Paul Krugman: ‘Inequality, Dignity & Freedom’

Source:New York Times left-wing columnist Paul Krugman.

“Now that the Congressional Budget Office has explicitly denied saying that Obamacare destroys jobs, some (though by no means all) Republicans have stopped lying about that issue and turned to a different argument… — it’s still a bad thing because, as Representative Paul Ryan puts it, they’ll lose “the dignity of work.” …

It’s all very well to talk in the abstract about the dignity of work, but to suggest that workers can have equal dignity despite huge inequality in pay is just silly. …

In fact, the people who seem least inclined to respect the efforts of ordinary workers are the winners of the wealth lottery. … And … Republican politicians. …

So what would give working Americans more dignity … despite huge income disparities? How about assuring them that the essentials — health care, opportunity for their children, a minimal income — will be there even if their boss fires them or their jobs are shipped overseas?

Think about it: Has anything done as much to enhance the dignity of American seniors, to rescue them from the penury and dependence that were once so common among the elderly, as Social Security and Medicare? Inside the Beltway, fiscal scolds have turned “entitlements” into a bad word, but it’s precisely the fact that Americans are entitled to collect Social Security and … Medicare, no questions asked, that makes these programs so empowering and liberating.

Conversely, the drive by conservatives to dismantle much of the social safety net, to replace it with minimal programs and private charity, is, in effect, an effort to strip away the dignity of lower-income workers.

And it’s … an assault on their freedom. Modern American conservatives talk a lot about freedom, and deride liberals for advocating a “nanny state.” But when it comes to Americans down on their luck, conservatives become insultingly paternalistic, as comfortable congressmen lecture struggling families on the dignity of work. And they also become advocates of highly intrusive government. …

The truth is that if you really care about the dignity and freedom of American workers, you should favor more, not fewer, entitlements, a stronger, not weaker, social safety net.

And you should, in particular, support and celebrate health reform. Never mind all those claims that Obamacare is slavery; the reality is that the Affordable Care Act will empower millions of Americans, giving them exactly the kind of dignity and freedom politicians only pretend to love.”

From The New York Times 

“Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times Op-Ed columnist Paul Krugman discusses the history of the American “middle class,” and argues that growing income inequality may threaten its existence…

Source:FORA-TV- left-wing economist Paul Krugman in 2007.

From FORA-TV 

Just to respond to a couple of things that Paul Krugman said with regard to nothing having been done more to ensure freedom for Americans than Social Security and Medicare:

Well, actually there is, and it is called a good education. And for Americans who have that, in many cases they do not need either Social Security or Medicare even when they are eligible for it because they have their own retirement account or have managed to stay healthy long enough to be able to work as long as they want to and put money away for their children and grandchildren.

Just to make one more point about Paul Krugman’s column:

If you look at the educational levels of the wealthy, super wealthy, or just the upper middle class and then compare their education with that of people struggling in the middle class perhaps working a blue collar job or even a couple jobs just to pay their bills or you look at low-income workers, there is not contest in their education levels.

If you want to do well in America, you need to have marketable skills or talents because otherwise you will need Social Security and Medicare to help pay your bills when you are older, assuming you are not living in poverty.

The dignity of work is a good job that more than pays your bills and allows you to put money away so you can make your own health care and health insurance as well as retirement decisions> It’s not having government make these decisions for you because you do not have the money or knowledge to be able to make these decisions for yourself. True economic freedom is not worrying about paying your bills because you can afford to enjoy life and  put money away as well.

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