Every schoolchild learns that the European settlers who came to North America in the early 17th century fell into two distinct groups: those pursuing freedom from religious persecution and those seeking to make a fortune in the tobacco and fur trades. Remarkably, these very different factions managed to collaborate in founding what would become the wealthiest and most benevolent nation in history, a country in which the seemingly incompatible priorities of God and gold never ceased to play formative and mutually supportive roles.
It is in light of this history that the nearly decade-long aftermath of the 2007 financial crisis seems so disturbing. It is not merely that the recovery has been painfully slow or that the benefits seem to have been distributed disproportionately to the owners of paper assets. Nestled among recent and seemingly optimistic unemployment statistics are clear indications that both the most ambitious and the most religious Americans have soured on the country their like-minded predecessors together created.
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