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Progressives Don’t Like Poor People. They Just Hate Rich People.
First, my apologies. Like many of my physician colleagues, I’m struggling a bit with burnout. So, hopefully unlike many of my colleagues, I spend my Friday and Saturday nights drinking myself into oblivion. It helps, for a while – it really does. I feel better. Until the next morning. Thank God for bourbon. And coffee. All mostly harmless, except for my esteemed friends on Ricochet. You have to listen to my drunken ruminations. Sorry. Speaking of which:
I find it incredible that anyone can complain about modern medicine’s inefficiencies, complexity, and lack of personal touch – and then that person suggests that things would improve if only the government was more involved. My friends that can say such things without giggling are generally not fools. I don’t get it. Will concierge medicine be outlawed? Now that would help poor inner city lesbian single mothers! How can we make our military more effective? By staffing it with trans-gendered unionized government employees! How can we increase the GDP? By increasing regulations and alternative energy usage! How can we improve our system of higher education? By outlawing independent thought! How can we help unskilled workers enter the labor market? By banning jobs that produce less than $15 per hour!
I could go on and on, given enough bourbon. You probably could, too.
But I find the root motivations of such things endlessly fascinating. Progressives claim to be motivated by concern for the downtrodden and a desire to restore “true American ideals.” But most, if not nearly all, of their policies accomplish to opposite of their stated goals. Are they all stupid? No. So what gives?
I really think that most progressive policies are designed not to help the poor, but to punish the rich, and are based on nothing more idealistic than simple jealousy. They’re designed not to help anyone, but to hurt someone. Someone specific.
I think this is why progressives hate Trump so much. On the other hand, why do they love Kennedys? Mysterious are the ways of progressives.
Studying progressives since the 1960s, I wonder if anyone has a more – ahem – charitable view? Please enlighten me. Perhaps this will all make sense when I achieve an adequate serum concentration of bourbon…
Published in General
I think social workers actually help people in spite of the absolutely insane ideology that poisons them. Switch that to a community organizer and I would agree with you.
Too, maybe not.
Ummm…
I wasn’t suggesting that social workers are less important to society than physicians. As you might imagine, I might be inclined to make just that argument, but that’s not what I was talking about. That’s a different topic. Sorry to be unclear.
What I was trying to say was that if you have someone in Social Work school who does not have top level ability in, say, biochemistry, or pharmacokinetics, that’s less of an issue. Bringing second tier students into medical school is a serious mistake. It may be less of a mistake in schools for other professions.
Also, the consequences of a mistake are different in the two fields. If I screw up, I can kill somebody. Quickly. A mistake in social work can be serious as well, but perhaps in a different way.
Social work is important. But there are a few fields that I think should be excused from affirmative action. Those that involve life and death decisions and those that require rare skill sets are not helped by affirmative action.
Of course, who IS helped by affirmative action? Now THAT is a tough question…
I wrote an article some 4-5 years ago discussing affirmative action docs and the horrors unleashed by an inferior physician.
I’d look at the Progressive view of the Left as you do, only with some additions. I think they have no clue that they hate us, and would say that they think it’s unjust that we make so much money, and are therefore being just. Of course, if you asked them what it means to be “rich,” they would have no clue. Even asking them for a range of dollars yields no response. That means they have no idea how much they want to take away from us. (I say “us” because I assume that according to our standards, most of us would say we’re not poor, so I guess we must be rich.)Also, we must be punished for being rich (still undefined), because we have done it on the backs of the poor; they can’t explain what that means either. I’m not rich, doing okay, but some of the Left would say I AM rich compared to the poor, that I owe the poor some of my money, since I have so much I don’t need. I don’t remember the last time I took food out of the mouth of a poor person. Must be 20, 25 years . . . not.
@susanquinn Susan, you’ve nailed something, here. I’m definitely not poor. If I have an unexpected $500 appliance repair, or $2000 vehicle repair, I don’t have to go into crisis mode, but I do get concerned.
But I’m rich and need to be further prison-raped by taxation to ensure I’m paying my fair share? Nuts to that.
If you’re looking for a concise description of a considerable amount of progressive thinking, you can’t do much better than this.
As for the poor: I doubt leftists hate them. With some exceptions, leftists don’t know poor people, and don’t particularly care to know them. They are just another ill-defined group that needs help – and only the left can help them!
One reason legislators can get away with crafting policies that are sometimes destructive to the poor is that they are, in the words of Dr. Sowell, “stage one thinkers.” They either don’t think beyond stage one or they cynically don’t care about unintended consequences of their policies.
It’s easy enough to finger some group that might benefit from a policy. Who is harmed is not always as apparent, or even mentioned.
