Skin in the Game

Our plutocracy now lives like the British in colonial India: in the place and ruling it, but not of it. If one can afford private security, public safety is of no concern; if one owns a Gulfstream jet, crumbling bridges cause less apprehension—and viable public transportation doesn’t even show up on the radar screen. With private doctors on call and a chartered plane to get to the Mayo Clinic, why worry about Medicare?

Something for the weekend: The American Conservative’s Mike Lofgren, who served 16 years on the Republican staff of the House and Senate Budget Committees, has a piece looking at how America’s super-rich has essentially escaped from society and the needs of our country. They need to have, as hedge fund billionaire Stephen Schwarzman has argued about low-income people who pay no income tax (but a heck of a lot in payroll taxes), “skin in the game.” [via]