Just completed reading Don Peck's book entitled "Pinched: How the Great Recession Has Narrowed Our Futures & What We Can do About It" (2011, CROWN). I need to return it today to my local public library.
It is a good read and filled with historical references and accounts of our "boom-bust cycles." Capitalism evolves and with its evolution there are multiple causalities and casualties. This time around it's not just the poor and disenfranchised but the middle class and predominantly men. Congress and the Executive Branch of our Government are pawns and distractors in this evolution and I think they simply take action which allows them to survive no matter what direction the evolution takes. "We the people" are of least concern to the architects of this process UNTIL a fourth quadrant "Black Swan" event occurs. And since Peck has written this book such fourth quadrant "Black Swan" events may have occurred. "Arab Spring" and "Occupy Movements" might be examples of said events. History will be the judge or perhaps Taleb will reply.
The "do list" that Peck prescribes is not to be taken lightly. It would impact everyone at every level and would demand a commitment not just to "me-ism" but to our communities and country. My cohort will be dead and gone is a few short years but our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will need us to have acted better for their future than we have up to now. Can we do it, yes! Will we do it, ?????? Ah that is the question of this era.
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