Meryl Streep s eery reincarnation of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady brings to mi nd Thatcher s most famous quip, there

is no such thing as society. None of the dwindling herd of Republican candidates has quoted her yet but they might as well considering their unremitting bashing of everything public. After all, what makes us a society is a set of mutual benefits and duties embodi ed most clearly in public institutions public schools, public libraries, public transportation, public hospitals, public parks, public museums, public recreatio n, public universities, and so on. Public institutions are supported by all of us as taxpayers, and they are availa ble to all. If the tax system is progressive, those of us who better off (and who, presumabl y, have benefitted from many of these same public institutions) help pay for eve ryone else. Privatiize means pay-for-it-yourself.

In an economy whose wealth and income are more concentrated than any time in 90 years, the practical consequences is availability to fewer and fewer. The story of our time is a decline of the public good. Much of what s called public is increasingly a private good paid for by users igher tolls on public highways and public bridges, higher tuitions at so-called public universities, higher admission fees at public parks and public museums. ever-h

Much of the rest of what s considered public has become so shoddy that those who can afford to find private alternatives. As public schools deteriorate, the upper-middle class and wealthy send their kids to private ones. As public pools and playgrounds decay, they buy memberships in private tennis and swimming clubs . As public hospitals decline, they pay premium rates for private care. Gated communities and office parks now come with their own manicured lawns and w alkways, security guards, and backup power systems. Why the decline of public institutions? The financial squeeze on government at a ll levels since 2008 explains only part of it. The slide really started more tha n three decades ago with so-called tax revolts by a middle class whose earnings had stopp ed advancing even though the economy continued to grow. Most still wanted good public services and institutions but could no longer affo rd the tab. Since then almost all the gains from growth have gone to the top. But as the upp er middle class and the rich began shifting to private institutions, they withdr ew political support for the public ones. In consequence, their marginal tax rates dropped setting off a vicious cycle of diminishing revenues and deteriorating quality, spurring more flight from public institutions. Tax revenues from corporations also dropped as big companies went global keeping their profits overseas and their tax bills to a minimum. Beyond all this is the reality that America no longer values public goods as we

did before. The great expansion of public institutions in America began in the early years o f 20th century when progressive reformers championed the idea that we all benefi t from public goods. Excellent schools, roads, parks, playgrounds, and transit s ystems would knit the new industrial society together, create better citizens, a nd generate widespread prosperity. Education, for example, was less a personal i nvestment than a public good improving the entire community and ultimately the n ation. In subsequent decades through the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold W ar this logic was expanded upon. Strong public institutions were seen as bulwark s against, in turn, mass poverty, fascism, and then communism. The public good w as palpable. We were very much a society bound together by mutual needs and comm on threats. (It was no coincidence that the greatest extensions of higher educat ion after World War II were the GI Bill and the National Defense Education Act, and the largest public works project in history called the National Defense Inte rstate Highway Act.) But in a post-Cold War America distended by global capital, distorted by concent rated income and wealth, undermined by unlimited campaign donations, and rocked by a wave of new immigrants easily cast by demagogues as them, the notion of the p ublic good has faded. Not even Democrats any longer use the phrase the public goo d. Public goods are now, at best, public investments. Public institutions have morp hed into public-private partnerships; or, for Republicans, simply vouchers. Mitt Romney s speaks derisively of what he contrast to his opportunity society. At he hasn t explained how ordinary Americans opportunities without good public schools, ds, and adequate health care. terms the Democrats entitlement society in least he still envisions a society. But will be able to take advantage of good affordable higher education, good roa

His entitlements are mostly a mirage anyway. Medicare is the only entitlement grow ing faster than the GDP but that s because the costs of health care are growing fa ster than the economy, and any attempt to turn Medicare into a voucher without e ither raising the voucher in tandem with those costs or somehow taming them wil l just reduce the elderly s access to health care. Social Security, for its part, hasn t contributed to the budget deficit; it s had surpluses for years. Other safety nets are in tatters. Unemployment insurance reaches just 40 percent of the jobless these days (largely because eligibility requires having had a st eady full-time job for a number of years rather than, as with most people, a str ing of jobs or part-time work). What could Mitt be talking about? Outside nding is down sharply as a percent of the local spending, and total public spending c research has dropped from 12 percent of t by 2011. of defense, domestic discretionary spe economy. Add in declines in state and on education, infrastructure, and basi GDP in the 1970s to less than 3 percen

Only in one respect is Romney right. America has created a whopping entitlement fo r the biggest Wall Street banks and their top executives who, unlike most of the rest of us, are no longer allowed to fail. They can also borrow from the Fed at almost no cost, then lend the money out at 3 to 6 percent. All told, Wall Street s entitlement is the biggest offered by the federal governme nt (even though it doesn t show up in the budget). And it s not even a public good. It s just private gain. We re losing public goods available to all, supported by the tax payments of all a

nd especially the better off. In its place we have private goods available to th e very rich, supported by the rest of us. Even Lady Thatcher would have been appalled. Read more posts on Robert Reich