over again the lessons that have unaccountably been forgotten or tossed aside. The elderly among us can see this, even as young people are inclined to insist that they are experiencing things never before experienced by humans and that this time will be different.

Let's take it issue by issue:

INFLATION

The consumer price index for June rose on an annual basis before seasonal adjustment by 5.4%. That's higher than May, which suggests that inflation is accelerating. And it's far above the 2% annual rate, which is the professed goal of the Federal Reserve. Treasury Secretary and former Fed Chair Janet Yellen insisted that the jumps in prices are just temporary adjustments to the COVID-19 economy, although she's extended the period for adjustments. Current Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said he's not worried and will keep interest rates low.

They've got the bond market on their side. But those expressing alarm include not only the Wall Street Journal editorial page but also Harvard economist and Clinton administration Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers. He's been arguing for months that President Joe Biden's administration is pumping too much money into the economy.

Consumers may agree: A New York Fed survey showed they expect a 4.8% annual rise in prices over the next year. We learned in the 1970s that once people start expecting inflation, they start to feed it by raising prices and boosting wages to keep ahead of the trend.

We know how to get rid of inflation. Former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker -- appointed by Jimmy Carter and supported by Ronald Reagan -- raised interest rates and triggered a steep recession from which a low-inflation growth economy eventually emerged. Are we ready for that kind of pain again?

CRIME

Calendar year 2020 saw a 25% increase in homicides, the highest since 1960 and higher than in any single year in the 1965-75 decade when the number of violent crimes almost tripled. They seem to be rising by similar rates this year.

Many people don't like to admit it, but this is obviously a result of the de-policing movement urged by Black Lives Matter and cheered on by liberal editorial writers, corporate moguls and Silicon Valley monopolists.

They applauded and declared exempt from COVID-19 restrictions the "mostly peaceful" demonstrations against supposed systemic police misconduct. Few, if any, deplored the nearly 600 violent riots that caused some $2 billion in damage. If the experience of the 1960s is a guide, this will severely damage modest-income neighborhoods for decades after.

Once again, solutions are visible for those with sufficient memory. The intensive policing tactics of Rudy Giuliani and Bill Bratton in New York City in the 1990s -- copied and adapted by many others around the country -- cut violent crime rates by more than half. Thousands of Black lives were saved -- and the number of Black people with prison records reduced. Neighborhoods once abandoned to criminals were revived with new jobs and opportunities.

Can that happen again? Maybe Eric Adams, the ex-New York Police Department officer who seems sure to be elected mayor of NYC in November, can show the way. Or maybe we'll have to wait out a couple of high-crime decades, as we did after 1965-75.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

Does the United States need 1 or 2 million new illegal immigrants? The Biden administration apparently thinks so. It has opened the southern border to tens of thousands of supposed asylum seekers; not just from Central America and Mexico but also from Haiti, the Middle East and Africa.

The illegal immigrant population increased from 3.5 million in the 1990s to 8.4 million in 2000 and peaked at 12.2 million in 2007, then dropped and leveled off at 10.5 million in 2017, according to Pew Research.

The 2007-08 recession reduced low-skill immigration over the southern border to zero. Trump administration agreements with Mexico kept it down. As a result, low-skill Americans saw greater percentage wage gains than the rich, even as immigrant inflow became increasingly high-skill. What was so terrible about that?

It may be that these problems will just solve themselves: Inflation will subside, as many economists expect; violent crime will subside, de-policing or not; recent border crossers will meet their court dates and legalize their status.

But maybe not. In which case, doesn't it make sense to go back and update policies that worked rather than watch this movie go on at agonizing length?

[Does so]

Forgot Wuhan...

[AnglePark]

But I'm beginning to think that every generation or two, people need to learn all over again the lessons that have unaccountably been forgotten or tossed aside.

This, 100%. I always tell folks the most profound thing I learned from receiving a degree in history is that we never learn from history.

[drwoof]

Wuhan is now the distraction from the dystopian reality we are experiencing.

[Little Ray]

Neah.
What we have is a political party that is a domestic enemy.
These enemies already have a large constituency, and every decade or so, weak minded ‘undecideds’ forget the nature of the Democrat party and put them into the power.
Because the Democrats use these opportunities to further their power, the normal people don’t get around to cleaning up after them before they make it back into power. So the Overton Window is moved ever further Left.

[brownsfan]

Yes. WE let the left have the educational system, and now the chickens are coming home to roost.

Sit back and enjoy the movie.

[DIRTYSECRET]

The more things change the more they remain the same. Should we teach cliches in our public schools?

[SaxxonWoods]

You know it’s getting bad when Michael Barone wakes up.

[brownsfan]

“Should we teach cliches in our public schools?”

You have nothing useful, so you’ll complain about the use of cliches? That’s about as useful as teats on a bull.

[cockroach_magoo]

Forgot one: collectivism-induced genocide.

Seems to be coming soon, brought by the geniuses who believe they will be better at implementing collectivism than all the stupid collectivists of the past.

[Liaison]

Antifa is the new Wobblies and anarchists of the early nineteenth century. Some folks never learn.

[Bon of Babble]

young people are inclined to insist that they are experiencing things never before experienced by humans and that this time will be different.

Anyone who says that wasn't alive during the Jimmy Cater era.

And, of course, inflation, high interest rates, stagflation and the "misery index" aren't being taught in the schools.

Democrats still consider Carter a hero and savior...when he was anything but.

[DIRTYSECRET]

*“Should we teach cliches in our public schools?”
You have nothing useful, so you’ll complain about the use of cliches? That’s about as useful as teats on a bull.*

In the words of another distinguished American: “Come on man!” Do you see me putting down the use of cliches? Think deeper and you just might see that there’s much truth in them. You know- they stand the test of time. Your reaction was knee-jerk but I’m a forgiving person.

[Organic Panic]

Transitory. Just like 2 weeks to flatten the curve,

[Oatka]

We know how to get rid of inflation.
No, "we" do not. We just got it back down to 2% a year. Check what prices were in the '70s to what they are now.

Former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker -- appointed by Jimmy Carter and supported by Ronald Reagan -- raised interest rates and triggered a steep recession from which a low-inflation growth economy event. ​Are we ready for that kind of pain again?
No, but that question is academic. The Fed is in the proverbial rock-hard place. They never let the pain occur in the last 30 years and the prospective pain has built up to a point it that it will not be willingly applied now. All they can do is inflate until the system crashes and we are forced return to a gold-backed currency.

The "we" in that last sentence refers to the world, as every country is debasing their fiat currency to maintain the illusion of prosperity. The U.S dollar is just "the prettiest pig in the slaughterhouse."

(The cigarette is a nice touch)

[Verginius Rufus]

On Tuesday I got gas at twice the price per gallon as I was paying last November. Inflation rate of 100% in 8 months.

[Elsie]

Just who ‘decided’ that those with NO skin in the game should vote?

[Elsie]

Mine has gone from $2 to $3.15

[Verginius Rufus]

On November 11, I paid $1.579 a gallon for regular; on July 27, I paid $3.259. (That was on a trip—the local stations are still a bit under $3.)

[Little Ray]

All the moron’s who let their ‘feelz’ guide the votes. Just like they were taught to in elementary and high school.
You have to remember that almost half the population is below average and ‘average’ is not a very high bar to start with.