Saturday, August 13, 2011

The End of the Middle Class?

This is a very interesting take on how the economy is developing in the Atlantic. It argues for solutions like more spending on community colleges and vocational education.

I don't disagree with that, but the whole argument of this blog is we need a deeper rethink of the economy. We've got very widespread material wealth. But most of the things people want now aren't directly material (or purely material) in the same way. So we need different social technologies to get there.

In particular, massive welfare spending is NOT an effective solution. The broken glass on the streets of London this week showed that. Delivering more of what we want from the economy depends on how people relate to each other and how you motivate people. And money can actually undermine that.

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