Since the 1970s, the notion of meritocracy has seeped into the culture, driving the assumption that ability and talent are the sole ingredients to success. In other words, prosperity is there for those simply willing to obtain it. The implication, of course, is that there are no barriers: the free market is both free and a market, and the structure is there to accommodate. Put more simply, only failures fail.
According to the piece:
A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology last year found that the higher people perceived their social class to be, the more likely they were to believe that success comes to those who most deserve it. Perhaps more tellingly, those of lower status were viewed as unworthy. ... When US workers fail to recognise structural problems within the current labour market ... they experience depression and a loss of motivation, ultimately lengthening the period of unemployment.
It is no coincidence that at the same time meritocratic language became prevalent in the discourse, Washington began pursuing a neoliberal agenda in the service of Big Business: deregulation, lowering taxes on the top wage earners, facilitating the export of industry, and the financialization of the economy. The results are now well known.
Also at this time, the demonization of unions became part of the strategy. As stated by union leader Douglas Fraser, in his resignation letter from President Jimmy Carter's Labor-Management Group:
At virtually every level, I discern a demand by business for docile government and unrestrained corporate individualism. Where industry once yearned for subservient unions, it now wants no unions at all.
It comes as no surprise that the basic wants by a healthy majority of the population - unions, single-payer healthcare, Social Security, a higher minimum wage, and greater support programs for those less fortunate - are the very things that the libertarian/conservative culture says either don't work, won't work, or need to be privatized. (The Democratic Party is also culpable, just more reserved.) In other words, the public is wrong about what it wants and should look instead to the very people, policies, and thinking that created the economic collapse.
Into the bargain, the corporate sector and its stewards in Washington now have a population that blames itself for the current circumstances. As noted in the BBC article, this is "a distinctly American phenomenon."
The feature goes on to say, quoting an economist at the Economic Policy Institute: "there's nothing wrong with current US job seekers as a group other than their 'misfortune of being jobseekers during the worst labour market downturn this country has seen in 70 years.'"
Fraser's quote above is correct, but should include a crucial point: business wants not only a docile government, but a docile population. It would appear both are in hand.
