Rage of the Privileged ~ Paul Krugman

[Emit]

Rage of the Privileged

September 26, 2013

Mark Thoma has an excellent column at the Fiscal Times linking the fight over the debt ceiling to the larger issue of extreme inequality. (...) I’d like, however, to suggest that the reality is even worse than Thoma suggests.

Here’s how Thoma puts it:

Rising inequality and differential exposure to economic risk has caused one group to see themselves as the “makers” in society who provide for the rest and pay most of the bills, and the other group as “takers” who get all the benefits. The upper strata wonders, “Why should we pay for social insurance when we get little or none of the benefits?” and this leads to an attack on these programs.

So he links the debt ceiling fight to the influence of the wealthy, who want to dismantle the welfare state because it’s nothing to them, and they want lower taxes. (...)

~snip~

How, then, are things even worse than he says? Because many of the rich are selective in their opposition to government helping the unlucky. They’re against stuff like food stamps and unemployment benefits; but bailing out Wall Street? Yay!

Seriously. Charlie Munger says that we should “thank God” for the bailouts, but that ordinary people fallen on hard times should “suck it in and cope.” AIG’s CEO — the CEO of a bailed out firm! — says that complaints about bonuses to executives at such firms are just as bad as lynchings (I am not making this up.)

The point is that the superrich have not gone Galt on us — not really, even if they imagine they have. It’s much closer to pure class warfare, a defense of the right of the privileged to keep and extend their privileges. It’s not Ayn Rand, it’s Ancien Régime.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/26/rage-of-the-privileged/?smid=tw-NytimesKrugman&seid=auto&_r=1&

Krugman, keeping it real and telling it like it is.

[joeybee12]

1. KNR

[winter is coming]

2. Worse yet, it's Ancien Regime without noblesse oblige. n/t

[MisterP]

6. or art!

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

8. And with no revolutionary ending.

[daleanime]

12. Yet....

[MisterP]

15. neoliberalism was concocted to be revolution-proof

mercantilists were attacked by merchant and lawyering classes, industrialists by workers and Ameriphile headmasters; neoliberalism pretends to be revolutionary--whether in Dems running on New Dealer rhetoric and imposing increasingly brutal economics (protected by a wave of hysterical denial), or in sparsely-bearded right-libertarians posturing at contrarian rebellion against Big Everything

[daleanime]

20. Huh? Its simple.....

Look at the rise in food prices, check out the falling wages. When people can't afford to eat, they will be out in the street. (And we are going to need a pitchfork smiley.)

[libdem4life]

21. even the cake will be gone

[MisterP]

22. Latin America's often managed to do just that, so that's an important area to study

and there are indeed many US-LA similarities--and 70-90% of Americans do want progressive stuff that we're not getting from either party

[daleanime]

23. very true.....

its why MSM tells us how 'Conservative' we are 24/7.

[Brigid]

29. It is said . . .

That any society is 9-10 meals from anarchy. When enough people's stomachs are growling, and their kids are crying from hunger, things are going to get ugly.

[daleanime]

31. Your right. If you want to see desperation...

look in eyes of a parent with hungry children.

[zazen]

51. well, the kids are too exhausted from corporate ed reform to resist

And their parents from working two low-wage jobs. It can feel hopeless.

I think slow change (per Gar Apervowitz) through collective democratic ownership (ie, the largest sector of bank in the US is in fact the credit unions) is possible, but it won't happen overnight and like the women's movement and civil rights will probably be measured in decades if not a century or more, and interwoven with peak oil and climate change.

[AnneD]

49. I AM SPARTICUS......

[Dawson Leery]

3. k/r

[cui bono]

4. It's not just the bail out. It's built into every day subsidies for oil companies, etc...

And of course all the tax loopholes that only the rich and corporations can take advantage of.

In case you missed it, check this out:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3733374

[Laelth]

5. k&r for the truth, however depressing it may be. n/t

-Laelth

[rhett o rick]

7. It's class sociopathy. The wealthy believe they are entitled to be wealthy.

They believe they are wealthy because it's God's will.

[Hydra]

9. That's the window dressing

They know they are thieves and abusers of the first order, it's just useful to attack the victim first. Repubs do it to Dems all the time- "Babykillers!!!" "Tax and Spenders!" "Amoral!!!"

We're letting them do it though- they couldn't have stolen all of this without us as a society having let them.

[rhett o rick]

11. I think they are sociopaths and dont recognize that they are doing anything wrong.

God empowered them to rule.

[Hydra]

14. Lloyd Blankfein has said as much

But honestly, if they are sociopaths, I'm sure they take the animal perspective: "If I take it from you, you never deserved to have it."

Proof on that? Look at how much they love Ayn Rand's religion. They don't have to do anything to dress themselves up- they're the (misery) Makers, and everyone else needs to die.

[JEB]

38. I like your term: Misery Makers.

It has the ring of truth. I plan on using it often.

[Hydra]

46. By all means!

They say they "make" things, but all I see them leave behind them is suffering, destruction and death.

[Enthusiast]

17. I 'had' a friend.

He inherited wealth and influence. He was always trying to convince me that lower income workers were lazy. They, the working class, had to be kept in a state of physical hunger or, otherwise, they would not work (to his benefit). He had utter contempt for workers.

You have it right. "They don't recognize."

