2.25.2013

Gem of the day

George Packer takes a masterful look at what the evolution of American business since the 1970s means for the country's social contract, using the example of Apple vs. Walmart (via the New Yorker):

"The middle class has shrunk; tax rates (especially on upper brackets) have plunged; inequality has exploded; the safety net (especially for the poor) has weakened; the old power structure has given way to a more diverse and broad-based upper class based on education...and business culture has become entrepreneurial, fast, risk-taking, and harsh. The trade-off: more freedom, less security."

"Together, Apple and Walmart represent the intense separation of American life into blue and red, rich and poor, overpriced and undersold, hyperconnected and left behind."

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