MARK BARNES: State and business had best overlap to spare us from more swamp
If those with money don’t invest enough to sustain and grow a middle class, it’s curtains for everyone
There just isn’t enough in the middle. There’s a lot of it all on the one side, and practically none of it on the other side, and never, it seems, the twain shall meet. The missing truth about the missing middle is that those on the side that has a lot of it got it from everybody else, particularly those in the middle. It therefore follows, fairly starkly, that if the middle doesn’t grow, the have-a-lots cannot grow, and will eventually wither and die.
As we wander down the economic-have curve towards the have-absolutely-nothings, it is incumbent upon the diminishing middle to invite more of the lesser-fortunate to join their ranks. The only way this will happen is if the have-it-alls (who often are also the know-it-alls) have the confidence to invest in the ecosystem that enables the in-the-middles to grow and create opportunities in their wake for the have-absolutely-nothings. Clear?..
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