Aftershock: The Next Economy And America's Future - Plot & Excerpts
We are likely to accommodate absolute as well as relative losses in our standard of living for a long stretch of time. We might abide even wider inequality. But when all of these are added to a perception that the economic game is rigged—that no matter how hard we try we cannot get ahead because those with great wealth and power will block our way—the combination may very well be toxic. Losers of rigged games can become very angry. I remember when in 2009 my employer, the University of California, announced that due to state budget cuts, the salaries of all faculty and staff would have to be reduced. Most of my colleagues grudgingly accepted the outcome; we were all in roughly the same boat, and the state’s budget was in crisis. But when the San Francisco Chronicle reported that a few top administrators at the university had gotten pay raises, all hell broke loose. Suddenly the sacrifices seemed larger and less tolerable. (In fact, the Chronicle exaggerated, but the damage was done.) Something like this has been happening on a national scale.
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