You're right. Now is a good time to talk about it. That still leaves the heap o' work. -- mbs
I agree with you, Max, that the best time to raise the Time issue is when the economy is in good shape. The problem then, however, is that no one is worried much about unemployment and so it is off the political agenda. I recall you specifically making that comment to me in this forum, oh, about two or three years ago. That makes two times when it is not opportune to raise the Time issue -- when unemployment is not an issue and when it is. Having established that it is *never* opportune to raise the Time issue, I have to fall back on the position that it is therefore *always* important in principle to do the heap of work it takes to launch that discussion. Certainly Lonnie's work and Eileen's are part of that heap and that's a credit to EPI. I still can't quite square your characterization of the spending paradigm as the "one under discussion" when your op-ed piece was about the lack of attention being paid to it by Dems and Repubs alike. Perhaps the signal that it's time to try a different paradigm is when Dems and Repubs aren't even paying the "one under discussion" much lip service. mbs: It's a different paradigm. I'm sympathetic, but for a variety of reasons I'm stuck in the current one. It's going to take a heap of work to launch that discussion. The downside of the business cycle hands us a context that is ignored if we shift to a timeless focus on time. It would not pay to try and change the subject when the one under discussion redounds to our advantage. I would say the time to raise the Time issue is when the economy is in what is ordinarily thought of as good shape. Tom Walker
