In his column today, Alan Reynolds lands big punch on the media-driven craze over the supposed crisis we face in the “wealth gap.” With the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and various magazines all proclaiming that America’s future is imperiled unless politicians do something to redistribute income and provide people with more security, the stage is being set for endless Edwards-style demagoguery over the next two years. Reynolds does excellent work here in showing that all the populist fixes will mean lower economic growth and a greater concentration of power in Washington.
A couple of years ago, it came out that the Pew Charitable Trusts had cunningly manipulated the media to make it appear that there was a groundswell of support for campaign finance reform legislation. This is the same gambit — get stories everywhere about how desperate people are for government to come along and save them and eventually people will start to think that there really is a problem that only our caring politicians can solve.
Populist rhetoric is like the old time sales pitches for miracle elixirs that would cure every ailment. Plenty of people were suckered into buying such products and there are plenty of politicians who expect that modern Americans are just as gullible.
