…one big reason why middle-class Californians began thinking more about themselves than posterity starting in the late 1970s: Their real incomes started to flatten. In the thirty years before that – when their parents invested in California’s education system and infrastructure – the median wage tracked productivity gains. The typical family grew so much better off it could afford to be generous. But then the median wage flattened even as productivity gains continued. Public-spiritedness is harder to inspire among people who feel they’re losing ground.
More on the intergenerational contract « The Reality-Based Community
And Robert Reich (who wrote Reason, which I highly recommend if you haven’t read it) on why the social contract changed, where I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out the parallels between the change in California’s (and, subsequently, America’s) social contract and the rise of Reaganomics.
Sure, it’s like dragging a horse to water by the balls, but sometimes you need to point out the obvious in 120-point, blinking goddamned fonts.
Source: samefacts.com
