Paul Krugman’s op-ed piece for Monday, September 20, 2010. The Angry Rich
This is why I have become so discouraged in our political system. It may have never been about the majority of the folks in this country, but I feel it is even more skewed towards the elite today. A quote from the op-ed piece:
“And among the undeniably rich, a belligerent sense of entitlement has taken hold: it’s their money, and they have the right to keep it. “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society,” said Oliver Wendell Holmes — but that was a long time ago.”
It is amazing how many middle class folks agree with this feeling of the very rich that the rich are entitled. The wealth gap continues to grow in the United States, the people living in poverty is rising, unemployment remains high, our infrastructure continues to crumble, our children’s education is falling behind most of the rest of the industrialized world and deficits continue to grow.
These folks have no real loyalty beyond their pocket books. I would be angry, but the energy would be wasted. It saddens and discourages me beyond measure that an elite few control the political agenda of this country.
What was it Spock said, “The good of the many outweighs the good of the few, or the one.” Apparently not in America in 2010.
Mr. Krugman needs to read and digest Fareed Zakaria’s The Future of Democracy: lliberal Democracy at Home and Abroad. Particularly, the exploration/exploitation of self-interest and how everyone, rich and poor, is asking, “What’s in it for me?”
Until then, he is like a trauma team participant who keeps hollering out, “There’s blood! There’s blood!” And, blaming it on the paramedics who brought the patient in. (Or, insert a more appropriate metaphor of your own choosing here.)
More accurately… it was the doctors on the last shift that caused all the bleeding. As long as we let the very rich set the agenda in this country we are all screwed, unless you are that one percent.
WE POOR DON’T HAVE BACK BONE ANY MORE. WE TAKE WHAT THEY GIVE.
Interesting that you should tell a Nobel Laureate what he needs to read. I’m sure if he has not read the aforementioned book, he is aware of it.
Mr. Krugman is so dead on, IMHO, that it is scary.
If I was a woman I would want to have his baby.