In the wake of the economic crisis of 2008 the
United States has repeatedly participated in the blame game with immigrants and
with ethnic minorities. Now it is extending domestic scapegoating to still
others. Governors in the US now increasingly attack state employees, their
unions and pensions as if they, rather than the crisis, had suddenly become the
economic problem. Mayors across the country do the same to municipal workers.
Of course, both state and municipal budget problems since 2008 are primarily
the results of high unemployment and reduced consumer spending. In short, it
was and remains the crisis since 2008 that played and plays the key role in
cutting governments' tax revenues and hurting government budgets. Growing and
more effective tax-evasion strategies of business and the rich have had the
same effect. Responding to lowered tax collections, politicians fearful of
damage to their careers refuse to raise tax rates. Instead they embrace
spending cuts that they justify by means of scapegoat economics.
