know its painful to accept, but politics like all other human behavior is bounde

http://crookedtimber.org/2013/08/18/krugman-keynes-kalecki-konczal1/comment-page-1/#commentsI know its painful to accept, but politics like all other human behavior is bounded by morality more so than ignorance.

There is too much search for cognitive error in this thread, and too little understanding of morality.

Austerity worked in Europe. It is working in America. Because it

is accomplishing moral ends – according to the moral criteria of citizens.

Humans will suffer greatly to punish the immoral. And that is what they are doing.

It may be difficult to grasp but morality in the political context is as important as prices and incentives. If people do not think the world is moral, they will not act morally. And they hate the idea that the world might be immoral. Morality and norms are the original human currency. People are masters of its accountancy

Conservatives place higher value on norms than consumption. And their view is that empowering the government is rewarding immorality. Conservatives understand morality. They speak in moral language and they win moral arguments. And the control the public discourse with moral arguments.

I have been arguing since ’08 that the only way to push spending through would be to limit it to moral channels. And the progressive argument is always the same: morality doesn’t matter and its all nonsense.

But its not. Its as necessary as law. More so.

If you had told me this as a student I would have laughed. But there it is.