The Trap

I think what triggered the clarity of my thought process enough to start this blog is this review of The Trap:Selling Out to Stay Afloat In Winner Take-All America by Daniel Brook.

This book lays out the concept of how increasing economic insecurity limits our choices..limiting our freedom..and making entire ways of life nearly extinct.

What's the argument? That conservatives' tragic misunderstanding of freedom has produced exactly what Goldwater feared most: stifling the energy and talent of the individual, crushing creative differences, forcing conformity - and, yes, even leading us to despotism (and I'm not talking about habeus corpus or NSA spying). By methodically undermining the public's will and ability to underwrite the public good, systematically accelerating economic inequality, and making turning oneself into a commodity - "selling out" - the only possible route for young people who wish a reasonably secure middle class existence, conservatives killed liberty. The canary in the coal mine is the death of young people's "freedom to live adult lives typified by choice rather than economic compulsion."

and

Brook, citing the social critic Brendan Koerner, calls college debt America's new "ambition tax." Inspired by Brook, I coined some other new taxes bequeathed to us by the demons a triumphant Goldwaterism has set lose. There is, for instance, the "idealism tax." In 1980, a University of Chicago student paid a $5,100 tuition - and, if her heart called her to teach in a Chicago public school, earn two and a half times that: not impractical. Now the relevant numbers are $31,500 and $38,500. Brook's stuff on teachers and even mayors priced out of the cities they serve is devastating.

I think the problem isn't so much money coming in. It's money going out. Rising transportation costs, housing costs, insurance costs (health and transport), etc. Starting life with two strikes against you through student debt.

Why would a society do this? The suspicion is that a stressed society is a confused society, which tends to flail and while it knows that there is a problem, it doesn't know who or what is the problem. However, instant communication that can get around scheduling difficulties is quickly bringing some much needed clarity. That's why I believe that the current economic order, the status quo, it's lifespan can be measured in not decades, but years.