Title: Life in the 90's | America Magazine
Headings: Life in the 90's
Life in the 90's
Content: Beginning with the historic 1990 U.S. Census, which documented the effects of immigration reform in 1965, we learned that the United States is well on its way to becoming a multicultural society in ways few foresaw in the 1980’s. Indeed, the national conversation about diversity and multiculturalism dominated the decade and surely set the stage for one of the next century’s great national dramas. Life in the 90’s approached life in the 20’s in terms of its affluence, its contempt for politics, its fear of anything serious and its weak or irrelevant leadership. To say the decade was about money, of course, hardly distinguishes it from many American decades, including the 1980’s. But in the 90’s we at least could see what all the new money was creating: infamous technology! Remember, one of the criticisms of the 1980’s boom was that the great riches went to those—lawyers, takeover kings, mergers and acquisitions specialists—who created nothing but paper and who, in fact, facilitated the loss of American industrial jobs. The 90’s were quite different in that regard, and even a Luddite like myself must admit as much. It’s an open question how much of that 90’s money went to the poor and the middle class, but I suspect they benefitted more than some critics say, and less than some commercial cheerleaders insist. The middle class has a way of making its discontent known, and there have been few signs that they believe the great boom has passed them by.