A Fair Trade?

An addendum to my earlier rambling rant essay about class, segregation, and school "choice":

As if on cue, David Brooks does a good thing by bemoaning the radical differences in the childhoods of rich and poor American children. But then he proposes a trade:

Liberals are going to have to be willing to champion norms that say marriage should come before childrearing and be morally tough about it. Conservatives are going to have to be willing to accept tax increases or benefit cuts so that more can be spent on the earned-income tax credit and other programs that benefit the working class.

First of all, why is "or benefit cuts" in there? Why can't we just make it all about tax increases - especially on the wealthy? Lord knows the one-percenters have got the money:

But aside from that, let me see if I understand the deal here: 

All I have to do as a liberal is yell at poor people to stop having babies out of wedlock, and conservatives will agree to pony up more to help them out? Really? Sounds good - let's try it:

HEY, ALL YOU POOR PEOPLE! KNOCK IT OFF WITH THE NOOKIE! AT LEAST GO GET SOME CONDOMS OR SOMETHING!

OK, I did my part! Now all we have to do is wait for the millionaires to voluntarily give up the enormous tax breaks they bought for themselves and paid for through campaign contributions! Yep, I'll bet that money for poor folks is going to be rolling in any second now...

A New York City donor a few cars back, who also would not give her name, said Romney needed to do a better job connecting. "I don't think the common person is getting it," she said from the passenger seat of a Range Rover stamped with East Hampton beach permits. "Nobody understands why Obama is hurting them.

"We've got the message," she added. "But my college kid, the baby sitters, the nails ladies -- everybody who's got the right to vote -- they don't understand what's going on. I just think if you're lower income -- one, you're not as educated, two, they don't understand how it works, they don't understand how the systems work, they don't understand the impact."

I'd like to believe that moral hectoring by liberals was enormously powerful. I'd also like to believe I could eat a box of Ho-Hos every day and not gain weight. Sadly, reality often intrudes on my dreams, and those of New York Times pundits...

(h/t Diane Ravitch)