What We Can Do for the Bottom 50%

I agree with the main thrust of what David Brooks has to say here:

Over all, we’ve made life richer for the people who have the social capital to create their own worlds. We’ve also made it harder for the people who don’t — especially poorer children.

These trends are not going to reverse themselves.

In fact, I said it myself a dozen years ago.

I agree too with the conclusion that David draws:

People without ... advantages would probably be better off if we could build new versions of the settled, stable and thick arrangements we’ve left behind.

The trouble is, of course, that we don't know how to reconstitute those old arrangements—and even if we did know, there is little sign of any such reconstitution occurring anytime soon.

But what we could do, at a minimum, is cushion the unadvantaged against some of the terrible new outcomes for them now possible in a more unequal and individualistic society. That's why I've become convinced that there should be no turning back from the commitment to universal health coverage in the United States. It's not exactly the answer to the problems astutely discerned in David Brooks' column. But it's a start.