Rodney

People succumbed to the idea that society was fair and the distribution of wealth was optimum under the current system.

If you believe this, then you believe that everybody who was diligent and true should be able to buy all their own stuff -- no need to share. And so those who weren't well-off enough to obtain their old healthcare, old age insurance, education, etc., just weren't doing it right and so their problems were all their own and not society's.

Distribution of wealth _was_ better from '45 through '75 or so, but since then more and more has shifted back into the pockets of the rich, in no small part through preferential legistlation. And yet the mythology has remained in place.

The United States was in a similar situation in the '20s. Economic boom times benefiting a relatively small part of the population (Family farms, then still a huge part of the economy and of the population demographic, were in bad shape), more and more wealth going to a few, rampant speculation, and so on. But the going belief was that anyone who was poor brought it on himself, and was a bum.

Then the depression hit and a lot of formerly solid citizens were out of their homes and jobs, and thus in the "bum" class. But they didn't feel like bums, and they knew themselves not to be bums. So they bought into the New Deal society safety net that Roosevelt began to build, and which has stayed with us, though increasingly tattered, for near 70 years.

I think we may see history repeat itself in the next five to seven years, and a renewed interest in the idea of helping one's fellow man, individually and collectively as a nation.

So, what happened to the idea that we are part of the brotherhood of man? In good times, we forgot, and were encouraged to forget. But we're going to be reminded one of these days, believe you me, and in no uncertain terms.