polifrog
Ed Cone:
The problem is the belief that rich people are uniquely virtuous and productive and interesting and more deserving of praise for their role in society and the economy than any other group. This notion should seem absurd to anyone who has ever contemplated the work done by, say, nurses or firefighters, but somehow it is a popular and politically powerful idea -- so powerful that we actually spent years making new rules and pretending that wealth was just about to trickle down, when in fact it was pooling at the top.
We went from skepticism about the pursuit of wealth as an end to itself to worship of that program. The same book where I found the opening quote warns against Mammonophilia and contains a famous formula about even-toed ungulates, sewing implements, and eternity, along with much else in the same vein. All that seems forgotten by politicians who cite the book frequently in more general terms.
Strawman arguments in the service of progressivism...
In Ed's case it is done in the attempt is to define good and evil based on income so as to paint evil those policies that help more people more easily find wealth through their own effort.
But what of that policy that puts wealth in the hands of those whose only effort is exerted at the ballot box? Why, that wealth escapes his hues of evil, for within the progressive soul there is no evil in the tool that is envy.
Not that Ed is envious, but eloquently levering envy on others is nothing short of evil.
out
"Not that Ed is envious, but eloquently levering envy on others is nothing short of evil."
ReplyDeleteWhen your worldview agenda can't exist on its academic and intellectual merits, as is always the case with Cone, it's the only thing you've got.
He's hardly alone in that, however. The names of several of his Usual Suspects come to mind rather quickly.