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I wonder if historians will someday look back on and make sense of the currently out-of-control complexity dragging us down economically as a society -- i.e. how the freedom to become wealthy without a broad inculcation of simultaneous personal and social responsibility, is bound to ultimately have a devastating impact on a country's collective fiscal reality over a century's worth of generations or so; will they be able to sort through the tangled skein of promises the powerful freely weave ("buy now! pay later!" -- sounds easy, no?), leading those not fortunate enough to have financial advisers on retainer to believe in and walk straight into like sleep-walking lambs to the slaughter...?

Perhaps not effecting an impact on the "fiscal reality" of those free to avoid taxation of their wealth with abundant off-shore bank accounts, but such as it will force a change on the kind of country we live in as a whole, on all of us.

I'm not blaming the wealthy, per se, by the way -- nor anyone in particular. Just saying we're back to Thucydides' Melian dialogue when we assume "the marketplace" is a great leveler.

It is not easy to figure out how society can account for the dangerous alliance of one of our innate worst (greed) and best (ingenuity) tendencies in a truly free society.

EM
the way i see it the US shopping class has been living beyond their means, not saving for their retirements or kid's college, and asking the government for more without being willing to pay for it. i call that greed. the middle class sits on the backs of immigrant lettuce pickers terror oil and asian slave labor. greed

hjs

maybe not greedy, but some of them certainly were naive or stupid. yes, there are the unfortunate who were forced to tap the equity in their homes for basic survival due to loss of job, etc. But there also were many who bought with no money down and are now underwater on the loan. did they think markets always go up?

MichaelB
guess you haven't heard some people have been using their homes as a credit cards getting 2nd mortgages, they were acting like typical greedy americans

Barbara Ehrenreich has once again written a timely and insightful book. Unfortunately, she glosses over the impact of religion in setting up and maintaining class structure. Religions, particularly some brands of christianity, teach the poor to be content with their lot, while encouraging the rich to greater and greater excess because they are "blessed by god" - see Jeff Sharlett's new book, "The Family" and his articles in Harper's.

lol...on the point of Wal-Mart workers being unable to buy some of the goods they sell....

I work at a certain bookstore chain (where she'll be signing her book tonight) as my moonlighting job (to pay off my student loans) and get paid $8 per hour, so even with the employee discount I would have to work a little over 2 hours to earn enough to buy her book (3 hours with after-tax income).

That's not a knock on Ehrenreich, who is right on when it comes to the punches that the middle and lower classes have been taking in the U.S., it's just something I find personally ironic.

OK, OK, MichaelB.

We get it!

Wall St cares about the common worker and retirees have not lost equity in their homes.

And NC is totally correct. Ehrenreich throws out many unsubstantiated statements that a certain mindset accepts unctritically because it fits that worldview.

Why would retirees have no equity in their homes? If they've been living there for a long time, their mortgages are either fully paid off or paid down. And even with the current downturn in the real estate market (and this one is not the first, and won't be the last), home prices are way above what they were 5, 10, and certainly 20 years ago.

Easy to throw these damning statements out; more difficlut to be real & specific about them.

On the other hand, there is no sophistication at all in what Ms. Eherenreich has to say. It sounds like a bull session from the guy on the next bar stool.

Oh sure simple to say, "tax the rich' -- heh, heh. And all's fixed! There are NEVER any unforseen consequences of these types of feel-good policies. Are there?

MichaelB
stockholders demand maximum profit. labor is just another commodity, the cheaper the better.

The claim that "Wall St" does not want employees to be fairly compensated is incendiary. I have no doubt that there are some fools/jerks on Wall St that may feel that way, or that the guest has located some ridiculous statements, but to characterize those as representative of Wall St is spurious and misleading.

I do agree though with the gist of what she is saying, that our society is drifting apart and I agree this is unsustainable for a society.

Gary,

I'm sure if you read Star magazine you will not only find stories that ignore the negative aspects of the world but a story or two about Martians

Regarding food service workers, go to Bank of New York on Wall Street and Broadway you can ask the workers. They have been there for a few months

Here's one of those articles about Costco being too kind to its workers:
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB108025917854365904-INjeoNplaV3oJ2pan2IbauIm4.html

Gary
the news is not meant to filled with fairy tales. when rarely 'highlighting the negative' the media challenges us to aim higher. the truth is most media is just a tool of propaganda for corporate multinationals.

Correction for Leonard:
Medicare is NOT socialized medicine; it's an insurance system where healthcare providers are independent.

America DOES have some socialized medicine: Veterans' Administration Hospitals are socialized medicine because healthcare workers are government employees.

History Lesson, a must-read:
Covert PR Campaign against medicare, 'socialized medicine"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/operation-coffeecup-r_b_45444.html

Those retirees will still have equity in their homes, because presumably they own it free-and-clear after 30 years.

Who cares if gas is $5/gallon, you have no health insurance, and you're getting thrown out of your house ... WE CAN'T HAVE TWO DUDES HOLDING HANDS ON THE STREET!

Is Ms. Ehrenreich familiar w/ Paul Krugman's "Conscience of a Liberal?" If so, does she agree w/his historical analysis and his remedy of returning to extremely high tax rates (ie, ~60-70%) for the upper middle class and rich?

I agree with the guest, except when she says there are 2 classes and lumps herself and Lopate into the "us." Middle class folks may not be wealthy, certainly not super-rich, but there are those whose situations are much worse than the host and his guest.

Having said that, middle class families with children are terribly squeezed.

Barbara Ehrenreich is a gem. Priceless.
Please thank her for all her work.

And ask her what we can do.....Her recommendations?

Ms. Ehrenreich is following the proud tradition of the American media (and the world media, for that matter), which is—always, Always, ALWAYS highlight the negative. ALWAYS! Even NPR and WNYC’s own news briefs constantly talk about how bad everything is. If a cure for cancer was discovered on Monday, on Tuesday the media would be filled with stories about all the oncologists who are now out of jobs.

Just listen to BBC’s (End of the) World News reports. 99.9% of stories are about Death, Disease and Destruction. In fact, “Death, Disease and Destruction” is the story angle the media always looks for, particularly BBC radio and television. Even though we live in a time of tremendous economic, technological, political, societal and medical advances unimaginable even five years ago, if a Martian landed here today and listened to our media, he would think it was the end of the world.

By the way, no matter how desperately the media wants a recession and chants the recession mantra, there’s no recession, Ms. Ehrenreich. It's all your heads, people, because the media told you so.