If we write off half of society as deplorable we forfeit claims on their attention. We also endanger liberal democracy. It is one thing to persuade ourselves that we know the future. It is another to miss what is happening in front of our eyes. Since the late 1970s, Western governments of right and left have been privatising risk. To one degree or another – most sharply in the US and the UK – societies are creeping back to the days before social insurance. What was once underwritten by government and employers has been shifted to the individual. When people hit the buffers, they knew there
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