“My dad, he’s in his 80s now,” Dave said. “He’s only got a fourth-grade education and has been a working man all his life. Even now, he can’t wait to get up in the morning and get out to work on appliances. I talk to him every night, and we talk a lot about this economic mess. Sometimes he’ll get to crying, saying he doesn’t know where this country is going, and it scares him.”
(…)
What happens when people like him become convinced that the system is set up to reward lobbyists, lawyers, rent-seekers, developers, corporate interests, special-pleaders and sundry freeloaders lining up to nuzzle the ever-expanding government teat – all at their expense?
What happens when the repairman loses faith in the institutions of government, of commerce, of civil society?
When the kind of man who makes up America’s backbone concludes that nobody else seems to believe in the common good anymore, so why should he?
I fear we’re going to find out before too much longer. And we’re not going to like it.
***
By the way: is it “crunchy” to use a dishwasher? Shouldn’t you just be rinsing your cutlery off in a nearby stream or something? Oh wait, that would pollute it. So confusing…
