I wondered if there was a good overview of what progressives have done to improve society: Doghouse Riley does a nice job here.
It’s an article of faith on the right the Right that the Left hates inequality. On its face, it seems like a fine thing to believe in but in what passes for thinking over there, they don’t see anyone benefiting from these improvements. They only see the poor businessman being forced to change his ways to suit some do-gooders’ agenda. Take a look at the results:
Is An Idea Officially Past It’s Sell-by Date Once Jonah Goldberg Has Adopted It?:
[M]uch of the improvement of life for the poor, or Lucky Duckies, if you will, is a result of political action, the sort of political action your lot opposed at every turn until it comes time to pat yourself on the back for it. 40 hour, 5 day work weeks. The end of child labor and unsafe working conditions. Rural electrification. Programs to end smallpox, rickets, and many other disease and nutritional deficiencies in poor children. Unleaded gasoline is a government mandate, not a technological breakthrough, and as a result (and the mandated elimination of lead in paint) there’s much less lead poisoning in children than fifty years ago. And, of course, the New Deal and Great Society programs which have reduced poverty and provided access to medical care for the poor. Of course we still have an abysmal child mortality rate, and poor nutrition, and the least cost-efficient healthcare, and the most overpriced prescription drugs, and a shameful discrepancy in public education between rich and poor, but the last twenty-five years of retrenchment have given you the opportunity to blame all that on the children who suffer it.
This is part of constantly reappearing meme about how everything is better today through the application of technology, a sort of Star Trek philosophy. No matter what problems come up, some guy in a white coat will figure out a solution, so we need never worry about the future.
I was reminded of a quote by Einstein — “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them” — that seemed applicable. But I also saw this one, a little more pointed — “Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.”
In fact, a lot of the quotes listed there speak directly to that kind of mindless faith in technology, which is interesting when one considers that gulf between the intellects of the proponents and the skeptics.