Robert A. Heinlein once wrote, "People who go broke in a big way never miss any meals. It is the poor jerk who is shy a half slug who must tighten his belt." Heinlein was wrong about many things, primarily the desirability of having sex with one's mother, but on this one he was spot on.
When people make the choice to buy groceries instead of health insurance and then develop cancer, the right shrugs, and says it was their fault. When someone takes out a loan on their house that they can't really afford, because their mortgage broker told them it was the right thing to do, the right sighs, and points at the agate type on page 442 of the mortgage agreement. And when an investment company chooses to put its money into unwise investments, triggering the firm's collapse...the right sends the Fed screaming to the rescue with $30 billion.
To say that this is a bit of a double standard is to misunderstand the right's standards. Conservatives profess to hate the safety net, but they're lying. They love the safety net -- when it applies to the rich. The rich, you see, deserve to be supported, deserve to be coddled, deserve to get handouts. Why, the Chairman of Bear Stearns might have had to miss last week's bridge tournament if he didn't know that the Fed would come to the rescue with taxpayer dollars.
The poor? The middle class? They can starve to death. Or drown. But the rich -- they'll always have their hands out. And the right will be all-too-happy to fill 'em to overflowing. Lucky duckies, one and all.
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