Are You Better Off?

Via Krugman:

Dean Baker has exactly the right metaphor for journalists asking the really dumb “are you better off” question:

Suppose your house is on fire and the firefighters race to the scene. They set up their hoses and start spraying water on the blaze as quickly as possible. After the fire is put out, the courageous news reporter on the scene asks the chief firefighter, “is the house in better shape than when you got here?”

To be honest, the “are you better off” stab is the first Republican epigram I’ve heard this year that I could see being an effective weapon. As Krugman points out later in the article it’s a bogus question to begin with; yet I’m afraid many Americans may not understand that—making it an ideal candidate for right-wing propaganda.