The reactionary nature of Keynesian economics.

I had a lengthy discussion with a very liberal Minnesota State Senator this morning about my stating that there is nothing progressive about Keynesian economics. His position is that any government initiative which creates jobs should be considered progressive.

It is impossible to ague that the creation of any number of jobs with so many millions of people unemployed is not good. But, because the creation of any jobs may be good does not make Keynesian economics progressive.

No matter how hard anyone tries, there is no getting around the fact that Keynesian economics is all about using public capital and social capital (many people use the term "public funds" which is an okay definition but there is a difference between public capital and social capital which combined we can consider "public funds") during times of economic recession and depression in order to stimulate just enough spending get the capitalist consumer market going in order to increase production in the private sphere.

Keynesians prefer to spend public and social capital putting people to work on public projects managed by privately owned corporations but will agree to limited public works projects as a last resort--- hence what they do in the public sphere is always too little, too late even though the money workers employed on these public works projects ends up in the coffers of the extremely wealthy.

Keynesians view production as being the prerogative--- the exclusive right--- of private sector of the economy. They can make all the exaggerated claims they want about helping "small business" but anyone who looks can see they are really about helping only the largest Wall Street monopolies and multi-national corporations.

Does anyone really believe the Congressional Progressive Caucus would be able to create 7 million new jobs through subsidizing small business? The government doesn't even hire small businesses to pick up the garbage or fill small pot-holes in the roads and when public infrastructure like water and sewer is privatized, how often do you see the work turned over to small businesses?

The first insight we have that Keynesian economics is not progressive is that it's primary concern is the stimulation of the capitalist consumer market. The second is that the Keynesians take the position production is the exclusive right of private industry.

Progressives take the position that production should take place for social well-being so everyone can have the basic needs met.

Most people in this country, or any other country, spend what income they have on meeting their basic human needs so it is not any kind of far out left thinking to assert this basic fact of life--- and economics.

Progressives take the position that production in a public sector should occur--- especially when private production fails. A progressive position would be one in which it is advocated to bring all these closed mines, mills and factories back into production under public ownership using public capital and social capital--- just imagine what we could do with the trillions of dollars from the Social Security Trust Fund in order to start up production to meet social and human needs. Keynesians want no part of public ownership of the mines, mills and factories or power generating, communications, transportation or retail industry (distribution of goods produced through cooperatives).

Anyone with an ounce of common sense can see that for the Keynesians the economy can "bounce back" to what is considered a "recovery" with the "new norm" for unemployment remaining for years at 7% to 8.5%--- the president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Board stated this.

The Keynesians in fact believe, but won't publicly state, that this obscene level of unemployment is good because it depresses all wages. In fact, they will couch their approval by talking about how they use various levers to manage the economy so we don't get hyper inflation from spending on militarism and wars--- huge "public works projects" though the Keynesians don't like to admit how much they love militarism and wars--- hence the Congressional Progressive Caucus makes no bones they are for huge military expenditures while claiming they are for making "modest reductions" while using tax-dollars in a most frugal way only to "modernize" the war machine--- but, you notice when they speak of "modernization" they avoid all talk of what they really mean--- making the killing machine more efficient and effective... thus they deliver drone warfare, etc. as they evade ever talking about the imperialist nature of these wars.

I pointed out to the Senator that he had done nothing to keep the St. Paul Ford Plant in production under public ownership even though he repeatedly voted to spend public funds (social capital) to subsidize Ford's operation and then he compounded his "errors" when he enabled the Ford hydro-electric generating dam--- compliments of local, state and federal tax-dollars--- to be sold by the Ford Motor Company to a Canadian multi-national at a profit so obscene no one will state the amount and then the public gets screwed again because the electricity is sold to a monopoly to rip-off consumers when this hydro-electric generating plant could have been brought under public ownership and operated to bring free electricity to our public schools, to power street lights and other public buildings saving the very tax-payers who built this hydro-electric generating plant millions upon millions of dollars just like it saved the Ford Motor Company for some 85 years.

Would anyone call allowing Ford to sell a plant it never owned "progressive?" These Keynesians want to evade all talk about specifics because every time there is a discussion they end up exposing themselves for the reactionaries they are while pretending they are progressives.

The Keynesians like to pass themselves off as progressive job creators but they don't like to talk about the two-thousand jobs they flushed down the sewers into the Mississippi River when they allowed Ford Motor Company to close the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant and they don't want to talk in public about how much the public is losing as water going through the Ford Dam generates 18 megawatts of electricity at a loss to tax-payers and the public for which the public once again subsidizes the electricity these Keynesians don't give a second thought to.

Keynesian economics is not only reactionary, it fosters the most crooked and corrupt kind of government seeing as how Brookfield Asset Management really spread around the campaign contributions to secure this secretive deal with the Ford Dam.

It makes me sick to hear these Keynesians try to hide their reactionary economics under the guise of being progressive.

And then when they find they can't defend their reactionary economics they claim we are too stupid to understand the complexities of economics.