North-South trade, employment, and inequality

Finally: "Unfortunately the federal government is going to remain a large system for the foreseeable future. Even a remarkably small federal government would spend well over $1 trillion a year and have well over a million civilian employees. There are still things that people expect from the government." (Page 224.) Without quibbling about the exactitude of the trillions and the millions, we can see that this is a very hardheaded Speaker speaking. Government as a supplement to and a correction of the market system has always been, is, and will continue to be, an intrinsic part of capitalism. The real debate is not the shoddy one on the meretricious issue of whether the government is good or evil, but who will benefit from government policies. The constituency of the Republican Party is the welloff, and the well-off have been helped. The rich have gotten richer, everybody else has gotten poorer. No surprise here. The policies and practices of the 1920s prevail. Government as bold innovator, as guar