Did I say she wasn’t a smart person? There are plenty of smart people who are ignorant on economics. For example, she probably thinks IOUs are not included in any monetary aggregates.
There is a difference in hyperbole that is rooted in reality, and hyperbole that, when you look at the non-hyperbolic version, is still in direct contradiction with the overall trends. There is a difference that I can discern.
She has a BA in Economics and International Relations. So, yeah, I’m sure she knows more about economics than I do.
What’s your economics education?
I have read some economics in my spare time. There are plenty of people who get degrees in soft sciences who are still wrong about fundamental points. I’m willing to bet the vast majority of people with BAs in economics think she is wrong on fundemental points. Even higher numbers will disagree as we get into the advanced degrees.
Everything she has said about trends in employment are wrong. I will need her to say more things before I can point out that they too are wrong.
Of course, if you completely change the meaning of the statements into bouts of emotional rhetoric, like Human Action has done, some of the statements can be excused.
“It is nice. Growing up, it was a good town for working people. My mom scrubbed toilets so I could live here & I grew up seeing how the zip code one is born in determines much of their opportunity. Your attempt to strip me of my family, my story, my home, and my identity is exemplary of how scared you are of the power of all four of those things.”
-Ocasio-Cortez on Colbert
Does the rabbit peek out of the hat with this statement? Besides her trying to excuse her life in the comfortable middle-class, she hits on something important. Power. Her political power is a function of her identity. Yes some people are a little freaked out when a certain familial heritage and social status brings you power over others. History tells us this may not be a good recipe for politics.
I think she is a sharp thinker, actually. She just lacks certain nuggets of wisdom about the history of political power and the history of capitalism and human flourishing. It is probably too late for her to heed this wisdom, because she will be well-funded for decades to come off this nonsense she peddles now.
Where are you getting this privilege narrative? Because her late father was an architect?
Meh.
Her identity (youth, gender, ethnicity) is part of the marketing package. Identity always is, inclusive of course of being not youth, male, and white. More often (like as a general rule) political power coming from identity comes from that last combination, rather than from the former, which more often translates to less rather than more power.
That has perhaps not been a good recipe: a society that gives power based on zip code, class, gender, ethnicity, and skin color has problems. But reacting with a “freak out” that some of the identities that have been dealt out of that are looking for representation taking that into consideration seems a bit pearl clutchy to me.
:rolleyes: I’m sorry that you never learned to read for context, or place honest interpretations above childish point-scoring.
Aye; his last 4 posts are shot-through with suppositions, bias, and Dunning-Kreuger.
He and dalej seem to have some serious issues with this lady.
Not representation. Power over others. Politics, and hers especially, is about getting power over others, not removing the boot from the necks of certain victims of government. If it was, I would be onboard. Indeed I would support abolishing ICE, but I would not support replacing it like she does.
I would also not babble incoherently about how the Koch brothers are conspiring to relax immigration restrictions like Sanders.
Yes, we should be easier on politicians and their vacuous rhetoric, you have a point.
Yes, we should be easier on politicians and their vacuous rhetoric, you have a point.
I’m catching up on this topic late. I don’t agree with her leanings, and the economic doom-and-gloom message that was incorrect when it got Trump elected is still incorrect. But damn if it isn’t satisfying to see a smug establishment candidate get his ass handed to him in the way it was handed.
“Pants on Fire”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrong on several counts about unemployment
Although they are incorrect also: they say “several” and list just two. Two is “a couple” not “several”. 
“All these Democrats lie! They all lie about everything!”
No. Social democrats lie. This includes Republicans and Democrats.
I think “lie,” is undeserved. I think she genuinely was confused about how job numbers are calculated.
I’d rather see a political candidate say something solid than evade with non-responses. If it’s factually wrong, I think the norm should be for political discourse to correct the error, rather than trigger an attack and claim bad faith.
Now, some politicians who have made their bones by continually lying, like, oh, say, the 45th President of these United States, have demonstrated their imperviousness to correction of facts. But I don’t agree (yet) that Ms. Ocasio-Cortez deserves that category. She made a mistake of fact.
Shouldn’t a likely member of Congress already know that?
How about inflation, GDP, literacy and productivity rates? Shouldn’t a likely candidate know how those numbers are crunched? And surely we all expect them to know basic accounting methods, passing the budget being one of their most important jobs. And of course we should expect a decent grounding in Constitutional law, they’re passing laws after all
Would you say any of those qualifications are less important than employment level calculations?
I wouldn’t expect a member of congress to be fully knowledgeable about all of those topics, I can hope that they would have staff that are.
However, I do expect a recent economics grad to be knowledgeable about how the job numbers are created. I can’t imagine any decent economics program that doesn’t require at least one class in labor economics. I wouldn’t be surprised if it isn’t also covered in an intermediate macroeconomics class as well, especially given all the lying and moving the goalposts that Trump, Jack Welch, and some of the other conservative clowns used to do during the Obama administration.