People are using “the war with Iran” as shorthand for their unhappiness with the economy. I am not defending the war with Iran. Getting into it without any plan for how to actually win and relying on the utterly moronic idea that Iranians would turn out in the streets to topple the regime was a gigantic, insane mistake. Please remember how I said right at the start of the war that this plan made absolutely no sense because Iranians love their regime and have zero interest in toppling it. We can all see that this is exactly what happened. The regime is stronger than ever.
Our economic problems were absolutely aggravated by the war, but the economy was already moving in this direction and would have gotten there without the war soon enough. I know this because Spain has been in the exact same place where we are now for 15 years: people under 40 are unable to find jobs, unable to buy housing, and unable to start families. For us, this is new in such an acute form, but other developed countries have been living exactly like this for a while.
I agree that it would be fantastic if our country could exit the war in Iran ASAP and not fight any more wars in the Middle East ever again. Doing that would be great and important, but it will not repair the economy. It still should be done, and it will provide some relief, but neoliberalism was not caused by the war in Iran and will not be cured by it.
Another bad shorthand is “cost of living.” It’s manipulative and stupid. Democrats are already talking about “passing legislation to lower grocery prices.” There is no legislation that does that. The problem isn’t with the prices, but that people aren’t making enough.
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