The Left also misses the fact that being rich is much more than money. From that viewpoint, I’m rich beyond my wildest dreams!
Whereas they will always be poor, beggared, scrabbling and shrill authoritarian mendicants, not only because they have no Manna, but because they have no idea what that is.
Affirmative action and the progressive war on “whiteness” and masculinity must be stopped cold.
I read recently that the reason all politicians spend so much time talking about helping the middle class is that nearly everybody considers themselves to BE middle class. When asked what class you are in, 85% of the population responded “middle class.” Not me. I consider myself to be rich. Partially because of @susanquinn‘s point. I have a great family, a rewarding job, and I feel useful. But I also grew up in modest means and now live quite well – I think I’m rich. I live on Hilton Head Island. Compared to my neighbors, I’m lower middle class. They are nearly all significantly wealthier than I am – good for them. But I think I’m rich.
But since everybody thinks they’re middle class, when progressives say they will “fight poverty” that becomes difficult to clearly define.
Someone said earlier on this thread that it could be argued that there is no such thing as poverty in the United States. If you’ve traveled the world much, you might see his point. I would suggest that we don’t really have poverty here, if poverty is defined as lack of money. But there is certainly something horribly wrong in certain areas of southern Appalachia, inner cities, and some other places. It may not be lack of money, but it’s something.
The left loves the poor staying poor, because it helps them maintain power to have a base of poor people to use — and then discard when no longer useful.
And loves immigration from 3rd world countries to add to there poor base.
Thank you for being a doctor in the mess called Obamacare. You are accurate in describing everything that has transpired over the last eight years as having the opposite effect of its intentions. It’s not an illusion. It’s warfare against all that is good, right and true. Most rich people run companies that provide thousands of jobs and benefits – they pay more taxes.
The Bible says that wealth is not the enemy, sin is. Plenty of rich people commit crimes. But its something they’ve done, not the money. I work for several rich people. One is now on a mission trip in Guatemala . Another mentors young women stuck in the system and accompanies them to court. They may build mansions, but they also build hospitals, daycare centers. My neighbor, a successful builder, donates time in Ghana – he has built a daycare center and apartments for the needy on his own time. No – it’s not safe there.
Doctors and clergy sleep in tents alongside the poor in 3rd world countries, offering healthcare, schools, food. Don’t overthink yourself sick. At the end of the day, God is the judge of human souls and I suspect He will say to you, job well done, good and faithful servant.
Good Doctor Bastiat,
I think in discussing the motivations of the Left one should start with why a person is a Leftist in the first place. I think being a Leftist has more to do with their desire to associate with the right, fashionable set than than their admiration for any particular policy or ideal.
Most on the Left are spoiled, narcissistic, self centered and self absorbed brats. Their primary motivations for doing most anything starts with themselves and their emotional needs. It is usually all about them.
It appears that often due to some terrible insecurities and a terrible need to feel superior over others, members of the Left seem to have a really strong need to belong and to self identify with what they feel are the in crowd intellectually superior elite. The people on the Left I have known have developed a strong emotional attachment to this imaginary Leftist Elite and exhibit often a terrible fear of being called out as somehow insufficiently Leftist, or being somehow thrown out of the “group” as a result of some imagined Leftist crime.
As a consequence, the typical Leftist follows Leftist Groupthink with little or no questioning or research, because the consequences of not following the ordained Groupthink are to emotionally dire to consider. Also as a result for these Leftists there is no need to question the rightness of a cause or to do outside research or to gain a greater knowledge on any particular issue because the Group Think Leaders will inform them of the appropriate stance and what should be known on just about anything. That is why most Leftists are blithely unaware of the consequences of Leftists policies – the Leftist Elite High Command has not informed them of such negative consequences and therefore to the nearly brainwashed typical Leftist there must be none.
The typical Leftist’s hatred for the Wealthy and their lack of concern for the real plight of the poor stem I believe from this same attitude of following only the Leftist’s Elite’s ordained beliefs, which have blamed much of the world’s problems on the Wealthy, particularly the American Wealthy, and have only used the plight of the poor as a tool to inflame class passions and animosities.
In short, your typical Leftist is incredibly ill informed and is easily led to believe the most absurd things because of their perceived need to belong to the Leftist Elite. That is why discussing almost any political issue with the typical Brainwashed Leftist will only result in frustration because their motivation in believing one way or another does not depend on the validity or rightness of a particular cause, but instead their belief depends only on what the Leftist Elite says about the issue at hand.
