I don't think it's just a belief in the value of purging the system, I think it's a failure to understand what's going on in this economy. People don't have any jobs and they don't have any money. That's the fundamental fact that elites can't come to terms with. It's a bit similar to the way there was a tendency, early, to diagnose the financial crisis as a liquidity crisis instead of an insolvency one. All those foreclosures-in-waiting reduce liquidity in the housing market. Improve that and all will be well.
Except for the nobody has any money part.
