“HANG TOGETHER … or hang separately when it comes to making the sacrifices needed to put our economy back in order. Will we become selfless or remain selfish?” Is the lead to an editorial. The editors go on to observe: “Last week in Washington, the Obama administration’s deficit reduction commission prescribed harsh medicine to cure America’s fiscal illness: higher Social Security taxes and lower benefits for people who earn more, an increase in the retirement age, reductions in Medicare, elimination of the mortgage interest deduction and child tax credit.”
WATCHDOG:
Although the editors’ contention is correct, sadly history teaches us that there are only two conditions under which Americans are prepared to make sacrifices and definitive actions for the common good: A necessary War and in the midst of a Great Depression.
(Iraq wasn’t necessary, but no one was asked to sacrifice since there was no war tax or draft.)
In the depth of the Great Depression, a virtual social revolution (the New Deal) took place with the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 and the addition to his mandate in the 1934 Congressional elections. By and large Congress and the nation (with the fortunate exception at times of the Supreme Court) followed his recommendations, both when FDR was right and wrong, such as in 1936 when he prematurely tried to balance the budget and prolonged and arguably worsened the Depression. The draft and huge fiscal stimulus in order to wage the Second World War brought about full employment and recovery .
Perhaps the economy is bad enough for the recommendations of the deficit reduction committee to be enacted. But we shouldn’t hold our breath.
The Peace Corps wasn’t so bad; “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”.
People will rally behind a common purpose and accept sacrifices when it’s clear what the upside of doing it is and the downside of not doing it is. Bush failed to do that with 9/11; “ask not what you can do for your country: shop.” Obama failed to appeal to the better angels of our nature with the Great Recession, instead focusing on a weak healthcare bill, bailouts, etc. Americans were ready to rise to the occasion in both cases, and in both cases were disappointed and embittered.