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What I Learned from Paul Krugman's The Conscience of a Liberal
Middle-class societies don't emerge automatically as an economy matures, they have to be created through political action.In the words above, Paul Krugman encapsulates the very essence of liberalism. If you believe that a middle class is conducive to a successful society and culture, then you must accept that the government will need to take action to make it so. It isn't about "big government", it's about doing what is best for people. A thriving middle class was the catalyst for the greatest expansion in the standard of living of the American people that we have yet seen. It was not an accident.
The middle class was not just a byproduct of an economic philosophy. It was a direct result of The New Deal, the rise of the labor union, and the actions of Presidents Roosevelt and Truman. It did not come without a cost to some.
In can not be denied that the rise of the middle class certainly lowered the standard of living of the filthy rich. There were fewer billionaires, proportionally, than in all the years leading up the the Great Depression. Sure, they had more than most ... there will always be some with more than most ... but there has never been less separating the rich from the ordinary American. That wasn't always the case.
In the Gilded Age, a period Krugman defines as the time from Reconstruction through the Great Depression, it was most certainly not true. It was a time of wealth for businessmen with names like Rockefeller and Carnegie. Their money enabled them to live lifestyles that would, even with the excesses of today, seem outrageous. Meanwhile, workers often lived in squalor. Disease was not uncommon. Workers had no rights. No protection. Their government was on the side of the business, not the individual.
The Progressive Era at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century would temper the worst excesses of business, but it would not create a middle class. It did not put more money in the pocket of the average American. Now, the standard of living increased thanks to advancements in technology and in medicine. These were not little things, but it was certainly not enough. The average American could not own a car and was not mobile. The average American did not have access to health insurance. If a job was lost, it would be catastrophic for families.
In 1929 though, there was a game changer. It was the start of the Great Depression, and rising out of that crisis was the makings of the most prosperous, the most inclusive, the most democratic period of our history.
It has been called the Great Compression.
