This is an audio long read of a Long View column of mine, "The end of social mobility," published on February 26, 2009 in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. For the sake of context, I've included the first four paragraphs from a previous column, "Permanently poor," published on February 22, 2009. I ventured a thesis I have returned to time and again, since then: the implications of the rise of a "new" middle class, and the inability of our political system to reform itself. So it was in this piece, from 2009, that I suggested the restoration of the Marcoses was not just a possibility, but an increasing probability.