How Conservatism Eroded American Exceptionalism
Class Consciousness
Americans have been exceptionally reluctant to describe their society as riven by class differences and exceptionally reluctant to have government compensate for inequalities. Beinart presents some data to suggest that the Great Recession and widening economic gaps of recent years have now made young Americans more class conscious in an old-world style. However, while the Great Depression seemed to have propelled the creation of Americans’ modest welfare state many decades ago, but it is unclear the Great Recession is moving Americans that way again (see here).
ISSP data show that young Americans still differ from other young westerners on class issues. Americans were less likely than others to complain about inequality, [6] which is striking given that the U.S. is the most economically unequal nation in the West. Young Americans were least likely among fifteen nationalities to agree that it is the role of government to reduce such inequalities and third-least likely to agree that the “government should provide a decent standard of living for the unemployed.” [7]
This paradox—that Americans face unusually wide economic inequality and yet fail to see it, or if they do see it, do not support doing much about it - has for generations caused many social scientists to scratch their heads and many social reformers to bang their heads. Even now, in the “Second Gilded Age,” this sort of exceptionalism persists.