Everyone knows that the big issue of this election season is Iraq. But it is less widely-appreciated that the second-most important issue on voters’ minds is jobs and the economy. No doubt this reflects the public’s continued pessimism about how the economy is working, even as we near the end of the fifth year of the current economic expansion.
The reasons for this economic pessimism are explored in detail in the analysis below. They go far beyond traditional concerns such as unemployment and inflation—which have, after all, not been notably high in recent months—and encompass fundamental complaints about inequality, insecurity, the many difficulties of attaining and maintaining a middle class lifestyle, and the breakdown of the social contract.
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