Risk Shifting Fails in America

"...In fact, the United States today is a far less secure place economically than it was a generation ago, thanks to what the Yale political scientist Jacob Hacker calls 'the great risk shift.'  Hacker points out that 'over the past generation, the economic instability of American families has actually risen much faster than economic inequality.


"Where the laissez-faire economist Milton Friedman once claimed that cutting back government left Americans 'free to choose,' Hacker contends that they have become free to lose instead, as a result of a political drive to shift a growing amount of economic risk from government and the corporate sector onto ordinary Americans in the name of enhanced personal responsibility and control.


"...there has been a constant push to increase the economic risks of ordinary Americans in return for a shot at the golden basket.  The result is a few big winners, but a multitude of losers, or at least people whose fortunes are ever more precarious."

What's the Economy For, Anyway?