The more things change......................................

Worse, there is retrospective disenchantment with the mood that motivated the effort and set the goals in the first place, back in the 1960s.  There is chagrin at have been too enthusiastic about what could be accomplished.  There is disaffection toward those whose demands are insatiable and whose gratitude is inconspicuous.  Whatever the reason, there is a reexamination of police, especially policy that reflects social obligation.  There is retrenchment in the air and on the ballot. and second thoughts about what we can afford for ourselves and what we owe others.
       It isn't all sour grapes.  Our projection of the possible has shrunk.  Our economy is not behaving.  Growing income no longer promises to make light of our burdens in another decade or two.  We don't know what has been depressing our productivity and can't be sure that, whatever it is, we will recover soon.  Inflation has a mind of its own.  The demographics of the labor force are against us, and at the same time the rules of the game allow endless numbers of people from faraway places, once over the line, to touch base and be safe.


-Thomas C, Schelling, as excerpted from his 1984 book,  Choice and Consequence:  Perspectives of an errant economist