Opinion by George F. Will: Why toxic politics thrives in an age of plenty
,” published two years after Keynes’s essay, anticipated difficulty prodding the masses into purchasing the material bounties that mass production would provide. Well. Insufficient consumption — too much deferral of gratification; excessive concern about the long term — is not an American problem. Americans are consuming $1 trillion more annually in government goods and services than they are willing to pay for with taxes as opposed to borrowing — debts that others will pay.
Although Keynes was wrong about the future abundance of leisure, Lindsey thinks he was right about two things: the fecundity of capitalism, and the challenge of defining purposes beyond the goal of acquiring material necessities.the number of farmers: Adults tethered to the vagaries of markets and the weather were outnumbered by privileged young people.
“Reported unhappiness is on the rise, and mental health problems are surging. Morbid obesity is becoming normal … IQ scores have begun falling.
Lindsey’s list of social ills does not include the one that is the most debilitating because it impedes addressing the others: the poisonous politics of rivalrous grievances. A politics of distributional conflict — who gets what from whom — is banal, but it is better than today’s politics of cultural contempt and score-settling: who gets even with whom. Today’s political conversation is dominated by tone-setting minority factions who would be improved by banality.
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