New York. Just landed. And since I am here, the NYT represents a compulsory reading.
Interesting post published yesterday by Paul Krugman about inequality, envy and anger. He points out that it’s not envy that is driving Occupy momevements. It’s anger.
Think about it: Did the Occupy protests focus on how the one percent lives? Does muckraking journalism obsess over lifestyles? Yes, everyone knows about Mitt Romney’s car elevator, but it was the dorkiness rather than the luxury that made it a story. Actually, considering just how much the lives of the superelite have diverged from those of ordinary Americans, it’s kind of amazing how few articles there have been salaciously describing parties in the Hamptons and all that.
No, what’s really driving most of the ire is the sense that many of the rich didn’t actually earn that position, that they grew rich at the rest of America’s expense.
And what has happened since 2007 that might justify such a belief? Um, how about all those .01 percenters who were boasting about what a great job they were doing, but turned out to be leading us into a catastrophic financial crisis? What about the much-admired leaders who assured us that Wall Street was doing great stuff, and turned out to be totally clueless?
The full article is here.