Sublime

Soon growth was portrayed as a panacea for many social, economic and political ailments: as a cure for public debt and trade imbalances, a key to national security, a means to defuse class struggle, and a route to tackling poverty without facing the politically charged issue of redistribution.

Employees of small and medium businesses, self-employed workers[112], students, job seekers, and startup founders are all out of reach for most institutions that used to be part of the Great Safety Net 1.0. The vast majority of workers are outsiders in a world where risks are covered only for those employed by large domestic corporations.

The median home price in the U.S. is six times the median annual income3—fifty years ago it was two times—and the share of first-time buyers4 is barely half the historical average and the lowest on record. Medical debt is the leading cause5 of consumer bankruptcy; half of American adults would not be able to cover a $500 medical bill without taking

Post-Demographic customer arena, where status does not have to cost money, the traditional status hierarchy is often reversed, as older, richer customers play catch-up to younger, less affluent, cooler counterparts.

The neoliberal reforms we have witnessed over the past decades are no doubt pernicious. The downfall of the welfare state, however, is due not only to neoliberal ideology but also to the general reliance on the generation of capital wealth, which makes the welfare state hostage to economic crises.