I think that Walter Russell Mead is onto something. It’s genuinely astounding how nostalgic all of the presidential aspirants are. As both Megan McArdle and Dr. Mead have pointed out, it certainly appears that the president is nostalgic for the 50s and 60s, while the Republican aspirants seem to be nostalgic for the 1920s, 1890s, or even the 1870s. It’s not as though we haven’t tried weak central governments, laissez-faire capitalism, and trade-only isolationism.
Is America’s future one of managing our decline? As I see it that’s where the nostalgic strategies take us.
Will social media increasingly drive the agenda? Will we become increasingly tweeted and facebooked? If online virtual communities supplant geographically-based face-to-face communities, I find it hard to see how that doesn’t make our foreign, trade, immigration, education, and social policies look increasingly ridiculous. If your work is on the web and your friends, colleagues, and neighbors are in Taiwan and Sweden, why pay to educate the kids who live next door? Arnold Kling has written on this subject at length and suggested virtual governments rather than geographically-based ones, something I find unlikely.
I’m not so sure. The actual statistics on this are terribly hard to come by but traffic on social media sites seems to have peaked in the United States and most new traffic is coming from places that haven’t achieved saturation. I’m not saying that social media will vanish. I’m saying that they probably are what they are.
Will there by a Liberalism 5.0? What will it look like?
This is a completely off topic comment. But this is a tight “community” at Dave’s site, and I do actually admire and care for the commenters. So..
I’ve recently been the “victim” (hate that word) of identity theft. They got my name, address and ss# and opened a bank account. Fortunately, it was just a money laundering account. That is, they funded it and wrote checks on it. All under the 10k reporting limit. The XYZ (a major, major money center bank) has been very good about this. They noted that it appears to be the Nigerian Lottery fraud- “you’ve won the Nigerian lottery, and if you will just send us 8k to this account our representative will come to America so we can do the paperwork on your winnings.”. Yes, people, there a lot of stupid folk out there.
Heres the punch line, because I protect my ss# religiously. When I filed the police report they told me this is statistically the most frequent crime in America. I ask how they get the ss#. Answer: they systematically get people employed at places like the post office. I make quarterly estimated tax payments to well known IRS PO boxes. Post office employee sees address, opens letter…….bang , they have the ss#.
Check your credit reports once a quarter, people. Monitor your accounts like a hawk. I kid you not. The police officer told me he fills out more ID theft reports than all other combined. I’m not a spring chicken or unworldly, but that stunned me.
Not entirely off-topic. I think that organized crime is something we aren’t taking seriously enough and what you’re describing sounds pretty organized to me.
Now, as for Dave’s essay. Nostalgic for the 1800s? Really? Just because one believes in substantially free markets and market solutions to new problems doesn’t mean one longs for yesteryear. Whatup with that? Have strong central governments magically become the solution to ever more complex society? I must have missed that memo.
Dave –
Like a machine. My wife and I now have a running dispute over on line banking. Me: crooks will outsmart all the encryption experts. Its their business. Her: shut up, it’s convenient.
One more headache.
If your work is on the web and your friends, colleagues, and neighbors are in Taiwan and Sweden, why pay to educate the kids who live next door?
Because the kid next door is going to be the one that breaks into your house and then breaks your head open to steal your iPad, if not presented better opportunities.
Sounds like an argument for better locks and being better armed. I don’t live in Chicago because I have to but because I want to. I don’t pay my taxes because I’m afraid that if I don’t the neighbor’s kids will break into my house but because of bonds of community. If they’re so inclined the neighbor’s kids will try to rob me regardless of what I do or what their other opportunities are.
Its not just the politicians, a number of economic writers, noted on this blog, seem to be looking at how or when we’ll get back to where we were before the bubble burst. There was a normal we need to return to.
The persistence of Nigerian scams remains troubling. I think its pretty easy to see one aspect of Liberalism 5.0 as requiring something like universal access to the internet. But we are going to need to increase the number of people w/ access to the internet, including access 24/7, better than dial-up, and the functional ability to use it without getting defrauded and managing all of the spam/virus maintenance requirements involved.
“Will there by a Liberalism 5.0? What will it look like?”
Maybe there won’t be. Maybe we’re on our way to confirming Michels’s Iron Law.
Drew – you don’t have to send your tax vouchers through the mail:
http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=98005,00.html
With the proliferation online payment options from government, charity and corporate web sites (or even pay pal), there is almost never a reason to send a check through the mail.
