Charles Murray’s new book Coming Apart has generated an
incredible amount of hand-wringing on all sides. For those who
are skilled at ignoring such debates — good impulse, I say! —
his thesis is that the ebb and flow of wealth and status between
classes that once characterized American culture has ended.
Is that really true anymore? Murray says no.  But why is it not
true, what does it all mean and what are we to do about it? This
is what the debate is about. To the left, the answer about what
to do is completely obvious. We need massive government programs
to boost the lowers, and we need new taxes and punishments to
whack the uppers good and hard. Never mind that the programs for
the lowers don’t work and the punishments on the rich end up
only bolstering a new government elite that lords it over
everyone.    No thanks on this Stalinist plan. The right is just
like the left in this sense: If there is a national problem, it
needs a solution imposed by force. The left favors looting
people, whereas the rig