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Thank You for A Very Successful and Very Rapid Mini-Fundraiser!

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By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Readers, thank you so much for a highly successful mini-fundraiser for Water Cooler. You stormed past what I thought was a high bar for contributions, 200, and we ended up with 260 (!), not counting people who preferred to use postal mail rather than PayPal. And all in 24 hours!

So I am very appreciative. Yves wrote:

We’ve been able to deliver independent, hard-hitting commentary, analysis, and original reporting because we are independently funded.

I feel that Water Cooler is delivering this, and by your kind comments — and your more tangible, or rather fungible, contributions — you agree. Thank you!

And Yves wrote:

We need you to live up to what we hope is one of the widely-held values in the commentariat, that people should be paid fairly for their work.

And in my book, you’ve more than lived up to the values we share. On a personal note, you’ve enabled me to beat back a number of wolves from the door. Thank you again!

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About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

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13 comments

  4. bob k

    I come from a history and activist background, but I only started getting interested in political economy since the ’08 crash. I could never have learned so much without naked capitalism and the water cooler. Thank you Lambert, and Yves. Stay independent, stay true, stay strong.

    bob k

  7. Loraine F.

    Echoing Nippersmom and adding that I wouldn’t mind regular reminders that your work could use more than gratitude.

    1. hunkerdown

      Or even flattr (a project of Pirate Bay principal Peter Sunde) might bring enough, on an ongoing basis, to mollify the restive, ravenous hamsters turning the wheels at the Mighty Water Cooler Central building.

  9. knowbuddhau

    Awesome. “Beating back wolves at the door.” I sure hear that. After 6 months of going under all the time, I’m finally bouncing back up. Looking forward to being able to contribute my fair share.

  10. The Infamous Oregon Lawhobbit

    As the old commercial used to say, “And I helped.”

    Congrats!!! Well worth the $$.

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