So more and more work (including mental labor) in America is being done, Robert Reich reminds us, by “independent contractors” without security and benefits. This allows employers, of course, to be more “nimbly” responsive to consumer demand. Risk is being transferred more completely to employees, continuing the trend inaugurated with the shift from defined benefits to defined contributions when it comes to those who do have benefits. Probably most workers or employees don’t regard this as change they can believe in, especially when it comes to living dignified relational lives.

I actually think this change is a fact with which we will have to live; it’s certainly not one that would be alleviated very effectively by Reich’s scheme of a guaranteed minimum income.

As if we needed another reminder that the facts are that things are getting better and worse! My nostalgia is pretty selective, but I’m far from an uncritical cheerleader for our techno-future.

Two minor points: A good number people have whined to me about having been suckered by “quantitative easing.” The government, by basically eliminating interest, forced everyone to use their money to get into the risk business of buying stocks. Well, no one was forced. And so only in the weak sense were we given a deal we couldn’t refuse. In any case, nobody should have thought that the stock market could stay propped up that way forever.

Trump continues to demonstrate that he can say anything and get away with it. There’s something to admire there. Meanwhile, the various and sundry critics of Trump are more stridently right from a growing number of points of view than ever. I think calling him a Fascist or even all about white-identity politics isn’t quite fair. But it is true that, instead of being chastened by that kind of criticism, Trump tends to embrace with shameless impunity this or that extreme or disreputable or perhaps somewhat racist position. And the stock market whatever is, of course, adding to the impression that the country is collapsing and is in desperate need of decisive leadership. I agree with those who say that the elites in both parties need to take more responsibility for the lax indifference to the concerns of ordinary people that got us in this very bizarre political situation.