And, our impact swamps the aff’s internal link

And, our impact swamps the aff’s internal link

In his 2005 book The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, Benjamin Friedman assembled an impressive body of evidence showing how, during times of economic growth, people become more empathic, expansive, and generous toward others, including immigrants, racial minorities, gays, and women. And he described how we become less generous and more status conscious during times of rising insecurity, such as the period after 1973.¶ The impact of this economic stagnation on Americans’ attitudes, and the consequences for American society, were strikingly similar to the changes that had taken place during the prolonged agriculture depression of the 1880s and early 1890s, and again during the stop-and-go decade that followed World War I. Movement toward opening American society, either domestically or with respect to outsiders, mostly slowed or ceased . . . Attitudes among average citizens now forces to question the security of their own economic position and made even more anxious for their children’s, became less generous and less tolerant . . . In each case large numbers of people have come to believe that some hidden, purposeful cabal must be at fault, and only its defeat can restore the America they love and of which they feel a part. An in each case as they sought that end, the openness and tolerance of our society, and our commitment to our democratic ideas, have suffered.26¶