Richard Belzer: Willful Ignorance, Callous Indifference, or Both? - Politics on The Huffington Post: "What do almost 100 million Americans have in common? They are at -- or perilously close to -- the official poverty line! Yet government officials and most of the so-called punditocracy declare rather impatiently that the economy is just fine and only the misguided masses don't think so. The universally rich television talking heads patronizingly shake their dyed coifes at the public's uniformed naiveté about the complexity of the marketplace in all it's sphinx-like inscrutability.
These overpaid, smug opinionated keepers of Wall Street's gates are, in their view, the only class of people who can explain the confusing riddle of the American economy. The only glaring problem with this conceit is that tens of millions of our fellow citizens have to choose between food, medicine or heating fuel..."
Very interesting comment thread; here's a sample:
"Mr. Belzer,
As a member of the Wall Street society for the past 25 years, I am disgusted by the policies of greed that have pounded working class Americans into submission. The propaganda of which you speak is a consistent message which memorizes the ill-informed to act in ways that are contrary to their own self interests. As a consequence, the priorities of the upper class are mistakenly embraced by the working class.
In the short term this approach has worked very well. The rich have become substantially richer . Virtually all of their goals with the exception of the estate tax, have been accomplished. At the same time the American public has been substantially dumbed down in terms of their awareness of what is happening at their expense. In the long run I fear that the stage has been set for a dramatic political/economic shift which no one can either predict or prevent..."
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