The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations

Daniel Gross says that those of us who were heartened by new Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's speech yesterday have drunk the koolaid and set the bar way too low:

Daniel Gross: July 30, 2006 - August 05, 2006 Archives: HANK AT BAT: So Henry Paulson gave his first major speech as Treasury Secretary yesterday. It was generally hailed as a bracingly realistic and honest presentation of the challenges facing the U.S. economy. Writing in the New York Times, Steven Weisman led with the apparently astonishing news that the Treasury Secretary recognizes that median wages haven't been rising....

Of course, praising the Treasury Secretary for noticing that wages haven't grown is a little like praising the Energy Secretary for noting that oil prices have risen. It's only noteworthy because Paulson's predecessor and his colleagues in the White House generally refused to notice the facts nestled in the data published by the government. I suppose this is progress...