When others from various countries ask me how did this come to be I distill it as such: It's the desperation of people who can't afford to get started, to get sick, to get old, or to even get by.
Republicans have been selling the snake oil of trickle down for 40 years and if it worked, we'd all be rich; the opposite has occurred. Those who are reaping the benefits of this don't want to give up a good thing, so they create a bogeyman narrative as the distraction. It incites tribalism and since people see it's not "us", it must be "them" then who are at fault, it works. So we destroy each other while never addressing the real issues.
Thank you for your comprehensive posts. They are so informative.
Thanks for bringing up Reagan. IMO, he’s not mentioned enough as a cause of our current situation. I recall quite vividly seeing numerous homeless people living on the New York City streets in the 1980s, soon after David Stockman, Reagan’s Director of OMB, began slashing money from the federal budget to curtail the so-called welfare state. From those days, more than 40 years ago, the homeless situation has continued to grow, which is just one symptom proving Greenberg’s thesis in this remarkable column.
You left out a key component: meritocracy. The ideology of meritocracy tells each of us that we are responsible for our lousy situation: if we had been smarter or worked harder we would doing fine.
When others from various countries ask me how did this come to be I distill it as such: It's the desperation of people who can't afford to get started, to get sick, to get old, or to even get by.
Republicans have been selling the snake oil of trickle down for 40 years and if it worked, we'd all be rich; the opposite has occurred. Those who are reaping the benefits of this don't want to give up a good thing, so they create a bogeyman narrative as the distraction. It incites tribalism and since people see it's not "us", it must be "them" then who are at fault, it works. So we destroy each other while never addressing the real issues.
Thank you for your comprehensive posts. They are so informative.
You’ve distilled what going on perfectly.
Thanks for bringing up Reagan. IMO, he’s not mentioned enough as a cause of our current situation. I recall quite vividly seeing numerous homeless people living on the New York City streets in the 1980s, soon after David Stockman, Reagan’s Director of OMB, began slashing money from the federal budget to curtail the so-called welfare state. From those days, more than 40 years ago, the homeless situation has continued to grow, which is just one symptom proving Greenberg’s thesis in this remarkable column.
Exactly right.
We are living in “The age of Umbrage.”
You left out a key component: meritocracy. The ideology of meritocracy tells each of us that we are responsible for our lousy situation: if we had been smarter or worked harder we would doing fine.
Thank you for these posts. You put into words what I sense has happened and am challenged to articulate.