Let Them Eat Dignity by Paul Krugman

[CTyankee]

It looks like the good Dr. K is disgusted (aren't we all?) in his NYT blog today

We’re getting reports about Paul Ryan’s performance at CPAC, the big conservative gathering — and they’re actually kind of awesome, in the worst way.

I mean, the caricature of Ryan and people like him is that they treat the hardships of poverty as if they were merely psychological, that they talk big about dignity while ignoring the difficulty of getting essentials like food and health care. Well, it’s not a caricature: Ryan says never mind having enough to eat, it’s about spirituality:

“The left is making a big mistake,” Ryan predicted. “What they’re offering people is a full stomach and an empty soul. People don’t just want a life of comfort. They want a life of dignity, they want a life of self determination.”

Um, yes, but how dignified can you be on an empty stomach? How much self-determination do you have?

more http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/06/let-them-eat-dignity/?_php=true&_type=blogs&module=BlogPost-Title&version=Blog%20Main&contentCollection=Opinion&action=Click&pgtype=Blogs®ion=Body&_r=0

[Jefferson23]

1. What a sick bastard, that is a new low, even for Ryan. K&R for Krugman. n/t

[Brigid]

2. If you think that's something . . .

Just wait until the Rude One weighs in on this.

[CTyankee]

3. you mean Christie?

[Brigid]

4. No, I was thinking of the Rude Pundit.

Pretty good guess, though.

[Triana]

5. Ryan spouts typical JBS/Teabag Bassackwards Bullshit

BEFORE ANYONE can have "dignity" or "self-determination" - an absolute pre-requisite to those things is enough nutrition and food to eat and good health care, decent shelter and a decent education - just some basics - ALL of which the GOP/Tea Party apparatus are busily DENYING or SHORTCHANGING everyone on - except of course their wealthy and corporate owners.

These uhh "people" (speaking of the argument about what is and is not), are narcissists at best, psychopaths at worst and peddling a very destructive propaganda to the masses in order to benefit themselves and their puppetmasters.

They're animals, IMO. Rabid ones. They need themselves to be vaccinated with a vaccine of destitution - everything stripped from them with absolutely no assistance or opportunity to better themselves. No basics. No food. No shelter. No income. No education. No health care. Nothing. And above all NO HELP to get any of it. Outcast them. Strip them of their all. Let them live thusly for a minimum of 10 years. Make them 'untouchables'. See how they change their tune when it's THEM who have to live in a manufactured Hell the likes of which they thoughtlessly foist on millions of others.

Bastards.

[bklyncowgirl]

6. Playing to people who desperately want to believe that they are very different from the poor.

This is a key Republican point--speak to people's aspirations--even if in reality those expectations are completely unrealistic.

The fact is that most of us are a few paychecks away from joining the ranks of "the moochers" but naturally we don't want to believe it. We want to believe that our natural superiority will carry us through. This is particularly strong among conservatives. I know someone, a right winger, who's had an uneven work history in recent years--he's a 50 something guy in a tech field, who regards his stretches on unemployment insurance as somehow different than that of other people. He wants to work. Surely those people do not or else they would find jobs even though he has not done the same. It's amusing to hear him rail against the social safety net which has kept him from crashing into the ground--or worse yet on my couch.

I don't get it but then I'm not a conservative but I do wish that more Democrats would speak to people's aspirations. Yes, extending unemployment and raising the minimum wage are important and should be done but what I don't hear much of is anything that will fundamentally make it possible for most people to live a truly good life--or even to define the good life.

Where is the 21st century equivalent of "a chicken in every pot and two cars in every garage"?

[MisterP]

14. "it's the best we could get--and besides you're already richer! you just don't know it becuase of

THE EVIL MEDIA. Wave your flag or the GOP wins"

[malthaussen]

7. Boy skipped his class in Maslow's Pyramid.

Probably rolling other kids for their lunch money.

-- Mal

[SunSeeker]

8. I guess getting all that welfare when his dad died is what gave Ryan an empty soul.

Ryan makes me want to

[bemildred]

9. But people do want a life of comfort, asshole. nt

[LibDemAlways]

10. Take away Ryan's salary, his stock portfolio, his

real estate, and his bank accounts and see how long he can live on "dignity."

This cretin has earned himself a permanent place in the asshole hall of fame. What a waste of DNA.

[abelenkpe]

11. Want to solve the problem of childhood poverty?

Republicans want to solve it by slashing social programs and education funding to restore dignity to the needy. A cruel and laughable solution. Democrats want to preserve the social programs that already do too little to provide a step up. Maybe someone should do something about stopping offshoring of good paying middle class jobs? Or something to make higher education possible without going into a lifetime of debt? Because if parents don't have secure good paying jobs with healthcare, healthy pensions or retirement plans then the problem of childhood poverty will only get worse.

[Wounded Bear]

12. We've heard this shit before...

Pretty much the Middle Ages. Millions of poor people huddling in the cold while the Catholic Bishops and Cardinals played politics.

Note to Paul Ryan, I choose not to take advice about "soul" from someone who has none.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

13. These people believe getting rich is EASY because it WAS for THEM....

It's also why they don't believe in education, because they got rich even though they are top quality IDIOTS and they KNOW IT.

These are the types you would visit in their estate and you would notice they had the "12:00" blinking on the VCR.

[TheFrenchRazor]

15. when workers are disposable dignity is a pipe-dream. who is that f*cker kidding? nt