Paul Krugman | Age of Anxiety

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Krugman references the late Peter Drucker, a renowned management theorist, to help explain why the following is no longer something on which Americans can count:

"American workers at big companies used to think they had made a deal. They would be loyal to their employers, and the companies in turn would be loyal to them, guaranteeing job security, health care and a dignified retirement."

He explains that while America eschews the "oversized welfare states" of Europe, "if you add in corporate spending on health care and pensions - spending that is both regulated by the government and subsidized by tax breaks - we actually have a welfare state that's about as large relative to our economy as those of other advanced countries."

Krugman reiterates his frequent call to overhaul our system: "...instead of trying to provide economic security through the back door, via tax breaks designed to encourage corporations to provide health care and pensions, we should provide it through the front door, starting with national health insurance. You may disagree. But one thing is clear: Mr. Drucker's age of discontinuity is also an age of anxiety, in which workers can no longer count on loyalty from their employers."

As usual, I couldn't agree more.