Village ethos
by digby
Krugman follows up on his argument from yesterday in which he posits that it’s easier for the upper classes to require “sacrifice” from the hoi polloi on Social Security than Medicare because even the well off know they could be destroyed by massive medical bills while SS is much less important to them personally.
He uses this chart to illustrate just how much less the upper incomes depend on Social Security than the rest of us:
I would also point out that this is one of the reasons why the privatization scheme sounds so reasonable to the comfortable and well off. They see that little slice as one they could easily add to their investment pool without risking much. In fact, they look at that little slice and think, “my broker could have done so much more with that!” The risk factor just doesn’t affect them the same way it affects everyone else. The rest of us see that slice as the main thing keeping us from penury in our old age.
This is why I scream every time I hear these wealthy celebrity pundits with their ersatz middle class identities going on about “shared sacrifice”. It’s infuriating for them to be encouraging such a thing in the first place, but to take credit for sacrifice when they are all so well off … let’s just say that it’s the height of Village-ism.
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