By Owen Paine on Wednesday October 11, 2006 07:13 AM
Jacob Hacker on the Dems:
I want the Democrats to return their roots, so to speak-reclaiming their voice as the defender of middle-class Americans on pocketbook issues. And the way I argue Democrats can do this is by speaking forthrightly about the rapidly increasing insecurity of American workers and their families....His pitch: "it's the insecurity, stupid." Seems we jobbled Americans have growing risk and growing "loss aversion."
Stat: In 1970, US households had ~7% probability of a 50% future drop in income. Fifty per cent! Today, after a pretty relentless climb upwards over the last 35 years, it's now over 16% -- a 16% chance of a total household train wreck. Here's his graph:
Presumably the Democratic "roots" Hacker mentions are to be found somewhere off to the left of this chart.
Comments (1)
This alarm over insecurity is part of the latest intellectual trend 'mongst the managerials. They're also worried about talent shortages. But it really doesn't make any difference what they're talking about. The outcome of the chatter is always the same. The wingnut managerials look for a sociobiological solution; the New Liberal New Dems talk about retraining, fixing the schools and modestly progressive taxation. They go on for a while and then compromise on sociobiological retraining.
Posted by J. Alva Scruggs | October 11, 2006 12:15 PM
Posted on October 11, 2006 12:15