by Stephen Young
Excerpts:
Something’s gone wrong with America. Most of us feel it but can’t put our finger on the problem.
The canary-in-the-coal-mine warning is the collapse of trust in our institutions. The percentage of Americans who lack deep, abiding trust in institutions — the kind that gets you through dark nights of the soul — as of June 2013 was as follows: in the Congress, 95 percent; in big business and newspapers, 91 percent; in banks and the criminal-justice system, 90 percent; in television news, 89 percent; in the Supreme Court, 87 percent; in public schools, 86 percent; in the presidency, 81 percent; in organized religion, 75 percent.
As trust in politicians has declined, they’ve spent ever more dollars per vote to get elected. The cost of a presidential election was $1.4 billion in 2000 and $2.6 billion in 2012. Congressional races overall cost $1.6 billion in 2000 and $3.7 billion in 2012.
Americans are not happy. Only 33 percent report themselves as being happy. The average global rate for confidence in the future is 89 percent of people surveyed. In the United States, only 67 percent are optimistic about their futures.
Confidence in our res publica is on the wane because our middle class has been in decline. This problem is so big and so dangerous that all of us need to come together in agreement that the problem is real and needs to be addressed by leaders of all factions....................
Causes:
In my judgment, there are several causes of this systemic change in our society:
One is globalization, as lower-cost economies became part of a global trading system thanks to the container box and large cargo airplanes. It suddenly made sense to transfer manufacturing overseas. But then we did not follow the German and Japanese examples of growing our manufacturing capability into value-added niche products to sustain factory employment.
Second, postindustrialization used new technologies to reduce the labor component of many tasks. This had the secondary effect of adding educational requirements to many jobs, which discriminated against those with lower skills.
A third cause was the growth of financial services as an industry extracting rent from the productive economy.
A fourth cause was the invention of new consumer credit mechanisms. Debt replaced savings as a source of funds for many Americans.
A fifth cause was the cost imposed on economic activity by higher taxes and regulations. No matter how well-intended, taxes and regulations have a depressing effect on the economic activity that sustains a middle class.
The rich have their investments. The poor have their government transfer payments. The middle class needs jobs.
Rebuilding our middle class demands a coalition of all Americans. Raising taxes will not bring back the middle class. Cutting government will not bring back the middle class. The cherished ideologies of the left and the right are not relevant to reversing our national decline.
They only speak to the conflicting interests of the rich and the poor — not to the crisis of the middle.
Interesting history lesson in the middle, too. Recommend a read.
Yeah, that's the problem; Americans just aren't willing to work hard anymore. Nevermind the fact that worker productivity is at an all-time high, while real wages have basically stagnated. 
