We were promised an Ownership Society...

Derek Thompson, associate editor at The Atlantic, writes:

We were promised an "ownership society." It was President George W. Bush's campaign slogan when he ran for reelection in 2004. The comforting term invoked responsibility and stability. It connoted a patchwork of plots, homes, and fences extending into the horizon of every city suburb. So much for campaign promises. Today, we're suffering a crisis of ownership, and Bush's slogan reads like an epitaph to an era of hyperconsumption.