Paul Krugman
On How to Get
A Bad Society;
Plus: Personal
Rite of Passage

'Q: Well, what happens if we let the income gap remain?
A: It's bad for democracy. The ugliness of our policy is closely tied to the inequality of income. You start to get a society in which the elite is just not living in the same material universe as the rest of the population. The people who have the most influence are not interested in having good public services because they don't use them. You just get a bad society.'
--from an interview with economist and columnist Paul Krugman, in the September issue of GQ Magazine. We'll be quiet today, however, while we spend the day in a true rite of passage moment: taking our eldest child to college for the beginning of his freshman year. A couple of years ago, I wrote about an early foreshadowing of the experience. Now, it's the real deal.