Friday, July 27, 2012

David Leonhardt — A Closer Look at Middle-Class Decline

For the first time since the Great Depression, middle-class families have been losing ground for more than a decade. They, and the poor, have struggled particularly badly since the financial crisis led to a global recession in 2008. The idea that living standards inevitably improve from one generation to the next is under threat. Many of the bedrock assumptions of American culture — about work, progress, fairness and optimism — are being shaken.
Read it at The New York Times
A Closer Look at Middle-Class Decline
David Leonhardt | Washington bureau chief

3 comments:

Major_Freedom said...

And government intervention has skyrocketed during the last decade.

It has to be a coincidence. Nothing bad can come from more governmental activity. Some of them were elected!

Tom Hickey said...

And government intervention has skyrocketed during the last decade.

Yes, and there were reasons. the US was attacked in 2001, and the financial system collapsed in 2008. The public was solidly behind the GWOT that results in suspension of human rights and civil liberties for a still indefinite period that is beginning to look permanent and is still escalating. No public outcry about it yet tho. It seems the majority is willing to trade liberty for safety.

The second, of course, is the GFC, which is ongoing and the world is now about to enter the second leg down it seems. The public cry for tighter regulation is only going to increase.

Better get those liberty islands going faster, Major.

paul meli said...

"…willing to trade liberty for safety…"

…and get neither.