Greed Again

I did indeed turn to Studs Terkel this week, beginning his book on the divisions in our society, The Great Divide, a collection of interviews by Mr. Terkel and his staff in which they asked Americans what they thought about the state of the American Dream. It's quite interesting, especially since it was compiled in the mid-80s, an era characterized by tremendous greed, its signature movie being Wall Street, which came out in 1987, around the time this book was published (early 1988).

Some things I've learned so far are that some people were disappointed with Reagan, some regretted voting for him, but others thought he was right on--smart, courageous, wise.  Indeed, there seems a tremendous desire on the part of some of the interviewees in the book to explain why "greed is good" (to quote Wall Street).

One interesting aspect of the book was that the stock market crash occurred during the interviewing process so that the interviewers were able to go back to people they had talked to before the crash to get their responses after it happened.  Not surprisingly, those in the financial profession were the most anxious to play down the significance of the crash.

It seems Mr. Terkel tried to include all walks of life in the book, from dentist to stock broker to factory worker to farmer. Some of the opinions are harsh, some surprising. It's an interesting look at that era.

What was perhaps most disturbing about the book, though, is how much that time resembles our own. It seems that we didn't learn much, that not much has changed in 25 years, and in fact the "great divide" is wider than ever.

Until next time . . .