Let Them Eat Lentils! The Power Elite Is More Out Of Touch Than We Thought.

You’ve probably heard of this article already, but I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t call it to your attention one more time. The writer, Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor at the New School for Social Research, should be awarded the Marie Antoinette Prize for arrogant comments made just before a revolution.

Prior to the French Revolution, in response to a report that French peasants had no bread, Princess Marie, wife of King Louis XVI is reported to have said, “Let them eat cake.” To put that in context, a French peasant in the 1760s spent 50% of his income on food of which bread was the main component.

Cake is the English translation of la brioche, a kind of bread enriched with butter and eggs and considered a luxury. The phrase appears in a book by Rousseau and may have been invented, but the point is the same. For 230 years, “Let them eat cake” has been the symbol of out-of-touch elites with no sympathy for everyday people and no sense of the difficulty in their lives.

Now comes Professor Ghilarducci to raise the bar. In this article, she dispenses advice to Americans struggling with declining real incomes and out-of-control inflation. She begins by saying her advice is for those making less than $300,000 per year.

That’s about 99% of the population, but Professor Ghilarducci probably doesn’t know any of them. In her elite world, she and her friends make at least $300,000 and many make far more. So, she’s writing to the U.S. peasants.

What advice does she give? She says “those most affected will adjust to inflation in the classic way by shifting away from relatively expensive items toward close substitutes.”

In other words, the peasants will have to lower their standard of living. She suggests not using your car as much and taking public transportation. That is fine for professors who live in New York City (although I doubt Ghilarducci goes in the subway much because of the platform pushers, slashers, and armed robbers), but it doesn’t work for the vast majority of Americans who live in the suburbs or rural areas.

Prices of meat are going up and they’ll go up more. Ghilarducci’s advice is to eat “tasty meat substitutes” like lentils and beans. If you’re a pet owner, she suggests skipping veterinary care.

So, there you have it: take the bus, eat beans, skip the new clothes, and let your pets die.

Ghilarducci’s advice is repugnant. Still, it serves the purpose of reminding all of us how snobbish and detached the elites really are.

My advice is to ignore professors, don’t listen to government officials, stick to common sense, and vote all of the politicians, Republican and Democrat, out of office the first chance you get.

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