So Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul is at it again.

At a forum with Democratic opponent Jack Conway in Kentucky, Paul said America’s poor, are “enormously better off than the rest of the world.”

He cited an old Russian propaganda film that showed poor Yanks with color TVs. The story goes that while this flick was meant to demonize capitalism, it backfired when the Russkies saw all those TVs. Rand added that “It doesn’t mean we can’t do better. But we have to…be proud of …capitalism.”

Some Dems are knocking Rand, saying his comments reflect ” a dogmatic belief in free enterprise and limited government,” which to me, sounds like a compliment.

The fact is, the richest person in a Third World country would trade that spot for the lowest rung on the American ladder. But I’ll go further and say the poor in the US – when viewed by the rest of the world – aren’t poor at all. The poverty level for us looks like something to shoot for. (more…)

Ever notice that the chronically poor nearly always share one thing in common? They are some of the most greedy SOB’s on the planet. I know it seems sacrilegious to say so. You’re just not supposed to criticize the poor. Afterall, haven’t they had it hard enough? I mean, a man can’t help the hand he’s been dealt… Unless he’s Rain Man.

Now before you go and crucify me, keep in mind that there is a huge difference between someone who is “down on their luck” and someone who is able-bodied and “chronically poor.” There’s a big difference, and I’m only addressing the latter.

We see the stereotype everyday in Hollywood films: The wealthy, corporate, penny-pinching sell-out who inevitably becomes a slave to their own greed. Note: That stereotype excludes the rich, bloated constituents of Tinseltown themselves. The sad part is that oftentimes Americans believe it. As a largely blue-collar nation, I could think of nothing more satisfying than vilifying the “boss” (not a Springsteen reference, for those wondering). The only problem is that it’s dishonest. (more…)

The Philanthropist (NBC, Wednesdays, 10 p.m. EDT) is a bad idea for a television series, but in the execution it manages to be even worse. In fact, in making extravagant claims about the value of philanthropy, the show actually undermines the very things that make such giving possible.

Telling the story of an emotionally troubled American billionaire who travels the world in order to help desperately poor strangers in need, the show manages to condescend to the philanthropist himself, the society that allowed him to become rich, and the poor people he helps.

It condescends to the philanthropist, Teddy Rist (Phillip Purefoy) by positing that his quest was caused by an emotional reaction to a devastating personal loss–the death of his young son and subsequent breakup of his marriage. Near the beginning of the pilot episode, Rist establishes this theme strongly by saying that few people are happy these days, even people with money.

That will strike many viewers as a quite offensive notion, as it posits that happiness is based on an accumulation of material things and creature comforts. Even worse, it is false in all of its particulars: people in the United States are wealthier than ever, despite the current recession, and if material things and creature comforts made for happiness, we’d be happier than ever. (more…)

I think myself a happy person. Perhaps it’s because I enjoy writing and telling jokes for a living, and I have friends and family I cherish. I also delight in simple pleasures; a cold beer after mowing the lawn and some meat on the grill is all it takes to make my day. Sure I wish things were better right now, but I live in America, and in America the possibilities are close to infinite.

A recent study by the Pew Research Center has discovered that Democrats tend to be less happy than Republicans. That comes as no surprise to me. For the past eight years we have been listening to the whining about a stolen election, a war for oil, shredding the Constitution, Halliburton Halliburton Halliburton! You would think that now that they own both Houses of Congress and the White House, they should be happy. The economy is in the tank (as we told them would happen, if they ever got control of the government) but yet they still don’t seem to be happy. (more…)