Welfare capitalism falling, “ownership society” rising.
Daniel Gross sees welfare capitalism in full collapse, along with its remarkable set of private sector benefits, from pensions to private health insurance. In exchange, he says, we will have more government-run social safety nets. (*)
Bigger government would be the result if Kerry can beat Bush, and then if the Democrats can somehow climb out of their hole and become the majority party again.
More likely, however, is the continued ascension of the Republican Party and in particular George W Bush’s vision of the “ownership society” as a replacement for FDR’s New Deal. Kerry can only delay the inevitable. The Democrats simply do not have a viable 21st century political-economic strategy to update the now dated New Deal.
What is clear is that the New Deal is old and on the way out. What remains to be seen is the result of this “ownership society.” Will it preserve and even enrich the middle class, or will it polarize the country into haves and have-nots and nasty Dickensian outcomes?
It all ties into the slow death of the nation-state, as described by commentators like Philip Bobbitt.
Capitalism is a dynamic system. With technological growth, globalization, and other changes, energetic capitalism is reshaping the whole world before our eyes. Who can ride the tiger? Who can tame the beast? Time will tell.
Progressives need to deal with the swiftly changing reality. There are many opportunities in the new landscape to change the world for the better, but they are not the same opportunities as previous generations enjoyed. They are different in nature.
November 5th, 2006 at 08:20
The outsourcing of the war in Iraq is very interesting. Cost plus contracts insure that the more they spend, the greater the profit. Not to mention the fact of American soldiers fighting side by side with outside contractors for a fraction of the compensation. The duties which these outside contractors are doing include many of those which were traditionally done by our armed services. The American taxpayers have and or their offspring will have to foot this bill. If the conservatives push for personal spending accounts for the masses and then go on a spending binge like is that of a drunken sailor at port.