{"id":1661,"date":"2011-11-02T17:24:11","date_gmt":"2011-11-02T17:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com.108-166-28-151.mdgnetworks.com\/wordpress\/?p=1661"},"modified":"2013-03-12T17:26:31","modified_gmt":"2013-03-12T17:26:31","slug":"blame-our-failing-schools-for-occupy-wall-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/blame-our-failing-schools-for-occupy-wall-street\/","title":{"rendered":"Blame Our Failing Schools for Occupy Wall Street"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n

FrontPage Magazine<\/em>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Having taught in a state university for thirty years, I\u2019m not surprised by the ignorance on display among the Occupy Wall Street protestors. From kindergarten to university, for decades our schools have abandoned the teaching of basic facts and foundational thinking skills, and replaced both with leftish received wisdom and stale mythologies, all the while they have anxiously monitored and puffed up students\u2019 self-esteem.<\/p>\n

This lack of critical understanding and ignorance of simple fact characterize the main theme of the protests, that the wealthy \u201c1%\u201d of Americans have gamed the system to enrich themselves at the expense of everybody else, an analysis redolent of Scrooge McDuck cartoons or Frank Capra\u2019s portrait of Old Man Potter in\u00a0It\u2019s a Wonderful Life<\/em>. But these caricatures are woefully uninformed about how a global, free market economy works. For example, the protestors rail about growing \u201cincome inequality,\u201d but they forget that this expansion of the wealth of top earners has been accompanied by that same cohort\u2019s paying more and more of the total federal tax bill, so that today nearly half of tax-filers pay nothing. Nor do they consider the issue of\u00a0income mobility<\/a>: from 1999-2007, about half of households in the bottom quintile had moved up the income ladder, while nearly half of households in the top quintile had moved down.<\/p>\n

As for those greedy \u201cmillionaires\u201d who refuse to pay their \u201cfair share,\u201d in this same period, half were millionaires only once, and only 6% were millionaires for the whole nine years. Indeed, as the Treasury Department\u00a0reports<\/a>, among the top 1\/100 of 1 percent in 1996 \u2014 the group\u00a0Mother Jones<\/em>\u00a0demonized for obscenely increasing their wealth over the last 30 years \u2014 only 25% remained in this group in 2005, and the median real income of these taxpayers declined over this period. Finally, according to the Treasury Department, \u201cMedian incomes of all taxpayers increased by 24 percent after adjusting for inflation. The real incomes of two-thirds of all taxpayers increased over this period [1996-2005]. In addition, the median incomes of those initially in the lower income groups increased more than the median incomes of those initially in the higher income groups.\u201d No doubt things have gotten worse for many because of the recession, but there are plenty of people to blame beyond the \u201c1%\u201d and Wall Street villains, from the federal appointees running Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to the home buyers lying on mortgage applications.<\/p>\n

This obsession with income inequality, moreover, reflects profound ignorance of capitalism\u2019s revolutionary genius. To the protestors, the fact that top earners increased their income more than others did is\u00a0prima facie<\/em>\u00a0evidence of capitalist skullduggery. They seem to think that a Steve Jobs or a Bill Gates has a zillion dollars because they somehow purloined money that in a just world other people would have had. Of course, in reality Microsoft and Apple have created hundreds of thousands of jobs and enriched others at the same time the corporations enriched themselves. That\u2019s how capitalism works: it creates wealth that indeed spectacularly benefits the few, but that also raises the living standards of the many by creating jobs. More important, it is a dynamic, open system, one that creates opportunities for the clever and hardworking. And it has been wildly successful, so much so that today, young people who in the past would have started work at 16, can now spend several years of extended adolescence in colleges and universities, where they can earn impecunious degrees in subjects like Medieval French Poetry or Postcolonial Literature, and then loaf about lower Manhattan protesting the evil system that has rescued them from the drudgery of farm labor or factory work, and given them nutritious cheap food, healthy bodies, straight white teeth, and gadgets like X-Boxes and iPads.<\/p>\n

