Second look at reducing income inequality?
So time and again, we see the decline of public services accompanied by the rise of private workarounds for the wealthy.
Is crime a problem? Well, rather than pay for better policing, move to a gated community with private security guards!
Are public schools failing? Well, superb private schools have spaces for a mere $40,000 per child per year.
Public libraries closing branches and cutting hours? Well, buy your own books and magazines!
Are public parks — even our awesome national parks, dubbed “America’s best idea” and the quintessential “public good” — suffering from budget cuts? Don’t whine. Just buy a weekend home in the country!
Public playgrounds and tennis courts decrepit? Never mind — just join a private tennis club!
I’m used to seeing this mind-set in developing countries like Chad or Pakistan, where the feudal rich make do behind high walls topped with shards of glass; increasingly, I see it in our country.
Blowback
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Maybe there would be money for “public” goods if Leftists didn’t keep throwing it away on green energy boondoggles, expanding bureaucracies, growing the welfare state, and other massive and unnecessary expenditures that crowd out your preferred investments
And last time I checked, none of the things on your wish list are federal responsibilities.
Charlemagne on November 23, 2012 at 7:19 PM
The leftists are coming out of the woodwork to hawk their pet egalitarian ideas.
davidk on November 23, 2012 at 7:19 PM
It’s very hard for me to understand people who envy the rich. I guess it’s psychological. They don’t just want to be rich, or emulate the rich; they want the rich not to be rich. I don’t get it!
Paul-Cincy on November 23, 2012 at 7:19 PM
Let’s just go full blown commie!
Kjeil on November 23, 2012 at 7:26 PM
Huh? My kids went to one of the best public school systems in the state and it was around 10 k a year.
CW on November 23, 2012 at 7:30 PM
Simple solution. Free generators for everybody.
hepcat on November 23, 2012 at 7:30 PM
The leftists are coming out of the woodwork to hawk their pet egalitarian ideas.
davidk on November 23, 2012 at 7:19 PM
~~~~~~~~
Yes, I’m seeing this too…all my extreme leftist friends spouting extreme garbage on FB, for instance. They’re not content with winning the election, they’re emboldened…
ellifint on November 23, 2012 at 7:30 PM
No matter how much we spend it’s never enough. Kristof and other libs never want to address the abuse of taxpayers who pay the freight for all their great ideas. We need to call his and other liberals bluff and ensure that everyone is paying some sort of income tax.
arnold ziffel on November 23, 2012 at 7:32 PM
It’s almost like people use their money to improve their own lot and don’t hesitate to make life better or safer for themselves and their families just because others don’t have the opportunity.
What’s wrong with them? You’d think these rich don’t trust the apparatus that would take their money and use it to improve the public parks and schools, which is of course ridiculous and reactionary.
The most frightening thing about liberals is this total misapprehension of cause and effect. It’s one thing when the ward heelers and operators rage against the rich, but people who say things like this don’t have an angle: they honestly believe the guff.
“Chad or Pakistan” is a cute touch, by the way. This environment is much more persistent in, say, Latin America. Boy, those rich people have really ruined that place! Just look at all the walled communities with armed guards!
HitNRun on November 23, 2012 at 7:32 PM
It’s ironic that in an era of ever growing government, people are relying more on themselves for services that the ever growing government is incompetent at offering.
lorien1973 on November 23, 2012 at 7:33 PM
the khan academy is available for free. cyber charter schools are available in some states too. and if each child had a voucher worth what is paid to educate him/her/it(about$10,000) a million schools would blossom.
newrouter on November 23, 2012 at 7:33 PM
That’s the real tragedy of the Obama era that will never be addressed by Left nor Right, for obvious though opposing reasons.
That guy appropriated a trillion dollars – a trillion dollars – on top of what would already have been a record deficit, all to stimulate the economy.
That historic, astronomical borrowing binge, however ill advised, could have done a lot of good. Instead, the whole thing went to pay off political supporters, with taxpayers getting a few pennies of pavement and overpass on the dollar.
HitNRun on November 23, 2012 at 7:35 PM
This idiot doesn;t see the forst for the trees. The REASON the so-called rich just segregates is because NONE of their ideas are accepted by their “representatives” in govt and only ruinous, left-wing ideas are ever put into place. When faced with being permanently frozen out of the decision making process, it is natural to leave the game.
Warner Todd Huston on November 23, 2012 at 7:37 PM
My small city closed off a side street, installed giant planters and outdoor tables with umbrellas. There was a stage at the end, and it appeared to be set up to have small outdoor concerts and entertainment. After a few months, every time I drove by it was filled with a bunch of scary looking gang-type people and drug dealers. Now it is a street again. Maybe instead of insisting that taxpayers provide nice things for everyone, they should start with teaching their children how to act like civilized humans.
