I don't always like David Brooks, but his op-ed in today's New York Times hits on some very interesting themes regarding the unique challenges America and America's economy face today.  He attempts, and I think he does so very well, to debunk the notion that was so popular at the beginning of the Obama Administration that we are in a new "Progressive Era."

He does this in ways that would both appeal and, quite possibly terrify conservatives.  In my mind the most searing line in the piece is the following,

"One hundred years ago, we had libertarian economics but conservative values. Today we have oligarchic economics and libertarian moral values — a bad combination."

He goes on to say,

"In sum, in the progressive era, the country was young and vibrant. The job was to impose economic order. Today, the country is middle-aged but self-indulgent. Bad habits have accumulated. Interest groups have emerged to protect the status quo. The job is to restore old disciplines, strip away decaying structures and reform the welfare state. The country needs a productive midlife crisis."

Many, if not practically all, self described conservatives would declare the Progressive Era as a very bad thing, something almost like an "Original Sin."  So to ever say anything positive about it at all would strike them as heretical.  However, one thing to keep in mind is that when there is too much stratification in society, that society becomes unstable and prone to overact to both internal and external shocks.

We may be nearing a tipping point in America from which we cannot return.  It is incumbent upon leaders to be far more aggressive than they have been and it will require major changes in our own personal self-indulgences too.  

We should certainly should not hold the Progressive Era up as our be all and end all model, but neither should we entirely discount the inexact analogies it may offer for our own increasingly troubled times and much of it has to do with our values.  No technical tweaks to our system can overcome a degenerated value system, because a value system unable to hold its own will succumb to every stray gust of wind that blows its way.