Economists Iain Murray and David Bier make the following case about ivory tower intellectuals and other Democratic elitists:
“What is to blame for Americans' economic woes? Why, Americans' selfish desires, according to a school of thought that appears to be currently dominant in the White House. An excellent example of this line of thinking is former presidential economic advisor Robert Reich's recent article in the Financial Times, in which he claims America's ‘insatiable consumers’ have destroyed the economy and the ‘hubs of our communities’ with their relentless pursuit of ‘great deals.’ The ‘lure of the bargain,’ suggests Reich, is a destructive force.
Well that's rich -- Berkeley professor Reich, clearly a member of the 1 percent, attacking the 99. While Reich consider low prices a great evil, he ignores what they actually mean. Low prices indicate that a good or service has become more abundant -- that is, more available. This availability of goods and services is the very definition prosperity. The pursuit of low prices, which so offends Reich, is just the pursuit of prosperity -- the pursuit of happiness that the Declaration of Independence called ‘unalienable.’"
“It's easy for rich liberals to ask for higher taxes and higher prices, but these policies dramatically damage Americans' standard of living. President Obama's cap and trade bill would have cost each American family $1,761 per year, according to the White House's own figures. While that bill failed, Obama's anti-drilling, anti-pipeline, anti-energy agenda is already forcing Americans to spend more on gas as a percentage of their income last year than at any point in the last three decades. Higher prices can and do kill the American dream.”
“Low prices mean abundance and prosperity. High prices mean scarcity and privation. The dynamic capitalism that works to drive prices ever lower has helped make America the most prosperous nation on Earth. The high price economy the Obama administration and its supporters want will benefit no one -- except, ironically, some of the 1 percent.”
This hostility to bargains is certainly not confined to the White House or to energy policy. Witness the widespread hostility to Wal-Mart and indeed any other store (usually a nationwide chain) that features low prices. How much respect does Ronald McDonald get? And what do the liberals like instead? Why boutique specialty stores and farmer’s markets: upscale places with the highest prices where poor people cannot be seen, except among the help. Molson’s and Coors bad, yuppie brew pubs good!
In reality, Wal-Mart has done far more for the plight of poor people in North America than all the bleeding heart, do-gooders combined. All the latter have to offer is moral preening and handouts – i.e. more dependency. Wal-Mart offers them something rich latte liberals can barely comprehend: a break on their grocery bill.
Of course, if socialism actually produced wealth instead of misery, then you wouldn’t hear a peep about concepts like ‘sustainable living’. Instead, leftists would be saying things like: “Look comrades, hot and cold running water! Ivan never had it so good.”
But socialism doesn’t produce prosperity. It produces misery, so all the socialists have left is to denigrate the prosperity that capitalism produces and that the real ‘proletariat’ enjoys.
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