I have relatives who are wealthy, not filthy rich, but very well off and well earned by themselves. The husband a retired physician, the wife a well educated politically active original NOW woman. They are very liberal…have never voted for a Republican ever. I have no idea why they think the way they do, I am sorry @drbastiat but I cannot help you to understand. I do have a question. I recently underwent a surgery. I use medicare and BC/BS supplemental. The Dr. billed $1000. BC/BS allowed $126 for payment. How does a doctor survive today? Why would anyone want to spend all the time and money to become one?
I agree completely on the lefts followers. However, the leaders have black hearts.
Let’s not forget the strong vein of Utopianism that runs through the Left. Their idealistic, delusionary desire for the perfect society justifies their attacking the Right. And it excuses their own prosperity; I’ve seen rich folks claim they were just lucky, rather than taking credit for their success. So we need to pass on some of that luck in the form of Benjamins!
We don’t have to suppose – former President Obama said as much during the 2012 campaign debates – raise tax rates even if doing so produces less revenue because “fairness” (i.e., punish the investor, assumed to be the rich).
Lookit @susanquinn with her mastery of street vernacular!
I had a good teacher, @bossmongo!
Susan Quinn (View Comment):
I think they have no clue that they hate us, and would say that they think it’s unjust that we make so much money, and are therefore being just.
(Parts bolded I done by Henry)
What I find so fascinating about your sentence is the part I bolded. They definitely hate us. They hate Trump worse than they hate Morales or Xi Jinping or ISIS. They hate Christians and they are weird about white guys. But are they aware that they are hateful people?
I remember that there were some Trump supporting homosexuals that wanted to be in a gay pride parade in Charlotte. They were denied by the organization of course.
Are left-wingers unaware that they are intolerant? I am deeply introverted and lack empathy so I have difficulty understanding how many people think.
I think you are right. But they probably think their rage at us is justified, because it is important to rail against the unjust.
Introverts can have empathy, and you do. I think it’s just hard to empathize with people who are delusional and arrogant, Henry. If they would admit they are intolerant (which I doubt), they would say they are just crying out against the forces of selfishness. Yes, it is intolerant, but they’d label it something else. Or say some intolerance is justified. Gosh, I think I’m getting myself all wrapped up in foolish thinking myself!
I really wish they would have just admitted their bias with the gay Trumpers. That whole, “In the past, we have made similar decisions to decline participation from other organizations espousing anti-LGBTQ religious or public policy stances.” Basically means, we are a left-wing organization and we believe in left-wing stuff. This whole manipulation of language to say that gay Trumpers are anti-gay is manipulative and self-serving.
Absolutely one of the most annoying things about left-wingers is that they don’t identify themselves as left-wingers. Charlotte Pride probably has the right to deny anyone they want to from attending their march. (I don’t have all the information about the laws in regard to freedom of association and even if I did I would have to think through them.) But to exclude people in the name of tolerance is a paradox that’s worth thinking about.
But we all know that there is almost a zero percent chance that they will think about this and they will use the same self-deceptive language when they exclude Zionists or libertarians or Ayan Hirsi Ali (pbuh). Just admit you are left-wing organization and call yourselves Charlotte Pride and Progressive march or something accurate.
Great line.
The ‘progressive war on “whiteness” and masculinity’ is glaringly, obviously nonsensical, so they [the “progressives”] have to constantly ratchet up their silliness in order to continue to generate headlines. If they didn’t, then they would deservedly be ignored, and their “movement” would just wither away. Thus we have Heinz 57 genders and multiplying racist grievance mongers.
Jack McHugh of the Mackinac Center http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/article.aspx?ID=12080 explains why social services can not work. I agree with him. I think the people who work there are well meaning, but think most are basically putting in time and have a job no matter how well meaning they are.
I agree with many of the observations here, and would add that it seems the liberals I know are controlling combined with fear. They don’t like to take risks and don’t think others should be able to either. The concept of live and let live bothers them. They believe it is one of neglect not to interfere where someone is not doing something the way they would. The respect for private property ends with their own possessions.
So right. Too many view the economy as a static model. It assuredly is not. PJ O’Rourke summed it up nicely: “Economics is not zero sum. There is no fixed amount of wealth. That is, if you have too many slices of pizza, I don’t have to eat the box. Your money does not cause my poverty. Refusal to believe this is at the bottom of most bad economic thinking.”
I made an incorrect assumption with respect to Sowell’s interview – before listening to it. Wrote my response, hit the ‘comment’ button, then went back to view it. (I just love him.) My comment doesn’t quite fit in this instance, but it does relate to the general tenor of Dr. Bastiat’s post.
I can’t imagine going to medical school now. If you’ve got the brains and work habits to do this, you should go do something else. Medicine is falling apart, rapidly. I told my kids they can do whatever they want, but please don’t go to medical school. It’s too bad, really.