Reaganomics makes me sick. But wait, it's not just me; it's the whole society. According to an argument highlighted by Yankton reporter Nathan Johnson, the rise of neoliberal economics—you know, the "material values and individualism" preached by the Church of St. Ronnie—has been accompanied by a whole host of unhealthy social outcomes:
Neoliberal polices are a public health risk. Like cigarettes, neoliberal propaganda should come with a Surgeon's General Warning: Neoliberalism may cause depression, anxiety, cynicism, and has been linked to declining social capital [Benjamin Winegard, "The Awful Revolution: Is Neoliberalism a Public Health Risk?" OpEdNews.com, 2011.04.16].
Winegard offers a thick bibliography of research on trends in mental health and values, which he summarizes in this table:
(click to enlarge!)
Winegard gets a bit excited with his exquisite vocabulary (for a moment, I thought I was reading a Shad Olson satire). He might also overstate the correlation as causation. I imagine my conservative neighbors might just as easily cling to their fantasies and claim that rising socialism since the good old days (1910, in Kristi Noem's book) is really responsible for any general malaise. But if Reaganomics did gain ground over the last couple decades (and deregulation and rising income inequality suggest it did), it has not produced the happiness its proponents claim should accrue.