In his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Love for Labor Lost" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/02/opinion/krugman-love-for-labor-lost.html?_r=0), Paul Krugman takes the opportunity presented by Labor Day in the US to smear Congressman Eric Cantor. Krugman writes:
"Consider, for example, how Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, marked Labor Day last year: with a Twitter post declaring 'Today, we celebrate those who have taken a risk, worked hard, built a business and earned their own success.' Yep, he saw Labor Day as an occasion to honor business owners.
. . . .
So, this time around will we be hearing anything from Mr. Cantor and his colleagues suggesting that they actually do respect people who work for a living? Maybe. But the one thing we’ll know for sure is that they don’t mean it."
Hold your horses, Paul. Someone who created his or her own hardware store, restaurant, travel agency, home renovation service, or auto repair shop has not "built a business and earned their own success"? "Business owners" don't work for a living? The overwhelming majority of people who open their own businesses are not Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, and they sweat bullets every day and lose sleep every night in an effort to keep their businesses above water.
Having created two small businesses, I know this to be a fact.
And the fear of failure is palpable. Suddenly, you're also responsible for the livelihoods of others. It's not the same as receiving a weekly paycheck from a well-endowed university, or from a newspaper, which might ultimately be forced to file for Chapter 11, unless a certain administration, whose views its editorial staff regularly parrots, comes to its rescue.
Indeed, Eric Cantor paid homage to those who opened their own businesses. This is a reason for Krugman to spew venom?
Why do you call Cantor "Paul?"
ReplyDeleteYou know I actually might agree with you.
I am all for labor and I do see American tragedy in killing off unions, but I agree that Krugman's comment is idiotic and yours is reasonable.
You know ... I stopped reading Krugman a couple of years ago, as I wisen up.
Last week, I returned for one (ONE) of his blogs and ... I offered a rant. Both he and most of his regular readers were unbearably ideological, idiotic, pretentious and illiterate. Krugman is my personal disappointment. Like many people, I thought that he's honest (I was naive). When I realized that he wasn't, that was it for me.
I noticed his extremely ugly side. I am not a psychologist and I don't know whether it's a case of idiot savant, or just a case of dishonest, opportunist, immoral person with complexes, but it does look ugly. Correction: very ugly.
Anyone who praises Peter Beinart for his being absolute and perfect garbage and works for the NYT, is beneath contempt.
BTW (off topic) Daniel Goldhagen has a new book "The Devil that never Dies" Interestingly, just last week I gave in a comment on Beinart and his soulmates explanation that they promote a modern version of DEMONisation of Jews, a derivative of anti-Judaic equation of Jews with the Devil. No, I didn't know about Daniel's book. Antisemitism just happen to be one of my areas of expertise.
This is probably a book one should read.
As a previous small business owner(I ultimately went to work full-time for a company which since went bankrupt),I know what you mean about worrying about making payroll and being responsible for employees being able to live.
ReplyDeleteKrugman is an economic hack; easy to sit at the keyboard and write about your opinions and get paid. Maybe if he started a business from scratch, he'd have a different perspective.
The part I have a problem with is the fact that people follow his word as if he is the "god" of facts without even questioning his agenda.
paulapilot
"Krugman is an economic hack"
ReplyDeleteKrugman is a political hack and a very primitive one.
JG: Eric Cantor (you should correct both name errors) seems to get special animus from 'liberals' because they just can not believe any Jew could be such a solid Republican.
ReplyDeleteOn Friday, I drove on a northern Massachusetts road for the firsttime in two years - needing a change of scenery - and the highlight of my week was seeing a BIG sign on a barn that read "The Government did NOT Build THIS business"
k
Thanks!
DeleteJeffrey