When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s

by John Ganz

The United States’ economy, to begin with, yes, but also its culture, its confidence, its sense of what it is. And the country is in bad shape because it broke the deal.” According to Margolis, the deal had been that the citizens would do something productive and in return would get a comfortable standard of living, rising prospects for their children, and protection “from most calamities.” At some point the “country opted out and the citizens know it. That’s why more than just the economy is troubled; the whole society is. A sense of security that blanketed most of it for decades has been snatched away.” This was obscured by the economic growth of the Reagan years, but when that growth stopped, that security went with it: “The reality was exposed. There is no deal. Without it, the United States is a different country, and an unhappier one.” The prospects of postindustrial life, of a nation of “knowledge workers,” seemed grim: “Making big, thick, heavy things can provide the average person with a pretty good wage. Sending electronic impulses rarely does.”