FDR’s New Deal ushered in a new era in America. While many programs such as Social Security and the WPA were primarily intended to jump start a stagnant economy and relieve the immediate suffering of many, they had a larger cultural effect. Perhaps without explicitly planning to do so, the Greatest Generation began to “pay it forward”.
Social Security was perhaps the most literal implementation of paying it forward. Current workers paid for the retirement and disability incomes of the citizenry, with the understanding that when they reached the age or came of need for that income, the new crop of current workers would be paying for them. WPA was more subtle. Taxpayers funded the construction of roads, bridges, schools, and utilities that would form the essential infrastructure of the future.
World War II saw taxpayers yielding up to 95% of their income (at the top bracket) to fund the rebuilding of the American industrial engine that would not only win the war but be the basis for the post-war economic dominance we enjoy to this day. The war also saw domestic sacrifice as government rationing controlled access to gasoline, tires, sugar, coffee, cheese, and penicillin so that resources could be redirected to the war.
The generation that followed continued the trend. They built airports, the Interstate highway system, Medicare, the state university systems, and sent a man to the moon. The working class parents of the hippies and yuppies showed the world what a vibrant middle class looked like. They formed labor unions that balanced corporate ambitions with worker safety and financial success. They started reigning in pollution, not because it was profitable, but because they wanted a safe and clean world for their kids. They put their personal desires on hold to send more of their children through college than had ever happened in history.
Then we came of age, my generation, the adults of the 1980’s onward. The generation that just said no. The generation that presided over the decay of our transportation and industrial infrastructure. The generation who watched their own children’s education fall behind the rest of the world. The generation willing to watch costs for health care and college spiral out of reach for the average American. The generation whose faith in unregulated capitalism inspired the greatest economic collaspe since the 1930’s.
Ironically, the last time we were here, the pay it forward culture began. Now that we’re back, it seems highly unlikely we’ll take that path again. Talking heads rail against “social justice”, even by churches much less government. The Tea Party sees Orwell’s Big-Brother as the demon when we are far more likely falling into the soma induced self delusion of Huxley’s Brave New World. We caterwaul for lower taxes despite enjoying lower taxes than the previous two generations and some of the lowest taxes in the industrialized world. We are seriously entertaining the dismantling of Social Security and Medicare. We love the idea that health insurance can’t bounce us for a pre-existing condition, but howl at the notion we’ll all be required to carry such insurance as a way to pay for it. We rally to war as long as all that’s required is for us to go shopping. And pollution vs. profits isn’t even a debate anymore.
The prevailing wind is to take whatever you can get and keep it for yourself and your family. Perhaps we think we live in the fantasy bubble that we’ll strike it rich at any moment, and then we can afford to not care about the rest of the world. Yet the cold reality is that the vast majority of us will not be in a position to make our kids set for life when we die. They will be left to compete in the world we have made for them. And they may well be the generation that doesn’t live better off than their parents.
It’s not too late to reclaim our dignity. We can waste years arguing over how we got to where we are, or we can put our energies to getting us back on track. It’s not rocket science. Our grandparents fixed this once before. It all begins with the simple realization that the rich won’t voluntarily save us. That the government is not the enemy, but rather it is us. A government of the people, by the people, and for the people. The government is our collective power. Let’s take that back. Then let’s agree to work hard and sacrifice for our children’s future. To do whatever it takes for them.
After all, it’s not about us. Let’s make our grandfathers proud.