Media personality Tavis Smiley and Princeton philosophy professor
Cornell West have just published their latest contribution to American
poverty propaganda, “The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto.”
The book should have a second subtitle: “How to keep the poor poor and blacks enslaved to government.” To the extent this book is taken seriously by anyone, the result can only be more, entrenched poverty.
Smiley and West’s message is simple. America today consists of a few powerful, rapacious rich people and a lot of unfortunate, exploited poor people. The rich are rich because they are lucky. The poor are poor because they are unlucky. And the only way to solve the problem is activist government to manage the American economy and redistribute wealth.
It’s as if the wealthy belong to a different species of life with no common thread of humanity linking who they are to those who have less. The idea that “haves” might have been once “have nots,” or that that they did something to become “haves” that today’s “have nots” might consider doing, never enters the equation.
Even if Smiley and West conceded that there might be some element of personal responsibility in how one’s life turns out, their portrait is of an America now so unfair that personal responsibility is irrelevant. There is no hope for anyone to rise, according to this book, without government boosting them using other people’s money.
A good candidate for one of the more outrageous distortions, in a book filled with them, is No. 1 on their list of “Lies about poverty that America can no longer afford.”
Read more: http://www.wnd.com/2012/04/how-to-keep-the-poor-poor/
The book should have a second subtitle: “How to keep the poor poor and blacks enslaved to government.” To the extent this book is taken seriously by anyone, the result can only be more, entrenched poverty.
Smiley and West’s message is simple. America today consists of a few powerful, rapacious rich people and a lot of unfortunate, exploited poor people. The rich are rich because they are lucky. The poor are poor because they are unlucky. And the only way to solve the problem is activist government to manage the American economy and redistribute wealth.
It’s as if the wealthy belong to a different species of life with no common thread of humanity linking who they are to those who have less. The idea that “haves” might have been once “have nots,” or that that they did something to become “haves” that today’s “have nots” might consider doing, never enters the equation.
Even if Smiley and West conceded that there might be some element of personal responsibility in how one’s life turns out, their portrait is of an America now so unfair that personal responsibility is irrelevant. There is no hope for anyone to rise, according to this book, without government boosting them using other people’s money.
A good candidate for one of the more outrageous distortions, in a book filled with them, is No. 1 on their list of “Lies about poverty that America can no longer afford.”
Read more: http://www.wnd.com/2012/04/how-to-keep-the-poor-poor/
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