More and more Americans are becoming wards of the state.
I never thought I would say this, because generally I don’t believe widespread welfare programs are a good idea in the long term (they encourage people not to work and to not be industrious), but I see no other way than to help a large segment of Americans that otherwise can’t make it financially. The powers that be have made things so expensive, through a variety of means like the printing of money and supporting trillions in foreign wars, that I see no other way than to help people through government means.
Long term it would be better to get inflation down and decrease regulation to lower prices so people can afford to live, versus spending all of our money on welfare and warfare. But for now, most working people can’t afford to pay for basic necessities and they need help. From what I’ve personally seen outside of the affluent bubble where I live, Americans are getting poorer and poorer. I read today that 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.
I like this idea: The #1 most important measure of an economy is the ratio between
a) Average yearly salary for working men compared to
b) Yearly cost of living.
*The reason the measurement is men, not women, is because of the effect men’s wages has on marriage and family.
If the average man’s yearly wages are significantly higher than the cost of living, you have a successful economy, and if not you don’t. It’s that simple. But yet we never see that simple economic ratio examined.
I’m not surprised that populism is increasing, people at the levers of power are not structuring the USA so that there will be a strong and stable middle class majority- a requirement for a republican democracy like ours- and as such the society is becoming economically and morally chaotic and unstable.
All other forms of community have been marginalized. Increasingly we’re becoming wards of the state, not ideal, but a fact nonetheless.
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Read next: The Quest for Community: Contexts of Individuality
