Krugman: "Something is going very wrong in the heads of a substantial number of Americans."
He's confused. He shouldn't be.
This is the sound of people leaving the middle class. There's also a visceral sense of betrayal.
It's a diffuse anger and it will be misdirected to attack a wide variety of targets.
Many in the middle class are adopting the downshifting native living lifestyle. I'm interested in connecting and sharing ideas. I blog about native living @ http://nativeliving.wordpress.com
Posted by: twitter.com/sovereignid | September 06, 2009 at 01:40 PM
People fear what they feel that they cannot control. In this case, the economy is proving to Joe Sixpack that the "American Dream" isn't something that he can achieve anymore - and J6P is lashing out at anyone and everyone who reminds him of it.
Some people like to claim that "in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man would be king." Such people haven't been out in the real world, where in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man would be put to death as a witch and/or traitor.
There is a lot of anger out there, and the barking heads on the TV and radio are steering it. They don't recognize it, and will deny it if questioned, but I think we're heading for a very ugly situation in the near future. However, that anger would disapate if the economy picked back up.
Posted by: Tangurena | September 07, 2009 at 02:11 PM
"However, that anger would disapate if the economy picked back up."
Not going to happen in the US because the capital is too centralized (including in the Federal government). It would take a virtual miracle to get that centralized capital to actually stimulate the economy in a sustainable (meaning -- including the populous) way. That doesn't mean no one should try... but it does mean that its not a good bet for those who can't influence centralized capital fairly directly.
Posted by: James Bowery | September 07, 2009 at 03:31 PM
The problem with Krugman is that regardless of his fairly interesting work in regional science, hes still a partisan politico at heart.
How does a man who writes and thinks at his level regarding spatial economics not have the ability to see things past the Keith Obermann level when it comes to the resentment of the working/middle class?
Its almost as if the Establishment is pretending to be confused on purpose?
Posted by: Seerov | September 08, 2009 at 01:27 AM