Krugman Moves Me to Comment
I very rarely post comments on Krugman’s blog, but in response to this:
A great piece about Wall Street rage by Max Abelson. Basically, they feel underappreciated. How dare Obama talk about fat cats, or suggest that runaway finance had something to do with the mess we’re in?
…
Did our nation’s elite always consist of such spoiled brats? I don’t think so. We’re in the new Gilded Age — but while the old robber barons said “The public be damned”, the new ones say “Ma! He’s looking at me funny!”
…I felt compelled to check the comments. There was nothing but 14 people giving Krugman high-fives. In righteous indignation I submitted this:
Am I the only one who finds it odd that the winner of the Nobel (Memorial) Prize, who has a regular NYT column and appears on the Sunday talk shows, and I’m guessing makes at least $400,000 a year–but I stand open to correction–is casting himself as an opponent of the “elite”?
That will teach ’em. Problem solved.
High-five!
Why would the robber barons say “the public be damned”, and then go and open thousands of public libraries, give millions away to universities, and create medical research institutes? What an odd bunch of people those 19th century businessmen were.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the reason so few comments were critical is because comments that disagree with him are usually moderated. I would usually be hesistant to accuse someone of trying to censor their critics, but the only time I have ever tried to comment on one of his blog posts, my comment was deleted. I wrote nothing insulting or rude; just something like “This research paper [link] looks into the topic and may be of interest”, linking to a paper that reached a different conclusion to something he had asserted without evidence.
You’re not surprised, are you?
The point isn’t to be an “opponent of the elite” – I think the point of this whole exchange was to castigate rich people for complaining that they’re “not really rich”. I don’t think Krugman would tell you he’s not rich. He’s not saying be ashamed about it – he’s just saying don’t grandstand or proclaim that you’re not that rich when you’re we’ll into the top decile of American households.
He said “The rich are different from you and me.” So yes, Daniel, Krugman is explicitly pretending to his readers that he’s an average Joe like them.