I was alerted to recent comments by Senator Clinton that seem to demean folks like me:
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Sunday dismissed the “elite opinion” of economists who criticized her gas tax proposal…”I’m not going to put my lot in with economists,” Clinton said when asked to name an economist who backed her proposal.
“We’ve got to get out of this mind-set where somehow elite opinion is always on the side of doing things that really disadvantage the vast majority of Americans,” said Clinton, a former first lady who would be the first woman president.
To which Arnold Kling redounds:
Soon I expect to hear the Senator from New York promise to jump out of a tenth-story window and fly, to demonstrate defiance of “elite” physicists who doubt the feasibility of the project.
I am not offended, most probably because I understand that the good Senator is so thristy for power, so blinded by her desire to be President, so desperate to win votes, that she will say anything that might help get her elected. Does she really believe a lot of what she says? And if we are to take her comment literally and analyze it …
For starters, I think the nuttiness of the idea that societies can and should be run by elites has been well hashed out, but it is in fact folks like Senator Clinton that campaign on precisely this notion. Health care for everyone? Public schooling? Income assistance programs? Public housing? Job training programs? Farm subsidies? Managed trade? Tax policy? Talk about programs designed and run by elites! Talk about policies that disadvantage the vast majority of Americans!
So no, I do not think she means what she says. Does that make economists any better or worse? No. It just means that by even spending the time posting this, I have given too much attention to the issue.
