“Create good jobs?” Who wants to do that, honestly?

Got a newsletter this morning from Planet Money where they caught up with the authors of Why Nations Fail (written about 10 years ago) and talked about modern-day America. They pointed to all the normal stuff that people say about modern America, including:

Acemoglu and Robinson see the rising tide against liberal democracy in America as a reaction to our political failure to deal with festering economic problems. In their view, our institutions have become less inclusive and our economic growth now benefits a smaller fraction of the population. Some of the best economic research over the last couple decades confirms this. Wage growth for most has stagnated. Social mobility has plummeted. Our labor market has been splitting into two, where the college educated thrive — and those without a degree watch their opportunities shrivel, after automation and trade with China destroyed millions of jobs that once gave them good wages and dignity.

Yep, yep, yep. Feel free to check out this recent screed I did on automation and greed, actually.

Down near the bottom of this newsletter, the authors of Why Nations Fail propose some solutions to the current American situation, which are subsequently encapsulated in this post.