The following is not an original observation, but it’s one worth repeating: Much of the talk we hear from economists and government financial panjandrums nowadays treats the national economy as a thing in itself, to be egged on and expanded and caressed and cherished, without any concern for the actual citizens of this country. Sure, I’d rather live in a rich country than a poor one, and a healthy economy is a jolly good thing; but “expanding” is not necessarily synonymous with “healthy,” not for economies any more than for waistlines. A swelling economy is not ipso facto a good thing. It might lift all boats; or it might just lift a few and swamp the rest. It depends how things are organized. As Oliver Goldsmith noted: “Ill fares the land, to hast’ning ills a prey,Where wealth accumulates, and men decay.” That’s about where we’re at, it seems to me. And no, it’s not a leftist remark; Goldsmith was a Tory. ~John Derbyshire

While we’re being unoriginal, contrarian and dangerously Tory (George Grant-style), consider a problem that is perhaps all too pertinent in the wake, so to speak, of the commemoration of Hurricane Katrina: suppose there is a proverbial rising economic tide and there are entire groups of people who have no boats at all?  Beneton’s Economist will say simply enough, “They will not benefit.”  The libertarian will say, “Maybe Wal-Mart will sell them a boat.”  Another will say, “The Marketâ„¢ will provide.”  Larry Kudlow will say, “Demand for boats will rise.  I should buy some stock in a boat-building company.”  I suspect the Christian will begin looking around somewhere for some life preservers.