David Brooks’s column today is titled “Money for Idiots.” Naturally I assumed it must be about a bailout for pundits. But no; the “idiots” are people who are behind on their mortgage payments. And here’s yet another unexpected twist — after berating the idiots for being idiots, Brooks grudgingly admits that we have to help them, anyway, for the sake of the economy.

The nation’s economy is not just the sum of its individuals. It is an interwoven context that we all share. To stabilize that communal landscape, sometimes you have to shower money upon those who have been foolish or self-indulgent. The greedy idiots may be greedy idiots, but they are our countrymen. And at some level, we’re all in this together. If their lives don’t stabilize, then our lives don’t stabilize.

Well, yes, that really is the bottom line. Talk of whether any individual “deserves” help is beside the point. Letting so many people fail amounts to a national economic murder-suicide pact.

I haven’t had time to digest the details in the save-the-homeowners plan. Edward L. Glaeser, an economics professor at Harvard, provides a brief critique that mostly approves of it.

The Right, of course, is opposed to the Obama plan. They don’t have a plan of their own other than to do nothing, but they don’t like Obama’s plan one bit. Their reasons for disagreement range from the stupid to the stupid and clueless to the stupid and clueless plus hallucinatory.

See also: Ryan Chittum, “CNBC Editor: The People Are Revolting!“