The Bubble

Robert Reich, dogmatic ideologue:

Some self-styled "pro-growth centrists" in the Democratic Party are worried that the president is going too far in emphasizing widening inequality. They "wish the administration's focus was on growth over fairness," says the respected National Journal.

They're wrong. Fairness isn't inconsistent with growth. It's essential to it. The only way the economy can grow and create more jobs is if prosperity is more widely shared.

Reality:

From an early age, children living in the inner cities are exposed frequently to the use of drugs, guns, arson, and random violence. They witness injury, suffering, and death, and they respond to these events with fear and grief, often experiencing dramatic ruptures in their development. The list of psychological reactions is long and grim: hatred for self, profound loss of trust in the community and the world, tattered internalized moral values and ethics of caring, and a breaking down of the inner and outer sense of security and of reality. They are particularly vulnerable to traumatic stress illnesses and to related behavioral and academic abnormalities (Gardner, 1971; Parson, 1994; van der Kolk, 1987).

Bobby thinks we're going to get more equality if we hand out cash* to young adults who have grown up in violent chaos. It hasn't worked in the past, it isn't working now and Bob's got no model, no model at all for it to work in the future. Moral relativism has obliterated the foundations of civilization and no amount of government intervention is going to make up for that. "Fairness" is nowhere in sight, much less an achievable goal. Old Roberto isn't even vaguely aware of this.

Bob-o-reno lives in a bubble of his own creation.

At least it's pretty.

* - OK, to be fair, who knows what the little moron wants to do with the tax money he squeezes from the rich. It doesn't matter what happens to the cash once he is running down the street, waving it in the air in triumph. In the absence of the societal structure of intact, traditional families, you might as well be handing out coke spoons, abortion vouchers, glocks and ammunition instead of welfare checks.