LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Which brings us back to that quote from Time , “... the politics of the little guy against the big guy – the classic struggle of the haves against the have-nots or the have-not-enoughs.” Populism is a lie and a logical sophistry. The very idea of the “struggle of the haves against the have-nots” presupposes the zero-sum fallacy that only a fixed amount of good things exist in the world, and I can only have more good things if I take them from you. It’s the old “pizza delusion,” which you’ve probably heard explained before, but I’ll have it delivered again. To think of economics in terms of haves versus have-nots is to look at the economy like a pizza – if you hog too many slices, I’ll have to eat the Domino’s box. As hundreds of years of economic development – and the expansion of Domino’s from one store in Ypsilanti, Michigan in 1960 to more than 17,000 franchises today – proves, the answer is to make more pizza. Populism is also not American. There is no “little guy” in this country. Every American citizen stands with the same height and strength, equal before the law to a degree remarkable by any world or world history standard. We each have our disadvantages – economic, social, and circumstantial. But few of our ancestors landed here in circumstances such as arrival by Gulfstream private jet. America is a monument to what the disadvantaged can do. And none of us face the disadvantage – if his portrayal in The Social Network is anything to go by – of being as big an a-hole as Mark Zuckerberg.
As to the “politics of the little guy,” there is no other kind in America. The OED ’s definition of (small “p”) populist is “One who seeks to represent the views of the mass of common people.” There’s something sneaky and faintly sinister in that “seeks to,” as if there are secrets to be disclosed. Get out of here, you populist. In America, the views of the mass of common people are on view ! In fact, it’s impossible not to see them. And, in the matter of “represent the views,” they’re already represented. It’s called the House of Representatives (and the Senate too). These representative bodies may be full of nincompoops, but the mass of common people is free to exchange them for other nincompoops at every election. It’s the old “pizza delusion,” which you’ve probably heard explained before, but I’ll have it delivered again. To think of economics in terms of haves versus have-nots is to look at the economy like a pizza – if you hog too many slices, I’ll have to eat the Domino’s box. A populist is somebody offering democracy to a democracy, somebody saying, “I’ll give you a dollar for four quarters.” When you hear a proposition like that, you know something’s up, some con is being played.
American Consequences
11
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online