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Living close to the edge, with little or no safety net to speak of, has become an American way of life...the whole Social Security game of Bush made it all that much more scary. One wonders what will be next...

"Once in awhile we get shown the light, in the strangest of places, if we look at it right" - Hunter/Garcia
by whataboutbob on Mon Jan 2nd, 2006 at 10:12:40 AM EST
And what is most saddening, when I look at issues like Social Security and health care, is that Democrats don't realize what a financial fight life has become for such an enormous percentage of the population -- a chunk of the population that we have, historically, charged ourselves with protecting.

I do think there is an economic reason for at least some of what Professor Warren has picked up on.  Since the era of the one-earner household, the workforce has essentially doubled in size, thanks to women entering the workforce.  So, from a purely Classicalist, long-run view, we might be able to understand the two-earner household remaining roughly on par with the one-earner household.  (I have no idea if the datasets back me up on this.  Just thinking.)  Obviously, it doesn't work out so neatly.

Now, I'm not sure how recent the data in Warren's study is, but, taking into consideration the recent exponential rises in health care and housing costs (I think the cost of a car has actually fallen in real terms, but I'm judging that only on what I see and my own memory), we can see what has happened.

There's clearly a shift going on.  Whether it's a long-run shift, I don't know.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Tue Jan 3rd, 2006 at 12:22:55 PM EST
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