But to the therapeutic sensibility and the entitlement mentality cultivated by the schools, this success in spreading wealth to historically unprecedented numbers of people is not as important as the system\u2019s failure to measure up to utopian standards and equally enrich\u00a0everybody<\/em>\u00a0no matter how lacking in virtue or talent. The \u201ccreative destruction\u201d of capitalism \u2014 which promises not wealth and success for everybody, but the opportunity for everybody to strive for success and wealth through their talents and virtues \u2014 is an intolerable injustice, one that must be remedied by the coercive power of the state. Hence according to a\u00a0survey<\/a>\u00a0conducted by Democrat pollster Douglas Schoen, 65% of the Manhattan protestors believe that \u201cgovernment has a moral responsibility to guarantee all citizens access to affordable healthcare, a college education, and a secure retirement \u2014 no matter the cost.\u201d Of course, that attitude is exactly what has created the looming economic crisis fueled by runaway entitlement costs that if not reined in, will double by 2050 and consume every dollar of federal tax revenues. The protestors are also ignoring the federal government\u2019s role in creating the housing crisis by coercing and enabling banks to issue sketchy mortgages. And let\u2019s not forget the fed\u2019s role in inflating via federal subsidies the higher education bubble that has doubled tuition every nine years, and saddled so many of the protestors with the \u201cinjustice\u201d of student loan debt, which since 1999 has increased 511%, and now totals $1 trillion.<\/p>\n

In the protestors\u2019 desire to empower the federal government even more, we see how the ignorance of history enables such delusional utopianism. For underlying these demands is the necessity for redistributing income in order to advance the idea of radical egalitarianism, and that is a notion whose resultant tyranny and bloody failure is documented on every page of history, from the French Revolution to the Soviet gulags. But how would the protestors know that history? What passes for history in most schools today is a melodrama of Western wickedness against the oppressed \u201cother,\u201d accompanied by feel-good romances about the achievements of marginalized minorities. It reminds me of Jane Austen\u2019s satiric\u00a0History of England<\/em>, in which she says her purpose is to \u201cvent my spleen\u00a0against<\/em>\u00a0& shew my hatred to all those people whose parties and principles do not suit with mine, & not to give information.\u201d The result is the sensibility we see among many of those camping out in Manhattan\u2019s Zuccotti Park: a penchant for decrepit ideas that are seductive to immature and undeveloped minds steeped in a sense of entitlement and an arrogant assurance of their own righteousness.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a92011 Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine Having taught in a state university for thirty years, I\u2019m not surprised by the ignorance on display among the Occupy Wall Street protestors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[79,22],"tags":[570,338,242,67,80],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-qN","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1960,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wall-streets-disgruntles-utopians\/","url_meta":{"origin":1661,"position":0},"title":"Wall Street’s Disgruntles Utopians","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine The Occupy Wall Street protesters are looking more and more like the shock troops of the Democratic Party\u2019s electoral tactic of class warfare. Responding to a question about the protesters, the President gave an oblique endorsement when he said, \u201cThe American people understand that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1637,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-true-significance-of-herman-cains-sexual-harassment-troubles\/","url_meta":{"origin":1661,"position":1},"title":"The True Significance of Herman Cain’s Sexual Harassment Troubles","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine We can\u2019t say much about the veracity of the sexual harassment complaints leveled against Herman Cain 15 years ago, given the lack of specific detail or even the names of the accusers. But this mini-scandal provides an opportunity to revisit one of the most\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":772,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-stupid-party\/","url_meta":{"origin":1661,"position":2},"title":"The Stupid Party","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thronton FrontPage Magazine The presidency of Barack Obama has established once and for all that modern liberalism is now the stupid party. Very little of liberal thought these days represents anything fresh or new, but rather comprises what Lionel Trilling once reduced conservatism to: \u201cirritable mental gestures\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1654,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/occupy-what\/","url_meta":{"origin":1661,"position":3},"title":"Occupy What?","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media Playing With Fire Occupy Wall Street follows three years of sloppy presidential name-calling \u2014 \u201cmillionaires and billionaires,\u201d slurs about Las Vegas and the Super Bowl, profit-mad, limb-lopping doctors, introspection that\u00a0now is not the time for profits\u00a0[1] and at some point we should cease making\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Political Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Political Culture","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/political-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":700,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-presidency-and-the-pathologies-of-progressivism\/","url_meta":{"origin":1661,"position":4},"title":"Obama’s Presidency and the Pathologies of Progressivism","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine Obama\u2019s presidency has failed miserably, but it has accomplished one thing: it has revealed for all to see the lethal pathologies of progressive ideology. This doesn\u2019t mean progressivism will go away. We thought the New Democrat Bill Clinton had put progressive ideas to rest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6886,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-inequality-smokescreen\/","url_meta":{"origin":1661,"position":5},"title":"The Inequality Smokescreen","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 7, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine\u00a0 Desperate for a diversion from the disasters of Obamacare, the president has conjured up the old leftist \u201cincome inequality\u201d clich\u00e9. His court-pundits complain that \u201cthe richest nation on earth is starting to resemble a banana republic,\u201d according toThe New Republic, while Berkeley Professor Robert\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1661"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1661"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1663,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1661\/revisions\/1663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}