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4/16/2008
A Grapes of Wrath portrayal
This Rick Esenberg essay is well-written and spot-on. Give it a read.
One of the more interesting things about the reaction to Obama's latest fit of candor is the question of whether Americans are - or should be - bitter? How accurate is Obama's grapes of wrath portrayal of America in general and small town America in particular?
...There certainly has been a move away from well compensated lower skill employment. But nostalgia for an era when a person could graduate from high school and get a well paid union job fastening bolts on an assembly line is a longing for something that, to the extent that it ever existed (and it never did for most), has been long gone and won't come back. It was largely an artifact of a post-war era when America's economic competition had been devastated by the war. Globalization and technology seem to have put an irreversible end to that.
By almost all measures of consumption and quality of life, the average person has a lot more than she did thirty years ago. While we currently may be entering into a slow down, it comes after a rather lengthy expansion. While there is a credit crunch and a weak housing market,it is an extremely small percentage of folks who are in default on their mortgages or facing foreclosure.
COMMENTS
I don't know what accurate survey data show in this area but my sense is that Obama's statements have alot of truth in the way people are changing. The employment statistics do not tell the full story. Family wealth is decreasing in the manufacturing wage sector, uncertainty is increasing and unlike in the past the Flat World forces us to compete in ways we never had to in the past. If anyone has survey data on these questions I'd like to see it. Whether the word "bitter" is accurate is up for grabs but I'd bet there are lots of folks (including many with college degrees) who are apprehensive about the future and losing faith that we can compete as a nation.
dave allen (Wed Apr 16 10:05:06 2008)
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