"Anarchy in the U.K." - Sex Pistols
I apologize for the radio silence. I would complain about my schedule but it seems a bit churlish to bitch about a good paying legal job in which one is in demand, given the subject matter on which I am posting.
Even as we receive some modestly good economic news, I have been reading a series of things over the last week or two that leaves me wondering how it is our children are supposed to make a decent living in this country. It seems to me that what we are reaping societally is the predictable failure of the totemic worship of the free market over the last three decades to actually work for the many. On a largely bipartisan basis, American elites bought into the notion that the unfettered free market and its vaunted "efficiency" would leave us more prosperous collectively. Advances in technology along with increased global trade and education levels were held out as the future of the American economy -- and well they might be, but it is apparent it will be an economy that leaves huge swaths of the population behind, including many who are highly educated.
The market has ceased to serve -- it instead has become a rapacious beast that must be continuously fed human sacrifices. Ends are ignored while means are worshipped to no discernible good outcome. Fools like Friedman jabber about the need to continuously educate ourselves, to hurl our children into the economic war of all against all with endless gusto without ever once seeming to question where all of this gets us. Yglesias -- the Kinsley of a new generation -- urges people to write for free -- hey it worked for him -- not understanding why this does not seem a particularly pleasing path for middle-aged folks who have spent decades actually getting paid for their work. Law schools deceive people into burdening themselves with life long debt for jobs that aren't there or just don't pay. Universities and community colleges are following suit.
The hollowing out of the middle class is real and happening before our eyes. The decline of social mobility too. Those with a leg up -- who won't have to begin adult life weighted down with massive debt -- will have extraordinary advantages over their peers, while inequality grows and grows ever more entrenched.
The challenge for the next generation of the left -- politicians, activists, academics, thinkers, and policy makers -- is to figure out a new path, one that moves beyond free market dogma toward an economy that actually delivers for people. It seems to me that it is one in which far more intervention in the market place -- including (gasp) protective tariffs -- may need to be explored. Taxes are going to have to be higher and sharply more progressive, the social safety net will need to grow rather than contracting, industries like finance will need to be brought to heel in the interest of the public good. In short, the evidence overwhelmingly suggests that we are going to need to move beyond the Clintonian consensus of the 1990s and figure out strategies that allow our children to have prosperous and decent lives.
What say you?