Image of the Day

household incomes—a barometer of the middle—have been declining for
decades, and now hover below $50,000 a year. The middle’s share in our
economic output has been in steep decline as well, and fewer households
are earning those declining middle-class incomes.
At the same time, the cost of staple middle-class goods has
skyrocketed. The cost of college. The cost of a home. The cost of
healthcare. Once our most salient symbols of middle-class status, these
goods have become debt collars that saddle the stressed finances of twoincome
families struggling to keep up appearances.
In a paradoxical neoliberal world, outsiders are driven further into
dependency on the state, while insiders work to eliminate the state that
serves the dependent. There’s now bipartisan agreement inside the beltway
to slash hundreds of billions of dollars from the few services that keep
outsiders afloat. The core bipartisanship consensus—that vile unanimity of
the spineless and the soulless—is that the New Deal must be eviscerated to
enable higher corporate profits. The day of our demise will surely be
marked by record gains in the precincts of power.
Some day tourists may flock to America to take snapshots of the ruins
of the New Deal, lying idle like some economic Acropolis, an empty
architecture amid a farrago of urban destitution.
Jason Hirthler is a writer, strategist, and 15-year veteran of the
corporate communications industry. He lives and works in New York City.
He can be reached at jasonhirthler@gmail.com.
Environment:
Alaska Natives Take on Fossil Fuel Disinformation in Kivalina
A Climate Change Story
by
Christine Shearer