A point about Goldberg and Envy

I have never read any columnist so obtuse or narcissistic as Jonah Goldberg, as exhibited by his recent column , "A Liberal Dose of Envy..." I never knew that people of whatever social class he considers himself part of, believed that those who work for economic independence and human rights for all people do so out of "envy."

I have seen first-hand the two Americas of which John Edwards speaks; in addition, there are many other "Americas" I have seen, subsets of the others. The America experienced by single mothers, that experienced by the handicapped, that experienced by people of color, of different religions, of victims of natural disasters, and those who are victims of greed and power. I have seen the America of the ignorant, the uninformed, and the America of the children of wealth.
People without salaries high enough to make ends meet realize they could make more if they had been able to go to college; but do people who have more than they could ever spend realize they have acquired it primarily on the backs of others? Why do employers fight paying living wages? Why do they not understand why healthcare should be subsidized when they themselves have been subsidized all their lives in a more "acceptable" manner? And don't even get me started on tax loopholes.

I have been rich, I have been poor. I have never seen the envy Goldberg imagines, but I have seen greed and cruelty. I have seen entire governments bought. I have seen the wealthy exploited by "professionals" with no conscience who charge what the market can bear. And I have seen idiotic assumptions made by people of one economic class about others.
It has been my great fortune to be in a position to bridge these Americas many times and I will continue to do so at every opportunity, even as the gaps grow ever wider.

We are all of the same species with the same needs, but perhaps born into different circumstances which often change. Period.