or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
July 13, 2004
Why Don't Stupid People Understand Things?
Rich Lowry of National Review makes an incredibly powerful argument here about economic inequality, pointing out that "The percentage of Americans owning stock increased from 19 percent to 52 percent from 1983 to 2001." (Via Billmon.) Wow! We're a nation of shareholders! I don't see how anyone can see that and not understand that everything in America is fantastic and getting better all the time.
The only thing I don't get is why Lowry didn't mention that 100 PERCENT OF AMERICANS possess another type of wealth. This type of wealth, which I've dubbed "money," comes in the form of small metal disks and rectangular certificates with pictures of presidents on them. In other words: we're a nation of moneyholders! Therefore, we know that everything's great and the whiners should stop complaining.
Unfortunately, there are stupid people who say that statistics like this are meaningless. They'll tell you that what matters is not whether people have any of various forms of wealth, but how much of them they have. They'll say even if half of Americans own some stock, if 80% of it is owned by the richest 10%, economic inequality remains a serious problem. They'll even claim it doesn't mean anything when smart people like me point out that everyone in America has at least one penny.
Fortunately, we can ignore these stupid people, because everyone is America is rich! rich! rich!
Posted at July 13, 2004 05:19 PM | TrackBackAlso, most of these people don't own the stock directly but in the form of 401(k)s or other pension plan type investments and they don't really know much about the stocks they own. But I agree with you that saying most people in the US own money is just about as sensible and just as much of a tautology. There's no global warming, because yesterday it was cold, for example. There's no pollution, because the sky still looks blue.
Posted by: Anna in Cairo at July 14, 2004 01:53 AM
