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Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson reports [2] the findings of Urban Institute economist Stephen Rose [3] who examined changes in Americans’ purchasing power over the years 1979-2014. Rose found that, yes, the American middle-class is indeed shrinking, but the reason is that most formerly middle-class Americans are becoming richer. (This happy news, of course, will either be ignored or twisted by most politicians and by many pundits into the myth that most Americans are suffering increased impoverishment – or at best stagnation – while only the 1-percent grow richer.)
While I am much less keen on Republicans than (I suspect) John Goodman is, I agree with much of what Goodman says in this essay [5]. (HT John B.) Here’s a slice:
Although Krugman often likes to characterize Republicans as Ayn Rand individualists, the typical Democrat is far more self-interested – in a bad sense of the word. Democratic groups tend to base their loyalty to the party solely on what political favors the party can deliver to the group.
(While I’m not convinced that the typical Democrat is far more self-interested than is the typical Republican, I am convinced that the typical Democrat is not – contrary to popular belief – less self-interested than is the typical Republican. Seizing resources from others through the use of state force is emphatically a display of greed, even if it be masked with fine words and pretty tales of how it will improve society. Indeed, Jones’s seizing Smith’s resources is a display of greed that is orders of magnitude greater than is Smith’s merely seeking to prevent his resources from being seized by Jones (or by Jones’s exquisitely titled agents).)
Just say ‘no’ [6].
Here are verses from the poet Robert Higgs [8].