Willful Ignorance, Callous Indifference, or Both?

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.

They worry about their jobs, if they have one or two. They worry about their children. They worry about their lack of health insurance.

To add insult to injury, they are more than cognizant of the record number of millionaires and billionaires who pay less in taxes than those astronomically less well off.

What are people to think and feel if the "ruling class" pretends that such problems are exaggerated and fueled by the false assumption that there is some kind of "class warfare" at play?

"How absurd! Don't the great masses of these working class, middle class and disenfranchised dolts understand that this is an entrepreneurial society where anyone -- anyone, damn it! -- could and should become rich if only they were more market savvy and industrious?"

There are a few monumental problems with these cold-hearted, morally bankrupt notions. Among them: the economy is mostly dependent on consumer spending; the government takes more from those who have less and gives obscenely more and more to those who have a lot. (You know these people, they're the ones that have multimillion dollar weddings and birthday parties that make caterers and florists richer but do very little for the overall economy, but so what? Right?)

In addition, many Americans are spending nearly ten percent more than they take in every month because they have a little thing called the "cost of living"! To top it all off, the national debt is an incomprehensible nine trillion plus dollars and we are virtually "owned by other countries"... among them the pet killing, toy poisoning, tainted food exporters who could easily blackmail us with the threat of trading in their profoundly weak dollars for the muscular euro, thereby crippling our economy.

So I ask those "in charge": is it willful ignorance, callous indifference, or both?

Comments

[realitytrumpsbull]

Yeah well I guess Creative Writing 101 DOES come
in handy sometimes! LOL

[Ravenlea]

Great article. I vote for both, though if I had to choose I think I'd pick callous indifference. I'm afraid I think many of those in positions of wealth and power in this country are fully aware of what is happening to the general population and not only don't care but think we deserve it. I get mad every time I hear some Bush or some pundit talk about how good the economy is. For them and their buddies, maybe. Here in the boonies, there's a lot of pain and suffering.

Oh, I wish you had add a sentence about the legalized mafia known as the credit card industry.

But thanks for speaking some truths that doesn't get spoken often enough.

[GhostofBillHicks]

Amen,brother Belz!
I just love to watch and listen to the finacial shows(even though i'm a"poor"man,the most i've ever made in my 20 years of WORKING, was $18 thousand).
And i'm(was)"skilled labor" an electrician,you know the guy who keeps the lights on,and the heat and A/C on(you know the guy who crawls under your house,EEEWWW!That was me(disabled now).30 years of CRAWLING under houses,climbing ladders,ect.will do that to you and add to that a hi-speed motorcycle crash.I digress.
These "special people" who think EVERYONE lives with the same life circumstances.Who say"I made it,I have mine,why don't you have yours?You must be SORRY and LAZY...thats why!"
The people who claim to be "good Christian folks",but FREAK OUT to think that some of their tax money might go to help out someone that ACTUALLY might need it.But very little is said about"CORPRATE WELFARE"you know EXXON makes record profits and still get subsidies(plus"ass-rape" you at the pump for your WAGES)WOW! What a deal!THATS FAIR!Not a word about that because they think that:"one day when i'm rich,I don't want them getting into MY cookie jar".THESE FOOLS BELIEVE THIS HORSESHIT!Its kind of like people who I know who spend half their pay on lottery tickets,BECAUSE THEIR GOING TO WIN THE LOTTERY AND RETIRE!..Oh really?
But the media want people to "buy" the "one day i'll be rich thing".
So that why UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE is "commie" shit(even though the US is the only industrialized nation without it)I didn't know England and Japan were communist or socialist?
And THIS subject in your BLOG Mr.Belzer,they'll
say your insighting "CLASS WAR FARE" a cop-out of course.These OUT-OF-TOUCH people are truly PATHETIC or just APATHETIC.

[Sidewhispers]

What's the difference. Willful ignorance, callous indifference and a big load of "let them eat cake, smoke crack, whatever their lazy liberal asses prefer." And a lot of why should I, an up-by-bootstraps rugged individual give a rat's rectum about these whiners about their uninsured or hungry young 'uns. Paradoxically, these fat, religious, Republican cats find it convenient to believe in Darwin's survival of the fittest, when it comes to greed. The thinning of the herd from disease, hunger and oppression is a product of the Great Haves. Pshaw! Bah humbug!

[sa]

i've been a spy in the house of pain for too long, and i know the reality - it is both: willfull ignorance (practiced with a vengeance) and callous disreguard.

from Mary Karr's great memoir "Liar's Club" (though not in reference [strangely enough] to the bush administration):

the definition of a republican is:
someone who can't enjoy a meal,
unless they know someone else is starving.


human nature is interesting.
the rich are bastards.
(not you richard - the others...)

