for demagoguery with Trump and Sanders. I characterize it (to myself at least) in a little more charitable terms- people are without hope and don't know what to do.

Both Trump and Sanders had policy prescriptions that were "bury your head in the sand" type of things, but Sanders (health care, cost of college) was speaking to some legitimate issues that could help a lot of people if addressed properly. I would have some concerns about Sanders as president (could create an antagonistic climate for business, for one) but he's barking up the right tree on a lot of things imo. At a minimum, both Trump and Sanders deserve some credit for being in tune with problems that were being left broadly unaddressed by mainstream candidates.

I think this distinction between economics and politics we're hitting on here is an important one. Economic policy is always political in the sense that it involves tradeoffs based on value judgements, and we've forfeited the domain to often insular technocratic authorities (this is by no means the only sphere where this happens.) For example, there is the idea that global capitalism in the form it exists now was inevitable. I'd argue this is not the case and is the result of some rather unrealistic, even borderline utopian ideas being embraced not by the extreme right or left, but by the center, in the wake of the fall of the communism. The establishment of the "global free market" as it exists today is first and foremost a political construct.

Even if one did not agree with this assessment and it was somehow inevitable (the technology aspect certainly is) or if it was just for the best, you could still say politics failed to provide a viable transition plan or support structure to ameliorate some of the social devastation that's occurred. This sounds paternalistic as I'm typing it, and people definitely have responsibility to get on board like you say, but most of these (inter)national economic policy moves have a similar paternalism baked in, just aimed at different constituencies.

[Post edited by hoodeyo at 04/17/2017 01:18AM]