The Unwinding

This is a hard book to write about. As I was reading it, I felt genuine empathy for the people whose stories were told in its pages, the people who were left behind as industries changed and wealth was concentrated in the hands of the few, as institutions which were once the pillars of American society were hollowed out and our politics became little more than shouting at each other. But I also felt guilt creeping in - knowing that I would read these stories, then return to the liberal, well-educated, well-paid bubble of Silicon Valley, without taking any action other than “informing my world view”.

If you've read the newspapers or magazines in the past six years, trying to figure out what the hell happened since the 50's that brought us to where we are now - there's nothing new here. The difference is in the delivery - Packer shows us these changes, rather than distilling them down into a New York Times editorial. We see the effect the loss of industrialization has on a black family in Youngstown, Ohio, read story after story of the families in Tampa that were utterly devastated when the real estate market crashed, watch a political operative grow more and more disillusioned during his career in national politics. These stories are interwoven with short biographical sketches to present a rich, nuanced picture of all the contrasting forces in society that combined to bring us here.

This is a story about a few of the people that lived in America over the past four decades. It is about the radicalization and hollowness of our politics. It is about the dismantling of financial regulations. It is about huge national corporations sucking money out of small communities. It is about the lack of well-paying jobs for the middle class as wages have stagnated and the country has stopped making “things”. It is about bubbles - real estate, stocks, bonds - and how they affect those caught on the wrong side of them. It is about the growing influence of money on politics. It is about the loss of reasonable discourse in society, and the growth of fringe segments, helped by the Internet. It is a book about the transformation of our economy - the loss of industry and farming, and the growth of technology. It is about energy - the good days when it was cheap, and the struggles now that it's not. It is about the enormous, widening gulf between elites and everyone else.

At 27, I don't really feel like I've lived long enough to put “right now” in perspective. Are things really broken, or do they just seem that way? In 20 years, what will we think of the state of our society as it was in 2014?

This was a really fascinating, entertaining (again, tinges of guilt), and thought-provoking read. I hope it will inform how I think about money, the economy, and politics in the future.