This essay as usual lays out the current scene very well, but there is one aspect you should make more explicit. For 50 years the CIA followed each country's GINI Index - a measure of income inequality. Their rule of thumb was that when it was over 40 there was a substantial risk of civil unrest. For about 10 years the USA has been hover…
This essay as usual lays out the current scene very well, but there is one aspect you should make more explicit. For 50 years the CIA followed each country's GINI Index - a measure of income inequality. Their rule of thumb was that when it was over 40 there was a substantial risk of civil unrest. For about 10 years the USA has been hovering in this range (depending on how you calculate it). Current political and cultural turmoil reflects this underlying factor. In fact the USA GINI was surreptitiously and uniquely lowered by Obama's ACA and exploded by DJT's tax bill. The GINI predicts unrest but not what form it will take - we are in the midst of learning that. Hopefully "The Second Golden Age" will not be followed by another Great Depression or a fascist revolution.
This essay as usual lays out the current scene very well, but there is one aspect you should make more explicit. For 50 years the CIA followed each country's GINI Index - a measure of income inequality. Their rule of thumb was that when it was over 40 there was a substantial risk of civil unrest. For about 10 years the USA has been hovering in this range (depending on how you calculate it). Current political and cultural turmoil reflects this underlying factor. In fact the USA GINI was surreptitiously and uniquely lowered by Obama's ACA and exploded by DJT's tax bill. The GINI predicts unrest but not what form it will take - we are in the midst of learning that. Hopefully "The Second Golden Age" will not be followed by another Great Depression or a fascist revolution.