David McElroy

We’ve seen beyond a shadow of doubt that the Occupy Wall Street protesters don’t understand economics and don’t understand the source of our financial problems. Until now, though, I could say, “But at least they all understand bailing out the banks was a bad idea.” Unfortunately, even that was too charitable.

The first professional survey data about the protesters is out, and the information is pretty interesting. The thing that really jumped out at me, though, was the news that half of the protesters believe the big bank bailouts were necessary.

So let’s try to wrap our heads around this. They are angry that the banks got our money, so they’re protesting there. But a full half of the protesters believe it was necessary for the government to give billions and billions of dollars to the banks. How do their heads not explode from holding this contradiction inside?

Do these people not understand that businesses which take unwise chances and lose deserve to go out of business? Do they not understand that what economist Joseph Schumpeter called “creative destruction” is necessary for the market to work?

The survey from which this information comes was done by long-time Democratic Party pollster Douglas Schoen. Anyone who’s under the illusion that these are just frustrated mainstream types hurting from the bad economy needs to listen to what Schoen writes about them:

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Politicians don’t make mistakes. If you don’t believe me, just ask them. They’ll have serious trouble coming up with examples of anything they’ve done wrong.

In 2004, Democrats howled with laughter and amazement when George W. Bush couldn’t come up with any examples of mistakes he had made since the terrorist attacks in 2001. “Dumb ol’ Bush is making mistakes all over the place, but he won’t admit it,” was the prevailing attitude among Democrats then.

Well, the tables have turned and Republicans are able to howl with laughter at Barack Obama’s blindness about the same issue. After three years in office — and with the economy continuing to fall apart instead of performing as he told us it would based on his “stimulus” spending — Obama is still convinced that he’s made all the right economic choices.

In an interview with ABC News’ Jake Tapper, Obama concedes that the election next year is going to be close because of the economy, but he’s not willing to take any responsibility for having made things worse:

“I guarantee it’s going to be a close election because the economy is not where it wants to be and even though I believe all the choices we’ve made have been the right ones, we’re still going through difficult circumstances. That means people who may be sympathetic to my point of view still kind of feel like, yeah, but it still hasn’t gotten done yet.”

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We see plenty of unemployed people with advanced educational degrees today. Want to meet someone with a master’s in English or art? Check behind the counter at Starbuck’s. Those people are pretty angry.

On the other hand, we have companies begging for highly skilled workers who are nowhere to be found. Why is there such a disconnect between what people are trained for and what the market needs?

Some would say it’s a market failure and that we need some kind of system to co-ordinate job training and education. Instead, it’s what happens when you let government rig the incentive structure, even with the best of intentions.

For something like 60 years, government has made it easy to go to college and has taught people that a college degree is the ticket to a good life. Going to college to get an undergraduate degree (or more) has been subsidized and propagandized, so that’s what people do — far out of proportion to its necessity.

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