State of Working America

Some of you have urged me to write less sarcastic and cutting and more sober-minded posts about liberalism and why I'm a liberal, the way Andrew does about conservatism. Okay then. I'll do that in bits and pieces as we proceed.

But let me start down that path by commending to your attention the new edition of The State of Working America, from the Economic Policy Institute, on ongoing analysis of our economy published by EPI since 1988. It contains sections on wealth, poverty, income, mobility, jobs, and wages, and just a heap of useful information.

A lot of what's in TSOWA explains my political convictions. Most of today's liberals, especially younger people, get a lot more excited about equality for transgendered people, and I'm down with that, but economics is what it's all about at the end of the day. You simply can't read the section here on wealth, for example, with all these indicia of rampaging disparities and inequalities in our soceity, and think it's all right and healthy and the mark of a society that is headed in the right direction.

Or maybe you can. Obviously some people do. But man I sure don't see how. I also read, relatedly, John Galt's soliloquy for the first time in my life the other day. Good God. I'm sorry, but you really just have to be kind of a moral pig to take that seriously. There goes my sober-minded cred. I tried, honest. But to think that that kind of boorish selfishness informs public policy these days is beyond belief.

Anyway, you should check out TSOWA.