The Public Won't Take Yes for an Answer

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I think what's fundamentally going on, I think you're right that there is a natural tendency to look at pocketbook issues as the certar driving force. What's striking to me is at a time of incredible wealth, and again, you can debate whether how widely it's shared and the role of inequality. The public won't take yes for an answer. It seems to me to be, and it doesn't bode well for the future.

Author Martin Gurri, Visiting Fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center, talks about his book The Revolt of the Public with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Gurri argues that a digital tsunami--the increase in information that the web provides--has destabilized authority and many institutions. He talks about the amorphous nature of recent populist protest movements around the world and where we might be headed politically and culturally.