JohnEngelman
Virgin
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2022
- Posts
- 3,768
Indicators of positive social development would include low rates of crime, divorce, and illegitimacy, a rising standard of living, a decline in the national debt as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and a broad political consensus about what the government should be doing and not doing.
All of this was present during the 1950’s, which may be seen as a golden age, especially for America’s white working class.
The crime rate doubled during the 1960’s. Rates of divorce and illegitimacy rose dramatically. The electorate became polarized over civil rights, how to respond to the rise in crime, and the War in Vietnam.
The general standard of living continued to rise until the inflationary recession of 1974. To an extent, the United States never recovered from that recession. There are greater rewards at the top, but there are fewer of those rewards. Nearly all economic growth goes to the best paid ten to twenty percent of the population. Incomes for the bottom half have stagnated or declined. The U.S. economy has become less forgiving of bad luck, bad decisions, and failure.
The national debt became a growing problem after 1980, with the Republican insistence on cutting taxes for the rich while spending more money on a military that could not defeat the Taliban after twenty years.
Currently, one third of the country believes that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election. Another one third responded sympathetically to the George Floyd riots and blames high rates of black poverty and incarceration on white racism. There is talk of secession and civil war.
I am reminded of William Butler Yeats’ century old poem, “The Second Coming.”
"Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, / The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere / The ceremony of innocence is drowned; / The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity."
All of this was present during the 1950’s, which may be seen as a golden age, especially for America’s white working class.
The crime rate doubled during the 1960’s. Rates of divorce and illegitimacy rose dramatically. The electorate became polarized over civil rights, how to respond to the rise in crime, and the War in Vietnam.
The general standard of living continued to rise until the inflationary recession of 1974. To an extent, the United States never recovered from that recession. There are greater rewards at the top, but there are fewer of those rewards. Nearly all economic growth goes to the best paid ten to twenty percent of the population. Incomes for the bottom half have stagnated or declined. The U.S. economy has become less forgiving of bad luck, bad decisions, and failure.
The national debt became a growing problem after 1980, with the Republican insistence on cutting taxes for the rich while spending more money on a military that could not defeat the Taliban after twenty years.
Currently, one third of the country believes that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election. Another one third responded sympathetically to the George Floyd riots and blames high rates of black poverty and incarceration on white racism. There is talk of secession and civil war.
I am reminded of William Butler Yeats’ century old poem, “The Second Coming.”
"Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, / The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere / The ceremony of innocence is drowned; / The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity."
