Krugman: Return of the "Undeserving Poor"

[phantom power]

At their heart, the only thing Conservatives really have is blame for the victims. This applies to basically every aspect of their politics and policies. I feel like Democrats ought to be able to use that to win more elections.

When I was growing up, income inequality wasn’t yet a big issue, because the middle class was strong and the plutocracy fairly marginal. But there was a great deal of alarm over the troubles of the African-American community, where social disorder was on the rise even as explicit legal discrimination (although not de facto discrimination) was coming to an end. What was going on?

There were all kinds of theories, ranging from cultural hand-waving to claims that it was all because of welfare. But some people, notably William Julius Wilson, argued that the underlying cause was economic: good jobs, while still fairly plentiful in America as a whole, were disappearing from the urban centers where the A-A population was concentrated. And the social collapse, while real, followed from that underlying cause.

This story contained a clear prediction — namely, that if whites were to face a similar disappearance of opportunity, they would develop similar behavior patterns. And sure enough, with the hollowing out of the middle class, we saw (via Mark Thoma) what Kevin Williamson at National Review describes as

the welfare dependency, the drug and alcohol addiction, the family anarchy

And what is the lesson? Why, that poor whites are moral failures, and they should move to where there are opportunities (where?). It’s really extraordinary.

Oh, and lots of swipes at food stamps, welfare programs, disability insurance (which conservatives insist is riddled with fraud, despite lots of evidence to the contrary.)

It’s surely worth noting that other advanced countries, with much more generous welfare states, aren’t showing anything like the kind of social collapse we’re seeing in the U.S. heartland.

Anyway, the right’s inability to face up to the evidence on this front is … just like its inability to face up to evidence on any other front.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/03/15/return-of-the-undeserving-poor

[Brickbat]

1. Imagine the energy we could devote to personal creativity and business innovation if we weren't

worried about (a) keeping ourselves afloat and (b) someone else getting something they don't deserve. (Or, alternately, keeping others afloat and worrying about getting something we don't deserve.)

[phantom power]

3. This Calvinist streak America has in its DNA causes no end of grief.

I don't know if other countries also have this, but Americans are clearly susceptible to the narrative that helping people fosters weakness. It's a national quirk that Republicans have exploited really really well. So well that when a Democrat like Sanders comes along and un-abashedly advocates for social programs, even a lot of other Democrats basically treat him like a freak of nature who needs some good hippy-punching.

[HughBeaumont]

6. This bullshit chestnut is found on some TeaHadi protest signs:

Yes, because strengthening the strong has worked out SO well these past 40 years (or 400, depending on which historian you ask), hasn't it??

[trotsky]

8. But we all know why a sticker like that works.

The poor white people THINK they are strong, and that the only thing standing between themselves and Drumpf-like wealth (assuming he actually is rich) is the government taxing them and giving the money to "undeserving" minorities.

[jwirr]

9. Europe has had their experiences with the Calvinistic type

of religions and the harm they cause but for the most part they have dropped that bull. I am not sure what caused those countries to turn their back on hate for the poor. The Enlightenment? The Great Depression? Hitler and his Nazis? No idea what changed them.

[starroute]

14. The British are as anti-poor as we are

I have Facebook friends in England who are constantly posting about their schemes. There's the bedroom tax, where any single person with a two-bedroom apartment has to pay extra for the privilege, even if they have no other options. There's some scheme afoot to cut disability payments in order to cover a tax cut for the middle class. They're also about to expel a large number of long-term permanent residents who are not British subjects if they earn less than 35,000 pounds a year.

And those are only the complaints I've seen in the last week. Things are getting really bad over there.

[jwirr]

16. I agree that the attitude still exists - I just think it is pure

greed now not religion.

[Kalidurga]

2. How can he concentrate with all that noise

cog·ni·tive dis·so·nance
nounPSYCHOLOGY
the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.

Yet, he served for the guy who cut benefits to the poor. Seriously this is f'd up. Not that what he wrote isn't true in this case. But, he supports economic policies that screw poor people and the middle class.

[phantom power]

5. The "Reagan Democrats"

White working class voters, who were Democrats until the Democrats took up the Civil Rights cause in the 60s, at which point their underlying racism overrode their desire for democratic socialism. Effectively, they made the collective decision that they'd rather help the GOP burn down the New Deal, than see it helping blacks or other minorities.

And 30 years later, here we are. And, as reality-based economics and social science predicted, these people have succumbed to the same social decay that any group of people will suffer when their economic and social support system dies.

What's interesting is seeing the National Review throw them all under the bus, just like they did with the blacks decades ago. It's really a sight to behold. I've become too jaded to believe that they'll learn anything from it, however. You can see that instead, they've glommed onto Trump, who is stroking their racism. Which they've already proven is more important to them than their own economic or social well-being.

[maxsolomon]

7. I'm not so sure that's accurate

Trying to recall the recent article I read on this but this is the gist: working class whites, who are just above the poverty line, who may have been on TANF or SNAP at some point, definitely are voting GOP now. They carry a lot of resentment for those poorer than them, people on Disability in particular, who they consider freeloaders. They think Dems enable these slackers, or want to take their guns or Jesus away.

They very poor tend not to vote at all.

[lumberjack_jeff]

11. Kick n/t

[gratuitous]

13. The "undeserving" poor never really left

It's just that now some critics are recognizing the white faces among the crowd.

This would seem to be an issue tailor-made (Hey, there's a job!) for Democrats: A jobs bill. Anyone remember the powerful issue the Republicans ran on in 2010? Jobs. Anyone remember what Republican governance has looked like in the five years since then? Just about anything except jobs. Well, not "anything," really. Mostly repealing Obamacare. I wonder why the various national Democratic committees aren't hammering the Republicans on the woeful record of their non-existent job creation program?

[leftstreet]

15. +1