Jeffrey Sachs on the new progressivism

I don't generally buy into historical cycles. In my opinion, such cycles are usually illusions in the eyes of their beholders, oversimplified interpretations of actual events to suit the contemporary agenda of observers.

So in recommending to your attention Jeffrey Sachs' opinion piece, "The New Progressive Movement", I admit up front that I buy into Sachs' likely oversimplified interpretation of history.

Twice before in American history, powerful corporate interests dominated Washington and brought America to a state of unacceptable inequality, instability and corruption. Both times a social and political movement arose to restore democracy and shared prosperity.

Those two times, per Sachs, were the Gilded Age and the Roaring Twenties. Both eras were followed by tightened regulation to rein in the excesses of the monied class. Sachs thinks the "Reagan Revolution" represents a third era of inequality, instability and corruption, and the Occupy movement the expected (and welcome) reaction.

(As an aside, I think corruption is most effectively curbed by social pressure. That is, while it's important to make specific corrupt actions illegal, what really keeps it in check is the disapprobation of one's family, friends, and neighbors. The more indifferent we are to it, the better it flourishes.)

Sachs, like others, has a few concrete recommendations for the Occupy movement, its silent supporters and those, like me, who aren't comfortable with it (well, it is meant to make a lot of people uncomfortable) but who appreciate that it has changed the national conversation from an obsessive focus on conservative talking points back toward reality. Sachs' recommendations are sensible and require that the movement make its voice heard in the commercial and political spheres. (Sorry, I can't be enthusiastic about the idea of restructuring the country along anarchic lines, as I think some Occupy protesters want.)