Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Tougher Than Ever To Survive
The LA Times recently ran a series of articles on how the American family has become less economically secure over the past three decades (thanks to Political Animal for the heads-up.)
I thought it was just people like me having this sort of trouble, 'cause I'm a beatnik, a starving artist, a Norma the Nonconforma. But these articles profile families from the upper middle class to the working poor who all seem to have experienced some of the problems, and learned the survival skills, that the starving artist subculture has long lived by. And it's wise that they should learn them, because loyalty, hard work and commitment are not rewarded as they were in my parents' day.
Since this has been a gradual process over the past thirty years owing to a number of factors, you can't just blame it on Bush or the liberals or the bossa nova. But the Bush Administration's "Ownership Society" will push this further over the edge: "Hey, we're not indigent...We're entrepreneurs!"
I thought it was just people like me having this sort of trouble, 'cause I'm a beatnik, a starving artist, a Norma the Nonconforma. But these articles profile families from the upper middle class to the working poor who all seem to have experienced some of the problems, and learned the survival skills, that the starving artist subculture has long lived by. And it's wise that they should learn them, because loyalty, hard work and commitment are not rewarded as they were in my parents' day.
Since this has been a gradual process over the past thirty years owing to a number of factors, you can't just blame it on Bush or the liberals or the bossa nova. But the Bush Administration's "Ownership Society" will push this further over the edge: "Hey, we're not indigent...We're entrepreneurs!"
