Editor's note: This is an essay I wrote for the Jan. 8th edition of the Seattle Times' Pacific Northwest magazine (it's one of the last metropolitan newspapers to carry its own magazine):
I overhear many conversations about the economy, but the topper came recently in downtown Seattle. As two well-dressed men discussed the eurozone crisis and high unemployment at home, one said, "I'll tell you what I think it is: It's the beginning of the end of the world."
The severe recession and its staggering aftermath do represent the end of a world, if not the world. We live in the new hard times.
People sense it. A Rasmussen Poll last October found that only 37 percent of likely voters believed that America's best days were ahead. In a Gallup survey, 55 percent of respondents said it was very or somewhat unlikely that today's youth would enjoy a better life than their parents'.
I've read both Kunstler and Reich.I think Reich nailed it in Aftershock on 30 year cause of The Great Disruption and identifying the 3 coping mechanisms the middle class had used to deal with income inequality.The rich do not spend all they make and the middle class has no more equity to borrow against,lucky to have a wife that works,and cannot work any more hours since they now work 350 more hours than they did in 1980.Consuption is stuck at a much reduced level and will remain there until we recognize the problem and take bi-partisan steps to remedy it.
The Republicans in the debates are deriding Obama as wanting to establish a European socialist state.I would think that looks pretty good about now to most workers.
Posted by: mike doughty | January 08, 2012 at 06:05 PM
Yes, we are becoming increasingly divided into haves and have-nots, but if the equation followed a logical course, the un-prosecuted wealthy who destroyed the economy would be in hiding. Fortunately for them, we're still over-run with "temporarily embarassed millionaires."
Posted by: pbm | January 09, 2012 at 08:55 AM
Great essay, Mr. Talton, especially the analysis and historical overview (I still think that the doomsday prognostication, especially of Kunstler and Orlov, is vastly overblown).
I've created a link to the essay so that I can refer back to it and cite it in future.
Posted by: Emil Pulsifer | January 09, 2012 at 02:52 PM
"People sense it."
A decade ago they called us alarmists and doomsayers.
Posted by: Rate Crimes | January 09, 2012 at 03:27 PM
Many on this blog are like my brother in law. He is always saying, "The world is coming to an end" as if he meant next week. The thing about empires is that they do die an ugly death, but what makes it really ugly is the time it takes them to die. So, don't hold your breath, it will happen, but probably over a span of several generations. In the meantime, drink more, dance more, read more and mostly chill out. You as individuals can't change anything, so don't bother trying.
Posted by: AzRebel | January 09, 2012 at 04:43 PM