What happened to America?

[Velokid1]

The Limping Middle Class. Really nicely written piece answering the question, "what happened to America?" and even has a nice optimistic ending.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/opini ... l?_r=1&hpw

[Sylvester]

We might have enlarged safety nets — by having unemployment insurance cover part-time work, by giving transition assistance to move to new jobs in new locations, by creating insurance for communities that lost a major employer. And we could have made Medicare available to anyone.

My in-laws go round and round with this stuff. Part of the every man for himself thinking.

[thesamwise4]

Good read. Thanks for posting, Velokid1. I do appreciate that the author is willing to not only suggest a way to get out of the quagmire, he is also able to do so with a kind of optimism. The problem is that it's just so hard to believe that the way things are can change, especially when you see stuff like this...

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02 ... hart-graph


This is a related piece that made the rounds a few months ago. It addresses the same issues, in brightly colored graphs (fun!). It may have been posted here before.


The information contained here..it's just...I don't have the words. It is so, so hard to not become completely disenfranchised.

[Cindy]

"Transition assistance."

If such a thing existed, I would be a 7th grade teacher in Phoenix right now. The job was offered to me last Saturday, but I couldn't afford the move. And so I help contribute to the unemployment rate instead.

Cindy

[steve74baywin]

I found this to be interesting from the above posted article.

THE real reason for America’s Great Regression was political. As income and wealth became more concentrated in fewer hands, American politics reverted to what Marriner S. Eccles, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve, described in the 1920s, when people “with great economic power had an undue influence in making the rules of the economic game.” With hefty campaign contributions and platoons of lobbyists and public relations spinners, America’s executive class has gained lower tax rates while resisting reforms that would spread the gains from growth.

A major start to all this is in 1913 with the start of the Federal Reserve Bank, and in the 70's when we got off the gold standard. This devaluing of the dollar is a major part. But as the writer mentions, in the 1920's people with money had an undue influence in making the economic rules. That points to the start of using the government to do more than it originally was supposed to do. This violation is the start of the problem. That is why I say we need to go back and make corrections instead of trying to compete with the money people to make the government do what we want. The government isn't supposed to be the controllers or regulators of the economy in a free country.
In other words, we do have an "economic game" in this country. We never should have let one be created. We should have a true, natural supply and demand game. The super wealthy are the ones that first got the gov to be a tool for their advantage, rather than us trying to make changes in the game they created we need to end the game they created.

[Bleyseng]

"But starting in the late 1970s, and with increasing fervor over the next three decades, government did just the opposite. It deregulated and privatized. It cut spending on infrastructure as a percentage of the national economy and shifted more of the costs of public higher education to families. It shredded safety nets. (Only 27 percent of the unemployed are covered by unemployment insurance.) And it allowed companies to bust unions and threaten employees who tried to organize. Fewer than 8 percent of private-sector workers are unionized."
Yes, I watched it happen as Reagan, Bush, and Bush beat back the laws , cut taxes on the poor rich and said this is "Trickle down Economics" or rather "Piss on everybody else Economics".
Europe has it right with their "Oh my God, Socialism!" Try to fire someone in Europe, its tough to do "IF" they are doing their job so there is job security instead of this massive layoffs the USA has had. Instead of cutting employees to keep the bottomline in the Black, CEO's could take a paycut. If all the 20 million unemployed still had a job the "Recovery" would be in full swing due to their purchasing power.

[Lanval]

If you liked the "limping middle class" you'll love this:

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com ... k-robbery/

I'm going into banking.

Mike

[hambone]

1,000 colors of slavery, what could change it? Will it ever change? Is utopia realistic? Is this horrible pain somehow cathartic?
I just don't see how humble humans caught in a cog can ever muster enough force to alter the flow of the perceived universe.

[Cindy]

Instead of cutting employees to keep the bottomline in the Black, CEO's could take a paycut.

Last weekend I watched the movie Company Men. In one scene, the CEO is considering another round of lay-offs because profits have been down. He's giving his right-hand man, Tommy Lee Jones, his long list of justifications. But Jones points to the art on the guy's office wall and says, "Just sell the f*&^% Degas." That says it ALL.



Cindy

[Velokid1]

1,000 colors of slavery, what could change it?  Will it ever change?  Is utopia realistic?  Is this horrible pain somehow cathartic?
I just don't see how humble humans caught in a cog can ever muster enough force to alter the flow of the perceived universe.

It feels that way but I do think that many times perception (of reality, possibilities, priorities) is THE one thing standing between the way it is and the way it could be. Changes in perception and perspective can be like a light switch. Click, and things suddenly change. It's true on a personal level and true of mass movements or shifts within a community. Of course it's foolish to expect certain perpetual realities to change or disappear. This life is conditional. Even a monumental change in perceptions or attitudes etc won't relieve us of our need for oxygen, for example. And you will likely never remove things like greed from the human condition either.