Must-Read: Paul Krugman: The Laziness Dogma

Must-Read: Paul Krugman notes how the “laziness dogma” that American is now dominated by the moocher class–that America is now “a nation of takers” has become yet another dogma impervious to evidence on the right, even the center-right, of America’s political spectrum:

Paul Krugman: The Laziness Dogma: “Americans work longer hours than their counterparts in just about every other wealthy country…

…we are known, among those who study such things, as the ‘no-vacation nation’… full-time U.S. workers… 30 percent more hours… than their German counterparts…. But Jeb Bush… says that Americans ‘need to work longer hours and through their productivity gain more income for their families.’… The real source of his remark was the ‘nation of takers’ dogma that has taken over conservative circles in recent years–the insistence that a large number of Americans, white as well as black, are choosing not to work, because they can live lives of leisure thanks to government programs….

This laziness dogma [is] everywhere on the right… tMitt Romney’s… 47 percent… furious attacks on unemployment benefits… claims that many, if not most, workers receiving disability… are malingerers… a vision of the world in which the biggest problem facing America is that we’re too nice to fellow citizens facing hardship….

Over the past few decades working-class white families have been changing in much the same way that African-American families changed in the 1950s and 1960s, with declining rates of marriage and labor force participation. Some of us… see them as consequences of an economy… no longer offer[ing] good jobs to ordinary workers. This happened to African-Americans first… but has now become a much wider phenomenon…. Bush’s clumsy call for longer work hours was… an indication that he stands firmly… believ[ing] that American workers just aren’t trying hard enough… and that the way to change that is to strip away the safety net… in line with the party consensus. If he makes it to the White House, the laziness dogma will rule public policy…