Mark, all patriotic Americans don’t want their tax payments to get to the government a day sooner than necessary.
It does have me wondering though about the efficacy of mailing the payments in non-standard envelopes that don’t stand out as tax payments. Drew probably needs to stop writing profanities on the envelopes that draw attention to the fact its tax payment.
Mark
Thank you.
PD
You mean I shouldnt write ” here you go Obama you no good son of a …..”. Who knew?
Drew, I don’t want to take sides in your marital squabble, but I’ve had two credit card numbers stolen from me, and both were probably as far as I was able to tell stolen by a restaurant waiter. I even tracked the first to his house and gave it to the police department, who shrugged. They knew the guy, and knew it was only a matter of time before they had him, or he was dead.
OTOH, last year I was involved in the sale of light manufacturing facility and my seller-client’s purchase money was wired to someone else’s account. And large bank that screwed up took a surprisingly long time to correct it; they wanted the unknown beneficiary’s permission first. They needed, er a strong nudge. I don’t feel like the systems in place are quite where they need to be yet.
I’m not crazy about online banking because of security, but I like keeping up with stamps, envelopes, addresses and due dates less.
Drew:
Apparently last month I was buying phone minutes for prison inmates in Oregon. It seems I was quite generous. Not identity theft, just a credit card thing.
Sorry about your trouble — I pay quarterlies, too. Well, I sometimes pay quarterlies. Not always precisely when they’re due, but eventually. Maybe I should go all digital. I worry about ID theft just because it’s such a goddamned hassle.
The only nostalgia I can scrape up for the sixties was the ability to buy a tight brick 1600 sq. ft. house with central air in a decent neighborhood for $15,600. And Tang, the drink of astronauts.
Otherwise, it was a decade of assassination, nuclear drills, racial conflict and war.
Janis:
I’m with you. The music was excellent. Everything else pretty much sucked.
The couple who sold that house to my parents? Later we learned that he whacked her over the head with a hammer and locked her body in a freezer in a warehouse. Good times.
I agree about the music.
I agree about the nostalgia part and that’s something I’ve commented on before. However, I think for the GoP the nostalgia is primarily for Reagan (their image of Reagan, mind you, not the reality), and for the Democrats it’s FDR.
For example, the rhetoric I’m hearing from the left is more about a return to the solutions that supposedly got us out of the Great Depression which also established a more equal society and laid the groundwork for the successes of the following three decades.
From the right it’s a similar Ur-myth centered on Reagan. Both sides are forgetting or willfully ignoring a lot of their own history and don’t realize that the problems of the 1980’s and 1930’s are not the problems of today.
The rhetoric you’re hearing from the left is more like the fairness solutions of LBJ’s Great Society.
Heh. I’m a serial and unapologetic provacateur. I try to get things going here. I try to add some humor. I try to mess up some hair.
But Janis just blew me away. Tang? Tang? Are you kidding me? Tang?
Perfect. Beautiful. Thats just a great reference. You win…..at least today.
Now back to the Stones, Zep and well, Jefferson Airplane. When the white knight starts talking backwords……..
Cry, Baby.
Apparently last month I was buying phone minutes for prison inmates in Oregon. It seems I was quite generous. Not identity theft, just a credit card thing.
And we are supposed to be surprised why? Just kidding, dude. Again, in best Curley mode nyuk, nyuk, nyuk……..
Nah, no crying, just admiration. When you can come up with a Tang reference you have talent. I need to sharpen my game.
Drew:
If I was going to be in the joint it would be San Quentin — it’s right next to my son’s school and our mall. Very convenient.
is more about a return to the solutions that supposedly got us out of the Great Depression which also established a more equal society and laid the groundwork for the successes of the following three decades….
I could get behind this. Bombing all the other nations of the world flat would make for a lot of fun. Plus, it would be a nice chance to test the concept of nuclear primacy. And if the concept doesn’t work as promised then we won’t have to worry about the lousy fucking economy anymore. Mister we could use a man like Barry Goldwater again! Let’s drop the Bomb!
Drew:
If I was going to be in the joint it would be San Quentin — it’s right next to my son’s school and our mall. Very convenient.
That’s one of the reasons I like you, asshole, an ironic sense of humor.
You and I are closer than you think. For better or worse.
For Drew: Just because an author is a best seller doesn’t mean they’re any good. Two words: Dan Brown.