25 de março de 2016

E ainda mais sobre as eleições norte-americanas

 De Krugman, citado no Economist View:
"Stripped down to its essence, the G.O.P. elite view is that working-class America faces a crisis, not of opportunity, but of values. ... And this crisis of values, they suggest, has been aided and abetted by social programs that make life too easy on slackers.
The problems with this diagnosis should be obvious. Tens of millions of people don’t suffer a collapse in values for no reason. Remember, several decades ago the sociologist William Julius Wilson argued that the social ills of America’s black community ... were the result of disappearing economic opportunity. If he was right, you would have expected declining opportunity to have the same effect on whites, and sure enough, that’s exactly what we’re seeing.
Meanwhile,... every other advanced country has a more generous social safety net than we do, yet the rise in mortality among middle-aged whites in America is unique: Everywhere else, it is continuing its historic decline."

Economist's View: Paul Krugman: Republican Elite’s Reign of Disdain

Três contributos para perceber o fenómeno Trump, via Brad DeLong. Um requisito básico para perceber os EUA é o de assumirmos, à partida, a consciência da complexidade da tarefa, e da impossibilidade de alcançarmos um nível suficiente de maestria do assunto, pelo menos no curto prazo, e na ausência de muito trabalho - muita boa gente lucraria imenso (lucraria a sua perceção do mundo em que vive) se percebesse isso.

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