The Upswing

The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again by Robert D. Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett

America was very individualistic in the gilded age. Then the country came together for the progressive era, then went individualistic in the 20s and together in the depression. Now we are individualistic again. Will we come together?

The books is a mishmash of statistics and conclusions. Social Security is declared a "phantom regressive tax". Different income quartiles are compared at time periods. This is a hallmark of "misleading comparisons". It says nothing about individuals getting richer or poorer, just that the groups are changing. 

The central premise also seems to be a confusing mix of government intervention vs. societal values. There are also some examples comparing the wealth of two Romneys. George turned down excessive bonuses and paid high income tax rates. Mitt received more bonuses and paid lower income tax. the authors acknowledge that this does not necessarily represent the society at large, as they should. After all, if the board offered Romney a big bonus and her turned it down, it does show that society did desire to reward executives handsomely, and he had refused to do so. US government spending is much greater  than it had been in the past. Spending on government welfare programs also uses consumes a significantly larger portion of the income than in the 1950. If we can be in a condition of hyper individuality when the government is spending heavily on the group, it must be time to look elsewhere. How can society be more unified?