To read and to ponder

As a general rule, I'm not fond of blogs that have a large percentage of posts either that consist of "Wow! Check this out!" with a link or of a long excerpt from some article (or a post from another blog) with a one-sentence comment at the end. I try to avoid both of those and I think for the most part I succeed. But occasionally I make an exception when I don't think I can do some article justice except by suggesting you read the entire thing. This is such a case.

A column by regular Christian Science Monitor contributor Dante Chinni for April 27 starts this way:

The United States of America, circa 2004, offers a fairly straightforward economic proposition. The nation's change from being a maker of things to a seller of things rests on the simple assumption that the consumer is king. And because everyone's a consumer, everyone wins. Cheap imports and competition force producers and retailers to keep prices low, inflation stays down, and everyone can buy a little more - maybe even a lot more. ...

Viewed from the Ohio Valley, though, America's economic restructuring seems less like an "everybody wins" proposition than a zero-sum game. Here in the rolling hills that straddle Appalachia and steel country, the picturesque landscape is dotted with towns like East Liverpool, places where vacant storefronts dominate what's left of the downtown and many of the remaining businesses are bars or drive-through liquor stores. They're towns full of boarded-up buildings, empty streets, and people short on options.

Now go read the rest of it and ponder what it means for our future and the idea of economic justice.