Paul Krugman dismantles notion that the 1 percent’s lack of humility is the real problem

[unhappycamper]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/09/paul-krugman-dismantles-notion-that-the-1-percents-lack-of-humility-is-the-real-problem/



Paul Krugman dismantles notion that the 1 percent’s lack of humility is the real problem
Janet Allon, AlterNet
27 Sep 2014

Columnist and economist Paul Krugman has already dismantled conservative arguments that the poor are poor because they are lazy. Today he takes on the topic that is trending in some conservative media: how the rich aren’t as moral as they used to be, and that if they’d just stop being such show-offs, things would be better.

~snip~

What he doesn’t say is that his fellow New York Times columnist, David Brooks, fits very neatly in that trend. Brooks recently wrote a ridiculous, meandering column which included the startling insight that if rich people would just stop buying their kids luxury cars, everything would be better. What we need is a more modest elite.

Is this really the problem? Ostentation as opposed to policies that have systematically widened inequality? Of course not, but in the interest of giving the devil his due, let Krugman just explore whether today’s rich are really worse than those of other eras.

~snip~

Never fear, the yachts and mansions are back. Progressive taxation is out. In 1955, by contrast, “the 400 highest-earning Americans paid more than half their incomes in federal taxes, but these days that figure is less than a fifth,” Krugman writes. “And the return of lightly taxed great wealth has, inevitably, brought a return to Gilded Age ostentation.”