President George W. Bush spent years promoting an ``ownership society,'' the idea that Americans should own everything from homes to the assets needed to pay for their own health care and retirement. Now the weakening U.S. economy is exposing the dark side of that dream.
By Brendan Murray
March 21 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush spent years promoting an ``ownership society,'' the idea that Americans should own everything from homes to the assets needed to pay for their own health care and retirement. Now the weakening U.S. economy is exposing the dark side of that dream.
The president's sales pitch for the ownership concept is being dialed back as housing prices fall, foreclosures reach record levels and U.S. stock markets shed more than $700 billion in market value over the past month. Bush, who mentioned the term three dozen times in 2004, has mentioned it only once this year.
The ownership concept was the glue that bound together Bush's domestic agenda. While the president remains committed to the idea that giving individuals more of a stake in society reduces their reliance on paternalistic government, it's a tough sell when people are fearful that their finances may be eroding.
``A lot of people who promote ownership societies have kind of a glib optimism about human nature,'' said Robert Shiller, an economist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and the author of the book ``Irrational Exuberance.'' ``We have to be realistic'' about investment risks, Shiller said.
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