Krugman’s Final NYT Column: A Grim Place
My next-to-last column here has already been written. If I were still able to write, I might start by saying that this looks like a grim place going forward. But my crystal ball is cloudy.
Today, the most significant driver of inequality is probably policy. And policy has turned sharply against the majority in recent years. Politicians who claim to represent those who have been left behind often do so, if at all, as cover for their own reactionary worldview.
The public will gradually realize that most of these politicians railing against the “elites” – like the ones who brought our economy to the brink, or who have a hidden agenda to destroy Medicare as we know it, even though they pretend not to – are actually those exact same elites.
At such a time, those concerned about the well-being and future of our nation could only hope that history records this period as an ugly aberration, but something that will eventually subside.