It turns out that pie-in-the-sky is a kind of early 20th century American equivalent of the infamous phrase “let them eat cake.”
The latter phrase was never actually spoken by Queen Marie Antoinette, apparently, but she was (justly so) a symbol in her day of profligacy among the rich and a cavalier attitude toward the poor. When told that the huddled masses in Paris were hungry and had no bread due to a drought, she was supposed to have said, well then let them eat cake.
The modern version was coined by Joe Hill, one of the leaders of the early labor union movement in this country, the IWW (known as the Wobblies), who championed better wages and working conditions for factory workers. Hill, in a poem, mocked the widespread attitude among the wealthy of that day that the poor can only blame themselves for their poverty in this “land of opportunity.” And if they are hungry in this life, they will get their reward in heaven. “You’ll get pie in the sky when you die.”
Funny thing, my book is about making our basic needs – bread/cake/pies – a priority in this life, not in the sweet bye and bye, while the current generation of Ayn Rand capitalists and their neo-classical economist allies are the real purveyors of pie in the sky.
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Dear Peter (if I may), as I wrote in the book review of your book "Corning’s proposal, I am afraid, is likely to be dismissed by both free market evangelists and the so-called moderate liberals. The former will judge it as an attack on their narrow conception of freedom; the latter will disregard it as a pie-in-the-sky idea." And then I conclude: "...it is refreshing to hear a public intellectual like Corning call for the pursuit of a fair society. Many will surely be skeptical about this proposal, or simply view it as sheer utopia. But the real utopia is the belief that the current social system can proceed unchanged." So, I totally agree with you that "the real purveyors of pie in the sky" are the Ayn Rand capitalists and their neo-classical economist allies. Best wishes, Roberto (De Vogli)
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