Quote of the Day (John Lanchester, on Education, Economics, and Democracy)

“It would be a disaster for democracy if this divide [by educational level] were to become permanently entrenched. Democracy depends on an informed electorate; it depends on argument, and that in turn depends on having enough in common to be able to argue. Bankers and the financial elite can’t just talk to each other as if nothing has changed; as if the little people are just going to accept that they can’t follow the big words, so the rich should just keep running things in their own interest. The experts need to set terms for the debate that everyone can understand. So yes, when it comes to economics, language matters.” —British journalist and novelist John Lanchester, “On Money: How Economic Gobbledygook Divides Us,” The New York Times Magazine, Nov. 6, 2016