Which Is Sadder, The Fact That This Is Happening At All...

...Or that it might only now become a political issue? Which, of course, it won't because of the depth of political cowardice out there now, as well as the intellectual cowardice.

The truth is that there is an elephant in the room as far as political discourse is concerned; an elephant no one wants to acknowledge: old economic nostrums just are not working anymore. Why do you think the Democrats are at such an impasse as to what to suggest to do about it, as they struggle in vein to find a new identity?

The Republicans, on the other hand think they can do what money, and power, have always allowed them to do; just ignore it all. But that's not going to work much longer if things start falling apart from the center out. And things will do so if no one but them has the discretionary income to buy much of anything more than, say, the quick, quite lovely buzz of an addiction; because gods know that this "out" at least provides something to become deeply involved in, on the cheap, even as it is both all too brief, and horribly destructive as well.

The thing is, of course, deep involvement is what we all desperately crave. Deep involvement that has meaning. Involvement where it automatically becomes obvious that we matter. That we are not only needed, but are listened to, and our concerns given the same weight any other involved citizen might get. The same kind of involvement that Capitalism cannot provide for the majority of us any more. But then, that's what happens when a thing is no longer relevant to the reality you are now living in. Something that all of the addictions, and all of the ignoring one could ever imagine, won't change.

Retail Displacement Remakes Job Force, Looms as Political Issue