God, it hurt to find out that CNBC’s Erin Burnett has a degree in political economy from Williams College. It hurt because not long ago Burnett showed such abysmal naivete about the economy—about the evolution of American manufacturing in relation to regulation and the consumer culture—that you wondered if her brain had been damaged by a helping of snack food laced with melamine. Here’s what she said to Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball:
“A lot of people like to say, uh, scaremonger about China, right? A lot of politicians, and I know you talk about that issue all the time. I think people should be careful what they wish for on China. You know, if China were to revalue its currency or China is to start making say, toys that don’t have lead in them or food that isn’t poisonous, their costs of production are going to go up and that means prices at Wal-Mart here in the United States are going to go up, too. So I would say China is our greatest friend right now, they’re keeping prices low and they’re keeping the prices for mortgages low, too.”
A week later a somewhat chastened Burnett told Matthews, “Nobody wants children to play with toys that are not safe… I don’t want that. But safety and quality come with a price.”
Earth to Erin: safety and quality are what Americans and others around the world have counted on from U.S. manufacturers for as long as people living now can remember. That’s what made us different from countries whose people suffered every day from inedible food and products made by shoddy, unregulated industries, and they should have taught you that in Year One at Williams. As for your implication that what’s good for Wal-Mart is good for everybody, that’s so outrageous it needs no comment. As the country deals with global warming, war, health threats from toxic products and rising numbers of bankruptcies, viewers of our major networks’ news and commentary programs deserve more depth than this.
