By now everyone knows that Mitt Romney washed his hands of almost half the people in the US - the 47 per cent who don't pay income taxes - when he told donors in Florida: ''My job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.''
And many people also are aware that most of the 47 per cent are hardly moochers; they are working families who pay payroll taxes, with elderly or disabled Americans making up a majority of the rest.
The question is, should we imagine that Romney and his party would think better of the 47 per cent on learning that most of them are hard workers, who have taken personal responsibility for their lives? And the answer is no.
The modern Republican Party just doesn't have much respect for people who work for other people, no matter how faithfully and well they do their jobs. All the party's affection is reserved for ''job creators'' - employers and investors. Leading figures in the Republican party find it hard even to pretend to have any regard for ordinary working families - who make up the majority of Americans.
Am I exaggerating? Consider the Twitter sent by Eric Cantor, the Republican House majority leader, on Labour Day - a holiday that specifically celebrates the country's workers said: ''Today, we celebrate those who have taken a risk, worked hard, built a business and earned their own success.''
On a day set aside to honour workers, all Cantor could bring himself to do was praise their bosses. In case you think that this was just a personal slip, look at Romney's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.
What did he have to say about the workers? Actually, nothing. The words ''worker'' or ''workers'' never passed his lips. And when Romney waxed lyrical about the opportunities America offered to immigrants, he said they came in pursuit of ''freedom to build a business''. What about those who came simply to make an honest living? Not worth mentioning.
The Republican Party's disdain for workers is deeply embedded in the party's policy priorities.
Romney's remarks spoke to a widespread belief on the right that taxes on working people are, if anything, too low.
What really needs cutting, the right believes, are taxes on corporate profits, capital gains, dividends, and high salaries - taxes demanded of investors and executives, not ordinary workers. This is despite the fact that people who derive their income from investments, not wages - people like Willard Mitt Romney - already pay remarkably little in taxes.
Where does this disdain for workers come from? It reflects the extent to which the party has been taken over by an Ayn Rand Institute vision of society, that suggests a handful of heroic businessmen are responsible for all economic good, while the rest of us are just along for the ride.
Paul Krugman is a winner of the Nobel prize in economics.
Sun Herald, 23 September 2012
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