The reactionaries/1% apologists have a counter-explanation than the one fact-based reality provides regarding wealth inequality and the depressed state of "poorer Americans" (apparently there are no classes in America).
In this bizarro world, economic stagnation is a result of self-proclaimed moral failings like not being married. Rick Santorum has repeatedly regurgitated this argument which actually resonates with many ignorant people:
Voters right now care about the economy more than anything, so a record of consistent social conservatism may be less useful than ever to a candidate, even in an evangelical-heavy state like Iowa. Today, Rick Santorum killed two birds with one stone, tying his signature "family values" to economic well-being.
"There are two things you can do to statistically assure you will never be poor: graduate from high school and get married," he told a full ballroom at a stop on his Faith, Family, and Freedom tour.
But lets move on from cynical politicians... to cynical intellectuals. Charles Murray, author of the racialist tome
The Bell Curve (crib notes - White people smart, Black people dumb) has offered a typically ridiculous explanation for wealth inequality in his new book
Coming Apart: The State of White America.
Murray offers a Santorum-esque explanation for the troubled state of the white working class - they need more bibles and stuff. This is particularly odd given Murray's prior celebration of a "cognitive elite" who, according to his own research, were least likely to marry by age 30.
Anywho that's all crap as Professor Krugman explains, from the New York Times:
Among rich countries, America stands out as the place where economic and social status is most likely to be inherited.
So you knew what was going to happen next. Suddenly, conservatives are telling us that it’s not really about money; it’s about morals. Never mind wage stagnation and all that, the real problem is the collapse of working-class family values, which is somehow the fault of liberals.
But is it really all about morals? No, it’s mainly about money.
Wait, aren't the rich more virtuous than us all? Hasn't
Jeff Skilling Bernie Madoff Rupert Murdoch Llyod Blankfein, Jamie Dimon, Joe Cassano, Chuck Prince, Dick Fuld uh... someone shown us that?
Mr. Murray and other conservatives often seem to assume that the decline of the traditional family has terrible implications for society as a whole...
Yet the truth is that some indicators of social dysfunction have improved dramatically even as traditional families continue to lose ground. As far as I can tell, Mr. Murray never mentions either the plunge in teenage pregnancies among all racial groups since 1990 or the 60 percent decline in violent crime since the mid-90s. Could it be that traditional families aren’t as crucial to social cohesion as advertised?
Still, something is clearly happening to the traditional working-class family. The question is what. And it is, frankly, amazing how quickly and blithely conservatives dismiss the seemingly obvious answer: A drastic reduction in the work opportunities available to less-educated men.
Hey! This is becoming logical and the reactionaires don't like that. No! The economy isn't about the economy - it's about women not doing what men say! Just ask Susan G. Komen (cheap shot, deal with it).
Well I guess for the fun of it we should hear facts and reason, if we must.
So we have become a society in which less-educated men have great difficulty finding jobs with decent wages and good benefits. Yet somehow we’re supposed to be surprised that such men have become less likely to participate in the work force or get married, and conclude that there must have been some mysterious moral collapse caused by snooty liberals. And Mr. Murray also tells us that working-class marriages, when they do happen, have become less happy; strange to say, money problems will do that...
So we should reject the attempt to divert the national conversation away from soaring inequality toward the alleged moral failings of those Americans being left behind. Traditional values aren’t as crucial as social conservatives would have you believe — and, in any case, the social changes taking place in America’s working class are overwhelmingly the consequence of sharply rising inequality, not its cause.
Sadly many will continue to
spread Santorum's message around the country, turning it into a frothy mix of disinformation and confusion.
How long until the working class (yes there are classes in America) wakes up from its 1% induced stupor and realizes - we are the 99%, YOU are the 99%. Occupy.