Mayor “Know-It-All” Could Use a Lesson in Humility. By Michael Goodwin.

Mayor “know-it-all” could use a lesson in humility. By Michael Goodwin. New York Post, July 22, 2015.

Goodwin:

The lefty mayor traveled to the Vatican to meet the lefty pope yesterday, but failed to learn anything new. Count that as another missed opportunity to be a better mayor.

Had Bill de Blasio done his homework, he would have copied Pope Francis’ recent confession that he, the pontiff, was wrong to ignore the middle class.

Asked during his down-with-capitalism trip to Latin America why he rarely speaks about the “working, tax-paying” middle class, the pope reflected a humility that would be shocking if it came from Mayor Know-It-All.

“You’re right,” Francis admitted. “It’s an error of mine not to think about this.”

Bill de Blasio, pay attention!

Instead, the mayor is so hellbent on beating to death the income-inequality, climate-change spiel that he forgets the middle class is in the middle for a reason — it’s the largest segment of the population. The pope noticed the middle is shrinking, and perhaps one day, he’ll also come to realize that the progressive policies he and de Blasio push are a big reason why.

Soak-the-rich nostrums, coupled with invitations for the poor to sign up for permanent government dependency, hurt everyone except the ruling class. As Willie Sutton might have said, the middle class is where the money is, so it always gets stuck with the bill.

Now, the middle class is as much a state of mind as it is an income group. The term defines the broad mass of people who live an ordered, responsible life in the expectation they are creating a better future by sacrificing now.

They are aspirational investors who believe life’s compounded benefits are produced by hard work and delayed gratification. Whatever their race or ethnicity, they practice the Protestant work ethic, which formed the backbone of American capitalism.

The middle class works for a living, pays its own way and raises children to be good students and law-abiding citizens. They make good neighbors and stable communities, and struggle up life’s hills without undue complaints or demands for the fruit of others’ labor.

Naturally, de Blasio ignores them when he isn’t undermining them. They are irrelevant to his vision of New York, where government commands the heights and presides over redistribution schemes that, despite good intentions, never lift the poor.

As historian Fred Siegel says, liberals want to deregulate morals and regulate everything else. True to form, de Blasio demonizes cops and orders them to cut down on aggressive policing and forces schools to stop suspending disruptive students.

In both instances, bad behavior is endorsed as normal, while those who behave properly wonder why they bother playing by the rules. The lack of clear incentives and disincentives corrodes the quality of life for everyone.

The de Blasio ilk also undermine social norms by accusing the nation of being unfair, unjust and in need of sweeping change. They treat as shnooks those who believe America is still the land of opportunity, while rewarding those who burn, riot and loot. Illegal immigrants are welcomed with open arms and handouts, while taxpayers struggling to make ends meet are deemed bigots if they object.

Their policies help create the problems progressives rail against. By grabbing ever more power, socialist-style planners sap private initiative and curb the liberty necessary for the pursuit of individual happiness. Government then promises to solve resulting unhappiness with even more government.

Their failure is proven repeatedly throughout history, but arrogant progressives can’t resist the temptation to spend other people’s money, so history repeats itself.

Any excuse for more power will do, though few are as flimsy as the Vatican meeting on “Modern Slavery and Climate Change.”

It sounds like an old Flip Wilson joke — “the devil made me do it.” Yet there they were, the pope and about 60 mayors, promising to shackle entrepreneurs and save the middle class from freedom.

“Is it not the definition of insanity to propagate corporate policies and consumer habits that hasten the destruction of the Earth?” Rev. de Blasio asked.

There’s no chance our moralizing mayor will lead by example, so walking to work and giving up air conditioning are out. The most we can hope for is that, upon his return, his day job leaves him no time for preaching about the evils of progress.