July 14, 2012

American Class Divide Growing

Rational discussion of problems, but an unsubstantiated conclusion.

[From article]
Social trust has fallen among all income groups, but, between 1975 and 1995, it plummeted among the poorest third of young Americans and has remained low ever since. As Putnam writes in notes prepared for the Aspen Ideas Festival: "It's perfectly understandable that kids from working-class backgrounds have become cynical and even paranoid, for virtually all our major social institutions have failed them - family, friends, church, school and community."
[. . .]
Political candidates will have to spend less time trying to exploit class divisions and more time trying to remedy them - less time calling their opponents out of touch elitists, and more time coming up with agendas that comprehensively address the problem. It's politically tough to do that, but the alternative is national suicide.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/10/opinion/brooks-the-opportunity-gap.html?_r=3&ref=opinion

The Opportunity Gap
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: July 9, 2012
New York Times

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