Informative piece in the NYT on income inequality and the shrinking of the middle class, a subject regularly visited on this blog (see Sep. 11 and Aug 23 posts.) It's a bit sobering that in an article on the US economy, countries like Egypt get mentioned.
Both parties are responsible for this thirty-year trend, with the GOP leading the charge (the Democrats have the burden of pretending to be a labor party). But from what anyone can tell, Romney and Co. are quite eager to push this libertarian drift as far as they can. Though it should be kept in mind that the libertarian enthusiasts - Paul Ryan, Ron Paul, et al. - talk about the blessings of small government, but the trend has not shrunk the government. The agenda is to shrink the government's role in protecting the society's vulnerable. No one is suggesting that privatization is the answer for "protecting" the major financial firms in New York; this would mean sink or swim, therefore government involvement is perfectly acceptable - just not in a regulatory capacity.
The principles of personal responsibility, free market enterprise, and limited government apply to the single mother of two emptying waste-paper baskets at Goldman Sachs, not Goldman Sachs.
As mentioned here before, the conservative Republican candidate in the upcoming election is the incumbent.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/17/business/economy/income-inequality-may-take-toll-on-growth.html
