Kerby Anderson
In this country, we have a division between the elite and the rest of society. In a recent op-ed in the New York Times, David Brooks asks a question of this elite class: “What if We’re the Bad Guys Here?” He has his peers consider a different story.
“This story begins in the 1960s, when high school grads had to go off to fight in Vietnam, but the children of the educated class got college deferments. It continues in the 1970s, when the authorities imposed busing on working-class areas in Boston but not on the upscale communities like Wellesley where they themselves lived.”
He reminds us that the elite have taken over whole professions and thereby locked everyone else out. He even describes his own profession of journalism. Most working in the media today come from one of the most elite universities in the nation.
He quotes Daniel Markovits whose book, The Meritocracy Trap, explains that “elite graduates monopolize the best jobs and at the same time invent new technologies that privilege superskilled workers, making the best jobs better and all other jobs worse.”
Armed with so much power, he argues that elites “support policies that help ourselves. Free trade makes the products we buy cheaper, and our jobs are unlikely to be moved to China. Open immigration makes our service staff cheaper, but new, less-educated immigrants aren’t likely to put downward pressure on our wages.”
David Brooks doesn’t believe they are the “bad guys,” but at least provides some insight into why so many Americans feel they have been left behind and live in a world that benefits the elites often to the detriment of the rest of society. This next election will determine if this changes or continues.

Kerby Anderson
This country received a financial downgrade earlier this month. In one sense it was justified. In another, it was absurd. Fitch Ratings reduced America’s financial status because of the increasing amount of national debt piled up by Congress and the president.
This is no small issue. The other day, I read that nearly all (98%) nations that have surpassed a 130 percent debt-to-GDP ratio in the last 225 years eventually defaulted. We exceeded that percentage for a short time a few years ago. The Congressional Budget Office expects federal government debt held by the public to reach 115 percent of GDP this decade.
Although the downgrade was justified, it is also absurd because it supposedly is based upon the ability or inability of a nation to meet its debt obligations. The likelihood of the federal government going into default is non-existent, at least for now. The Treasury and the Federal Reserve can create money to pay back sovereign debt.
The $2 trillion from the CARES Act helped to rescue the economy. But this administration didn’t want to go back to normal. Instead, the American Rescue Plan, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the so-called Inflation Reduction Act pumped trillions more into the economy, setting off nine percent inflation. There is no evidence that this administration is willing to cut back spending.
Perhaps the most puzzling part of the Fitch downgrade was the concern over the “debt-limit political standoffs.” Yet, those are often the only times when some members of Congress use the threat of default to restrain spending.
The financial downgrade should be a wake-up call but unfortunately, the president and many in Congress merely hit the snooze button.