NEW Y ORK TIMES Book Review: … It is scarcity, [Thomas Byrne ] Edsall contends, that turns modest policy differences into zero-sum showdowns between his “haves” and aspiring “have-nots.” Drawing on predictions that the economist Lester Thurow made following an earlier “era of limits,” the late 1970s, he sees a long and ugly period of zero-sum conflict over immigration, education and programs that serve primarily low-income people or minorities, like disability benefits. Edsall’s “haves” are not the rich, but older conservatives who have “income from savings, which they do not want more heavily taxed, and their Medicare coverage and Social Security benefits, which they do not want diverted to ‘ObamaCare’ or any venture transferring tax dollars to those with lower incomes.” In Edsall’s framework, it no longer seems paradoxical that Republicans can simultaneously attack a government health program, propose to gut Medicare for those under 55, and pledge to protect that same program faithfully against Democratic cuts. In a climate of austerity and limits, struggling older voters cling all the more desperately to what they have, and are all the more willing to see that same thing denied to those who are not them or don’t look like them…
It is scarcity, [Thomas Byrne ] Edsall contends, that turns modest policy differences into zero-sum showdowns between his “haves” and aspiring “have-nots.” Drawing on predictions that the economist Lester Thurow made following an earlier “era of limits,” the late 1970s, he sees a long and ugly period of zero-sum conflict over immigration, education and programs that serve primarily low-income people or minorities, like disability benefits. Edsall’s “haves” are not the rich, but older conservatives who have “income from savings, which they do not want more heavily taxed, and their Medicare coverage and Social Security benefits, which they do not want diverted to ‘ObamaCare’ or any venture transferring tax dollars to those with lower incomes.” In Edsall’s framework, it no longer seems paradoxical that Republicans can simultaneously attack a government health program, propose to gut Medicare for those under 55, and pledge to protect that same program faithfully against Democratic cuts. In a climate of austerity and limits, struggling older voters cling all the more desperately to what they have, and are all the more willing to see that same thing denied to those who are not them or don’t look like them … (more)
