The Summer of our Discontent

The article "Economic Worries Aren't Resonating on Hill", by Jonathan Weisman and Dan Baltz in the Washington Post pointed out the power on the Hill is trying to ignore economic pain in the land. It would like us to overlook it too, but the polls show discontent with what amounts to a lowering of the standard of living.

Jobs are being exported in droves, so how could it be otherwise? The problem isn't only with gas prices and broad indices that everyone is bludgeoned with by the TV media. These statistics are what an economist looks at, but on an individual basis, the pain much more acute. It is not ameliorated by any averaging. More and more people find themselves without medical insurance or the certainty they can pay the mortgage. 

These are people the politicians can afford to ignore unless and until they reach a critical mass capable of changing an election outcome. There is a simple market solution to their plight: disappear and stay out of the news; stay hidden by the froth and fluff the news-tainment industry plasters on the tube.

Little by little though, the middle class is coming to realize that the very term "middle class" might have been a misnomer, and simply meant "well paid worker" all along. Social insecurity is at a maximum because in order to maintain our standard of living, we have to go further and further into debt. This is as true at the national level as it is at the household level.

When it comes to Bread and Circus, the current government is much more adept at providing the circus than the bread. One hears fiddle music coming from the Republican side of the aisle, indifferent, cowardly silence from the other.