Paul Krugman asks a good question

From Bitter Knitter to Sans Culottes

In his recent Conscience of a Liberal blogpost, Nation of Takers, Paul asks:

Ask yourself: when was the last time a Republican leader made a point of praising hard-working, ordinary families — as opposed to “job creators”?

We’re out here.  We work hard.  We don’t necessarily want to be rich.  Some of us derive satisfaction from our work in different ways.  But we still need to get paid, feed our kids, take care of them when they’re sick, provide for our retirements.

We DESERVE those things.  Americans are the hardest working people on the planet.  I’m tired of the rich and the well connected and a certain segment of the Democratic power faction as well, looking down on the rest of us without any appreciation for how the garbage gets picked up, their kids learn to read The Hobbit, or how the cancer drugs get made.

The rich have to lie to themselves about us.  It makes them feel less guilty about taking everything that isn’t nailed down if they can convince themselves that we didn’t earn it.  But that shit never lasts.  It will always come back to bite them in the ass.  If you impoverish a population, they can’t buy your crap, crime gets to be out of control and you get a different brand of worker a decade down the road, surly, cynical, and not particularly invested in the quality of the things they are forced to do for the measly money they get.

It won’t be a nice country to live in anymore.  That’s what the rich are bringing on themselves.  Oh sure, they will always have their nice little enclaves.  But they will be surrounded with their retainers who don’t like them and can’t wait for bad things to happen to them.  They will have to spend more and more money to protect themselves and they will never feel safe.

Enjoy it while you can.