IS IT JUST ME? The New York Times Magazine contents page features an article by Paul Krugman that is described thusly:
How the permissive capitalism of the boom destroyed American equality.
• Forum: Is America becoming a society for the rich, by the rich?
But scroll down and you’ll see:
Clothes Made the Man
By PETER McQUAID
In his Hawaiian hideaway, Geoffrey Beene muses on his first love: fashion.
• Slide Show: Beene’s Hawaiian Hideaway
FOOD
Regime Change
By JONATHAN REYNOLDS
The secret of one spa’s success is not its rules; it’s the owner.
The ads don’t exactly worship Wal-Mart, either. The Times evinces lots of support for the idea of a middle-class — just not its politics, values, or lifestyle.
UPDATE: Hey, I only just now noticed (via Atrios) that Krugman mentions me in the piece — to say I was right about the stats on Sweden, and then to say it doesn’t matter because the stats aren’t important. Only in Krugmanworld am I a “conservative,” though. (Happy now, Atrios?) Or maybe he’s just trying to pigeonhole me because we occupy the same ecological niche? Somehow I doubt it.
I will note that Krugman’s comments about Sweden remind me of the standard cry of economic fall-behinds: “we’re poor, but we’re rich in the things you can’t count.” Such statements may be true, of course, but they’re awfully convenient.
UPDATE: I should do a longer post on this, but I don’t have time right now. Let me just note that it’s okay to say that per-capita GDP has its flaws as a measure of societal wealth — but I seem only to hear this when the comparison is between the United States and Sweden.