Paul Krugman, kind of a dick

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the reaction of St. Louisans to the sale of Anheuser-Busch is not really something that Paul Krugman or others can really understand. Still, I don't think there's any reason to out and out mock the honest sentiments of people who will be directly affected by this buyout as Krugman does today.

Krugman writes,

Belgian Bud! Next thing we’ll be talking about French bourbon. Oh, wait,:

and then quotes a Wall Street Journal article from today which states,

“I’ll tell you one thing,” said the 21-year-old concrete worker during his lunch break at The Brick of St. Louis bar, in the shadow of this city’s storied Anheuser-Busch Cos. brewery, “if Budweiser is made by a different country, I don’t drink Budweiser anymore. I’ll go back to Wild Turkey.” (Wild Turkey, a Kentucky bourbon, is owned by French drinks giant Pernod Ricard SA.)

Ah-ha, stupid rube. Everyone knows that Wild Turkey is French. Now shut your mouth and take it like a man. Or something. Like I said, Krugman's being a dick.

Raise your hand if you knew that Wild Turkey was owned by a French company? I'll bet $100 that Paul Krugman didn't know that before he wrote his piece.

This is all beside the point though. The real issue is the psychological blow that this sale will have on the people of St. Louis and the economic blow it will eventually lay on the city. If you're not from St. Louis I'm sure you wouldn't understand. So much of our civic pride is wrapped up in Anheuser-Busch. So much of our city's great history is tied to the venerable old brewery. It's a relationship between a city and a company that is most likely incomparable in modern America. For local reference, Coors and it's relationship to greater Denver isn't in the same ballpark.

Generations of families have worked for AB. The most menial position at the brewery is understood to be a good job. The type of good job that is hard for working families to rely on anymore. The type of job that pays you enough to send your kid to college and allows you to buy a comfortable house in the suburbs. They're also, not coincidentally, union jobs.

It's another blow to the ego of a city that was one of the biggest and most important in the nation as little as 40 or 50 years ago. In that time the city itself has fallen on hard times, as have similar blue collar towns. Through it all though Anheuser-Busch has stood up and been a beacon of hope and a source of civic pride. We all know that layoffs will follow and that this sale is the end of an era. Many of us are praying that it's not the end of a great American city as well.

Why a progressive who ostensibly cares about working families would use his high-profile blog at the New York Times to out-right mock America's workers is beyond me. Like I said, Paul Krugman - kind of a dick.