[DonCoquixote]

27. that is why many of them quote John Calvin

Who saw material wealth as God's sign that you were among "the elect", you could not achieve slavation unless God elected you.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

10. Exactly. God likes them best.

Yet, I'll bet they go against "his" will and try to fix the diseases "he" gives them.

[JHB]

45. Call it by what it is: Divine Right

They believe in a Divine Right of Maximized Profit-Taking, and anything that even slightly reduces the speed at which they can redirect wealth into their accounts is treason against the divine order.

[rhett o rick]

47. Exactly right and I believe the TPP is going to be taking this "Divine Right" to be profitable

to a whole new international level.

[Cryptoad]

13. Krugman for Chairman!

Thanks for posting Emit
If i knew how to rec I would......

[Cali_Democrat]

25. That would be great. n/t

[awoke_in_2003]

41. Wall Street would never allow it. nt

[judesedit]

16. Congress made the bills...now they don't want to pay them

The wealthy get all of the perks in this country. Stone parasites living off the work of everyone else. A bunch of greedy bastards that don't give a shit about anyone or anything but their own fat pockets. Congress is full of millionaires. They are like the wealthy who hire people then don't pay them for the job. Do you know it's the wealthy who walk away from mortgages more than the poor. They can afford to go buy a few houses with cash now that they've brought down everybody else's home values so you're underwater. They laugh all the way to the bank. Wake up, people. Stop voting for these assholes. PLEASE!

[fasttense]

18. The uber rich 1% are all for trickle down

just don't expect Them to actually DO anything for the society that is giving them all the money piss on.

[judesedit]

19. Not to mention the outrageous retirement packages they get along with superb gov run health care at

our expense for the rest of their lives. Even if they are convicted of a crime, the keep these privileges. Do your own research. Get the facts before you vote for these selfish, uncaring crooks.

[Taitertots]

24. Republicans are getting insane... The "Takers" have jobs and work their entire lives only to die...

With a mountain of debt.

While the "Makers" don't directly produce ANYTHING, but they are as rich as kings.

[Jefferson23]

26. What is there not to love about how he exposes the parasites of this nation?

K&R for Krugman.

[Electric Monk]

28. k&r

&u&g&m&a&n

[arely staircase]

30. krugman nails it again

and again and again.....

[pacalo]

32. K&R.

[Tigress DEM]

33. OH I'm so sorry! We didn't know you had been lynched before!!

That changes the whole perspective!

AIG’s CEO — the CEO of a bailed out firm! — says that complaints about bonuses to executives at such firms are just as bad as lynchings (I am not making this up.)

[Uncle Joe]

34. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Emit.

[hfojvt]

35. too bad that Krugman wants HIS tax cuts too

there he was cheering for $1.3 trillion in permanent tax cuts for the top 5% ( a group he just happens to belong to) and claiming that such permanent tax cuts, which favored the top 20% far more than the bottom 60% would REDUCE inequality.

I mean Democrats SHOULD be able to argue that it is really silly to give $1.3 trillion in tax cuts to the richest 5% and then to cut a mere $40 billion from food stamps in the name of reducing the deficit.

Unfortunately, Democrats voted for the $1.3 trillion, so they can't call out Republicans on their deficit hypocrisy.

[harun]

39. His argument was for tax relief and absorbing debt to pump up the economy.

It was hardly for what you are trying to make it out to be. You are delusional if you think he was making that argument to somehow make a few extra hundred dollars a year.

[hfojvt]

48. try a few thousand, not a few hundred

But some people are always arguing for tax cuts to the rich to boost the economy.

And regardles of WHY Krugman was making the argument, he made a seemingly dishonest argument that permanent tax CUTS for the rich would REDUCE income inequality.

Krugman is NOT part of the 99%, not part of the bottom 60%, much less, like myself, part of the bottom 40%. Does he really speak for the bottom 40% is he really primarily concerned about the bottom 40%?

He writes about "the rich" as if he, himself, is somehow NOT part of that group.

[Raffi Ella]

50. Nice try. Attacking the messenger doesn't change the message.

The message is crystal clear and nothing can take away from that, not even Krugman himself, no matter how hard you try.

[hfojvt]

52. except the message is wrong

Krugman wants to attack the "superrich" as if they are the problem.

Who is that - the 0.1% or the 0.01%?

Well, who takes most of the pie in this country?

Is it the superduper-rich?

The top 0.1% get about 10% of the nation's income.

Is it the super-rich?

The top 0.9% (meaning the top 1% sans the top 0.1%) get another 10 or 11%.

Or is it the rich?

The top 24% get 46.1%.

Krugman wants to point at the superduper rich and say THEY should pay for food stamps.

Uh-huh, what about the $700 billion in tax cuts to your OWN group? That's only 17 times as large as the food stamp cuts. But Krugman seems to want to say NIMBY.

Perhaps our wide streak of national selfishness is more of the problem than just some evil despicable superduper rich people.

[applegrove]

36. It is ‘gas lighting‘ on the part of rich. They

know they are in a class war they just don‘t want regular people to believe their lying eyes and know it.

[emsimon33]

37. Good article. Thank you!

[SHRED]

40. Those poor rich bastards /sarcasm off/

[Douglas Carpenter]

42. knr

[Puzzledtraveller]

43. Why isn't Krugman treasury sec?

??????

[Raffi Ella]

44. And the Government shut down The People when they rose up against it.

Occupy.