Income Inequality for Thee, But Not for Me: The Hypocrisy of Nobel Prize Winner, Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman is a distinguished economist, Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University, a NY Times columnist, and a Nobel Laureate. As a frequent commentator on cable news shows, he speaks passionately about income inequality and politics. From his book, The Conscience of a Liberal, he notes that, “Impersonal forces such as technological change and globalization caused America’s income distribution to become increasingly unequal, with an elite minority pulling away from the rest of the population.”

How ironic that Dr. Krugman will provide a first hand as a member of this “elite minority” benefiting from income inequality. The City University of New York appointed him as a Distinguished Professor at its Graduate Center and its Luxembourg Income Study Center, paying him $25,000 per month. The LIS Center will collect and use, “Microdata to research income, wealth or employment.” And not a moment too soon, given that income inequality is worse under President Obama than it was under President George W Bush, according to the Huffington Post.

Dr Krugman will receive a total of $225,000 from CUNY for his first year of service, without having “to teach or supervise students” but instead only “contribute to our build-up of LIS and the inequality initiative and to play a modest role in our public events.” Nice work if you can get it. Such a salary places Dr Krugman well on his way toward the evil 1 percent club of $394,000 annual income, which he will likely easily reach through his columns and book royalties. Not to mention his $10,000 moving allowance, another $10,000 annually for research and travel, and a 15-hour per week graduate assistant.

....... and globalization caused America’s income distribution to become increasingly unequal, with an elite minority pulling away from the rest of the population.”

Gee, and here I thought that rabid Democrats were all about globalization when it comes to them imposing third and fourth world crap hole values on 1st world citizens. Seems to me you can't blame 'globalization' for the problems and then turn around and use it as the magic cure for same.

The Hypocrisy of Nobel Prize Winner, ...

IMHO, it's the hypocrisy of the igNobel Prize committees. Krugman got the award because the prize committees are mostly big government types, and Krugman says big gub'mint is good.

Ironically, people like Krugman who like to dress themselves up as champions of social justice don't really understand or truly care about social justice. A ‘just’ society is a society that treasures and works to protect the freedom of individuals to self-define.

People like Krugman don't think of the general population as individual people. They think of them as ‘the people’, as have so many totalitarian regimes.

That said, and more specific to this thread, I've rarely met a vocal liberal who wasn't a hypocrite.

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