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1/ I was starting to think that poorly conceived criticism of The Once and Future Worker's argument about economic policy was a reflection of my own personal failings, so it gives me some comfort to see @marcorubio receiving similar treatment today. thefederalist.com/2018/12/18/sor…
2/ Rubio published an essay @TheAtlantic, describing the economic challenges faced by working-class Americans and arguing that "neither a singular focus on economic growth nor a reliance on more government is going to solve the challenges of our time." theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
3/ This upset @davidharsanyi, who doesn't like Rubio publishing in The Atlantic. He asks whether "Rubio expects HIS children to toil at an entry-level job on a factory floor," as if only people who think factory jobs are the BEST jobs should care whether they are GOOD jobs.
4/ He pauses in the middle of criticizing Rubio's "populist" argument to fire up his readers at The Federalist: "politicians who get sentimental about lunch pails and union shops are talking about YOUR kids--or at least the kids of people who aren't reading The Atlantic."
5/ But the catastrophic leap that Harsanyi makes, with nowhere to land on the other side, is reading concern for the structural imbalances in our society and economy as opposition to creative destruction. Rubio doesn't criticize creative destruction.
6/ Rubio calls for "making companies and workers more productive" and wants America to "create fields and industries that never existed." That's pro-growth and pro-disruption. But he's asking an important q: how do we ensure this accrues to the benefit of all kinds of workers?
7/ That's the question you're not supposed to ask in the Temple of Growth. The clerics get very upset if you note that growth and disruption do not automatically benefit everyone and that, in recent decades, imbalances in our society have led to poor results for broad segments.
8/ Rubio talks about improving the tax code's structure, an education system that better meets people's needs, reforming organized labor. Harsanyi hears in this a call for a "top-down economy," apparently the generic term for anything conflicting with his market fundamentalism.
9/ Growth and creative destruction used to yield more broadly based prosperity than they have in recent decades. Understanding why that has changed, and how to fix it, should be a priority for everyone -- but ESPECIALLY those who care most passionately about those forces.
10/ One answer is that it doesn't matter, we'll just redistribute to the losers. But that's no good if we care about people's well-being as workers (what Rubio is talking about), and I suspect Harsanyi doesn't much like that as a solution anyway.
11/11 Rather than stick our heads in the sand, insist everything is great, and excommunicate any heretics, we should work on actually making things better. FWIW, that's the project I also try to take on in my book, The Once and Future Worker. bit.ly/theonceandfutu…
