Dave's Book Club....

Dave is reading an interesting book for his meeting this month. The Tyranny of Merit by Michael J. Sandel, who teaches political philosophy at Harvard. He read the following passage to me right before he turned off the light last night.

"Over the past four decades, meritocratic elites have not governed very well. The elites who governed the United States from 1940 to 1980 were far more successful. They won World War II, helped rebuilt Europe and Japan, strengthened the welfare state, dismantled segregation, and presided over four decades of economic growth that flowed to rich and poor alike. By contrast, the elites who have governed since have brought us four decades of stagnant wages for most workers, inequalities of income and wealth not seen since the 1920's, the Iraq War, a nineteen-year inconclusive war in Afghanistan, financial deregulation, the financial crisis of 2008, a decaying infrastructure, the highest incarceration rate in the world, and a system of campaign finance and gerrymandering congressional districts that makes a mockery of democracy.....What passes for political argument these days consists either of narrow, managerial, technocratic talk, which inspires no one; or else shouting matches, in which partisans talk past one another, without really listening."

Read above paragraph again. Ponder.

I read and follow Professor Heather Cox Richardson and I cannot tell you how many times she has criticized "trickle down" economics and traced our current situation back to Ronald Reagan (1981-1989. Reading even this small section of Sandel's current book echoes what she states....that "more at the top = more for the bottom" does NOT work.

Once again Dave and I comment that we were SO fortunate to have been born where we were and to the parents we had.....we worked hard to achieve what we have now, but so much was based on luck. From that very first moment when we emerged white and to middle-class, upper middle-class parents. We followed the path laid out for us, doors opened, we followed opporutnities and had a good life. I can only hope our adult children and young adult grandsons find the same....but somehow I doubt it.