We common folk and our pesky entitlements are being blamed for the debt & deficit disaster. But when Bush came into office, we had a surplus that was quickly erased by (1) unfunded tax cuts that primarily went to the wealthy, (2) two simultaneous wars, and (3) a recession that was directly attributable to deregulation — none of which were demanded by “the people” and all of which were instituted by folks at the top.
– Rich Horton
From The Unwisdom of Elites, by Paul Krugman
“…What I’ve been hearing with growing frequency from members of the policy elite — self-appointed wise men, officials, and pundits in good standing — is the claim that it’s mostly the public’s fault. The idea is that we got into this mess because voters wanted something for nothing, and weak-minded politicians catered to the electorate’s foolishness.
So this seems like a good time to point out that this blame-the-public view isn’t just self-serving, it’s dead wrong.
The fact is that what we’re experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. The policies that got us into this mess weren’t responses to public demand. They were, with few exceptions, policies championed by small groups of influential people — in many cases, the same people now lecturing the rest of us on the need to get serious. And by trying to shift the blame to the general populace, elites are ducking some much-needed reflection on their own catastrophic mistakes…”
The rest of the column is here.