[michael098762001]

Last night on the thread here http://godlessliberalhomo.blogspot.com/2007/11/growing-chasm-between-liberal-democrats.html
an organizer for the Lenora Fulani/Fred Newman New Alliance Party/CUIP totalitarian cult said that they had worked with the Kucinich campaign in '04 and Jim Mangia, one of their longtime cadre and others in their leadership circle had met w/Dennis in this cycle to do further joint work. Does the DK campaign really have no knowledge of the sinister tactics and practices of these loons?

http://www.publiceye.org/newman/cloudsblur.html

Clouds Blur the Rainbow
How Fred Newman & Lenora Fulani Use Totalitarian Deception to Manipulate Social and Political Activists
By Chip Berlet

* Introduction
* Marina Ortiz Explains Why She Resigned from the NAP
* NAP Activities in the Mid 1980's
* Fred Newman and the Historical Roots of the Newmanites
* The International Workers Party
* Institutes for Social Therapy and Totalitarian Cultism
* Opportunism & Deception
* Support for Minister Farrakhan

See also:

The Newmanites and Lenora Fulani
Lenora Fulani and the Politics of Opportunism
Buchanan, Fulani, Perot, & the Reform Party

[MilwaukeeDan]

M. Belzer, as usual, another great observation. Your bio should include "social critic". You have France to escape to, what will our uninformed masses do when the sh*t hits the fan?

[SharedGrowth]

Agreed. It seems like nobody in Washington is interested in actual reform, in the sense of changes that would simultaneously do a lot do revitalize the fading American economy and also shift the benefits of the economy back down the scale to the regular middle class people who haven't seen real income growth for the last 30 years. Out of general disgust with this situation, a couple of colleagues and I - all corporate tax lawyers with experience in how corporations actually respond to incentives - have assembled such a proposal. Rather than work through it in this space, I recommend a visit to www.sharedeconomicgrowth.org. The site goes into some detail as to why people should be much more worried about the future than they currently are, and how a pretty simple reform could go far to reverse our currently self-destructive policies. I was just in Shanghai and Delhi in the last week, and seeing again first hand what is happening over there reinforced my sense of urgency to get Americans to wake up and stop shooting ourselves in the foot before it is too late

[Bongborg]

I don't think it's callous indifference or willful ignorance, Richard. I believe it is gleeful sadism. Just as a lack of evil would leave us without a benchmark for good, not having the underprivileged and the disenfranchised would leave them without a benchmark for their high life.

[hootie1fan]

Prosperity gospel at work.

[sofia]

Well said, Mr. Belzer. Will we see you on Bill Maher? You were excellent when you scolded Bill on having Ann Coulter as a guest. It seems to me that current comedians make better and more knowledgeable pundits than the phony "journalists' on TV. Keep on writing and talking!

[avergejoe]

Spot on.

The worst and most depressing aspect -

Any possible move to more equitable distribution
is not on the horizon, with the Dems abandonment of even pretending to care for the disadvantaged.

[vippy]

Great article. Hit the nail on the head.
How about a fair tax system. Everyone pays a
certain percentage, no deductions. Those who
barely make it will be exempt of course.
The rich get rich on the backs of the poor.
However, people are so dumb when it comes to politics they fall for the lies over and over again. They are star struck. We certainly need to raise our standard of politicians. If they want to represent us they have to be above and beyond - is that too much to ask?

[CajunCountry]

Both.

And. like so many well-meaning analysis the one cited below leaves out the fact that someone whose wages are $100k will also pay regressive payroll taxes (talk about your 'double taxation') while the rentier will pay zero.

Warren Buffett is entirely correct in his famous assertion that there is indeed a class war and his side, the rich side, won.

'In 1972, wages reached their peak. According to the us department of Labor Statistics, workers earned $331 a week, in inflation-adjusted 1982 dollars. Since then, it's been a downward slide. Today, real wages are nearly one-fifth lower -- this, despite real GDP per capita doubling over the same period.'

'Governments, for their part, encourage the investors, or rentier class. Economic rent, in the form of capital gains, is taxed at a lower rate than earned income in almost every industrialized country. In the U.S. in particular, capital gains are being taxed at ever-decreasing rates. A person whose job pays $100,000 can owe 35 percent of that in taxes compared to the 15 percent tax rate for someone whose stock portfolio brings home the same amount.'

"Pay It off Later: Debt Is the New American Dream" By Dee Hon, alternet.com

[Bluedanube]

Excellent points. 6 and 7 figure salaried celebrity pundits are one of America's biggest problems that needs remedy. They serve the interests of a pampered and priviledged elite and are guilty of both willful ignorance and callous indifference.