Watch Out for the Ricochet!

Republicans are learning a lesson that Denzel Washington learned a long time ago. The one that goes “Watch out for the Ricochet!”

Way back in 1980, Ronald Reagan, during his debate with Jimmy Carter, asked the country, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” The country answered by giving Reagan 44 states. Ever since then, the question is trotted out pretty much every election cycle, either by the incumbent or the challenger, depending on what the economy is doing at the moment. And, truth be told, it’s not an unreasonable question for voters to ask themselves.

Except for this year, at least according to George F. Will. The problem, you see, is that we’re basing all of this “better off” nonsense on financial matters, such as, well, why don’t I let George tell you his own bowtied self?

Unfortunately, the phrase “better off” is generally understood as a reference to your salary, your bank balance, your IRA and the like.

Um, that’s right. Also the size of my foil ball and whether the change in my change jar is up past the label or down near the bottom.

Faulty metrics all, according to George (at least in a year when the answer might reflect poorly on eight years of Republican rule).

But wait. Are you better off being four years older? That depends.

If you are young, since 2004 you might have found romance, had children, learned to fly-fish and become a Tampa Bay Rays fan. In which case you emphatically are better off, even if since 2004 there has been only a 0.6 percent increase — yes, increase — in the median value of single-family homes.

Sure, and if we have experienced any of these things then naturally we should thank the Republican party for these blessings. (Especially if the romance you found was in a men’s room stall.)

But wait! There’s more.

Suppose in those years you read “Middlemarch,” rediscovered Fred Astaire’s movies, took up fly-fishing, saw Chartres and acquired grandchildren. Even if the value of your stock portfolio is down since 2004 (the Dow actually is up), are you not decidedly better off?

No on the Middlemarch and Chartres, but I did see Battlefield Earth on video. Does that count?

But then George goes all wonky on us.

We do, unfortunately, live, as Edmund Burke lamented, in an age of “economists and calculators” who are eager to reduce all things to the dust of numeracy, neglecting what Burke called “the decent drapery of life.” In this supposedly rational and scientific age, the thirst for simple metrics seduces people into a preoccupation with things that lend themselves to quantification.

“Dust of numeracy?!” Dude, I can’t pay my electric bill. And as for the “decent drapery of life,” I don’t have drapes any more — I had to go all Scarlett O’Hara on them. The wife looks great, though.

[Props = Sadly No! was on GFW's case long before me]