Night Owl on November 23, 2012 at 7:39 PM
And I can’t spell “doesn’t” and “forrest for the trees,” but, you know.
Warner Todd Huston on November 23, 2012 at 7:39 PM
Kristof, first tell us:
1) where you live;
2) where your kids go to school.
Then we can talk.
Wethal on November 23, 2012 at 7:41 PM
Ugh.
theperfecteconomist on November 23, 2012 at 7:48 PM
Kristoff went to Harvard – a friend of mine was a classmate of his. Something tells me Nick doesn’t spend a lot of time at public tennis courts and such.
Hard to decide what to hate liberals more for: Their sanctimony, their hypocrisy, or their insistence that everyone who doesn’t share their hopeless naïveté is an evil troglodyte.
greggriffith on November 23, 2012 at 7:52 PM
How does paying for public schools AND paying to send your kids to private schools diminish the public schools? If anything, it frees up resources to focus on the fewer kids left in the public schools.
theperfecteconomist on November 23, 2012 at 7:54 PM
Let me translate.
“Reducing income inequality” = social/economic engineering = socialism.
So what this really means is “let’s take a second look” at socialism. Except it isn’t a “second look”. It’s about the thousandth look.
But anything that suggests it’s a very good thing if “we” confiscate more of the “income” of others and divvy it up amongst ourselves must be worth a “second” look, right? “Social contract” and all. After all, they “didn’t built it themselves”. And even though the rules were well established beforehand, something must be wrong with the rules because “we” are not getting our “fair share” and some are not paying their “fair share”. And it’s best if “we” sort of “spread the wealth around”.
farsighted on November 23, 2012 at 7:55 PM
thoughts from the 1990′s. yo dude algore’s info superhighway
newrouter on November 23, 2012 at 7:57 PM
tom daschle concerned on November 23, 2012 at 7:59 PM
I can get only 20 DVDs for only 14 days for from my local
free video rental storepublic library.Something is wrong, though. I can only get one recent release for only three days.
Let’s take a second look at that. I need 30 DVDs for three weeks and at least two recent releases for at least a week. Those “rich” people need to pay their “fair share”, or something.
farsighted on November 23, 2012 at 8:04 PM
Maybe if we weren’t policing the rest of the world, redistributing wealth via foreign aid, handing out subsides to corporations, agriculture, green companies and wasting billions on a new DHS building we’d be able to keep some national parks. And maybe if you weren’t foaming at the mouth with envy you wouldn’t be such and a$$clown.
MoreLiberty on November 23, 2012 at 8:06 PM
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/11/22/DHS-Wastes-430-Million-On-Faulty-Radios-Over-Nine-Year-Period
davidk on November 23, 2012 at 8:16 PM
The decline of public services accompanied the decline of official segregation. Diversity isn’t a good thing.
BTW, it is no secret that a lot of those judges who forced busing in areas like California and Boston all had children in private schools.
BTW, liberal globalists and anti-border activists like Kristof have absolutely no room to argue in attacking inequality. They secretly want inequality to give purpose to pitiful lives. Unless you close the borders you can’t do anything about inequality.
ninjapirate on November 23, 2012 at 8:26 PM
HA sure links NYT and Huffpo a lot. Especially lately.
I get the other opinions thing to stimulate discussion here thing. But can’t you expand your browsing lists a little, HA?
Moesart on November 23, 2012 at 8:28 PM
Good point. If the bosses worked a little harder they should be able to find even more fun stuff to set us off. However NYT and WaPo generally do the trick.
arnold ziffel on November 23, 2012 at 8:32 PM
Don’t bother us. We’re in a cocoon.
davidk on November 23, 2012 at 9:27 PM
I am so sick of people like Kristoff. If you don’t like it here why the hell don’t you leave or go in the power business and make a better system and quit laying around on your a$$ crying about it.
Herb on November 23, 2012 at 9:36 PM
People who want to use government to steal others money think everything is a justifiable reason to use government to steal other peoples money. When you have no ideas other than steal peoples money and give it to politicians, well, that’s what your solution to everything will be. As always, when those who think politicians can solve everything merely by handing out money start putting their, you know, money where their mouth is and giving 90% of their income to politicians i might listen to them, till then though i’ll just keep my money thanks.
clearbluesky on November 23, 2012 at 10:01 PM
So apparently our only choice if we do not like the local park is to join a private tennis club.
There are no other solutions.
NeoKong on November 23, 2012 at 10:19 PM