YOYO Economics (“You’re On Your Own”)
“YOYO” has been cited since at least 1988 to mean “You’re On Your Own.” “YOYO” has been used in medical slang as a saying to patients who leave a hospital.
Jared Bernstein’s book, All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy (2006), defined “YOYO” economics and its opposite approach, “WITT” (“We’re In This Together”). Bernstein—who later became Chief Economist and Economic Adviser to Vice President Joseph Biden—has said that Republicans believe in YOYO and Democrats believe in WITT.
Wikipedia: YOYO economics
YOYO (You’re On Your Own) economics is a term used to describe economic policy in which a government shifts responsibility for economic challenges on to individuals. Such challenges in the United States, for example, include managing globalization, maintaining Social Security, and lessening inequality. Thus, the government has a lessened role in the individual lives of its citizens. Such policies are associated with the Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush administrations.
Wikipedia: Jared Bernstein
Jared Bernstein is a Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. From 2009 to 2011, Bernstein was the Chief Economist and Economic Adviser to Vice President Joseph Biden in the Obama Administration. Bernstein is considered to represent a progressive, pro-labor perspective.
Urban Dictionary
yoyo
Medical slang, but can be used anywhere: Means: You’re on your own. Used in a hospital on the day of discharge as in the phrase “OOB,OTD, YOYO” : Out of Bed, Out the Door, You’re on your own. Can be used by parents of colleged aged kids, or by someone breaking up with someone else. .
I’ve had it with you, YOYO!
by DoctorSteve Sep 12, 2006
11 December 1988, Chicago (IL) Tribune, “Verbal ‘Malpractice’: Joking about death eases the hospital life” by Ryan Ver Berkmoes, Tempo, pg. 12:
Written on this patient’s chart one might find the cryptic letters “AMF YO YO,” which mean “Adios, (expletive), you’re on your own.”
New York (NY) Times
ABOUT NEW YORK; Greeting a New Yorker? Keep It Short and Sweet
By Michael T. Kaufman
Published: August 04, 1993
YO!
(...)
There are these two New York artists, Librado Romero and Chris Maynard, who for several years have been discussing and embellishing a fantasy of starting something they want to call the YOYO School of the Arts. As they see it, they would advertise to attract people who want to become New York Artists. Once enrollment fees were received the two prospective deans would welcome the prospective students to the city, explaining what YOYO stands for—both literally and in its teaching approach—is: You’re On Your Own. Not a bad guiding principle for an art school or for this city.
New York (NY) Times
Excerpts From ‘All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy’ by Jared Bernstein
Published: July 19, 2006
In his book “All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy,” Jared Bernstein traces the origins and evolution of “you’re on your own,” (YOYO) economics and articulates an alternative approach, “we’re in this together,” (WITT).
(...)
This extreme individualism dominates the way we talk about the most important aspects of our economic lives, those that reside in the intersection of our living standards, our government, and the future opportunities for ourselves and our children. The message, sometimes implicit but often explicit, is, You’re on your own ... YOYO ...
... One central goal of the YOYO movement is to continue and even accelerate the trend toward shifting economic risks from the government and the nation’s corporations onto individuals and their families. You can see this intention beneath the surface of almost every recent conservative initiative: Social Security privatization, personal accounts for health care (the so-called Health Savings Accounts), attacks on labor market regulations, and the perpetual crusade to slash the government’s revenue through regressive tax cuts — a strategy explicitly tagged as “starving the beast” — and block the government from playing a useful role in our economic lives. ...
On the Economy by Jared Bernstein
O goes YOYO
Dec 07, 2011
Great speech by the Pres yesterday in Kansas. This NYT editorial provides an excellent summary.
I’ve been inveighing against YOYO economics (“you’re on your own”) for a long time—here’s an excerpt with some background on the concept, but it’s pretty simple. I think the POTUS gets it just right here:
We simply cannot return to this brand of “you’re on your own” economics if we’re serious about rebuilding the middle class in this country. We know that it doesn’t result in a strong economy. It results in an economy that invests too little in its people and in its future. We know it doesn’t result in a prosperity that trickles down. It results in a prosperity that’s enjoyed by fewer and fewer of our citizens.
New York (NY) Times—The Caucus blog
December 20, 2011, 5:51 pm
A Rhetorical Return for ‘YOYO’ Economics
By HELENE COOPER
Just in time for the presidential campaign season, “you’re on your own” economics — a k a YOYO — has returned to the rhetorical landscape.
YOYO economics, a term coined by the economist Jared Bernstein in his 2006 book “All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy,” is meant to refer — critically, of course — to the idea that many Republican economic proposals simply shift risk from the government and big corporations to individuals and families.