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Of course, the likely next president (Hillary) has been in bed with the 1% from the get go. She Loved the TPP before she had to slither to the left due to Bernie's pressure, but you can count on her slithering back to the right soon after election and we will see NAFTA cubed sometime around April, if not before the actual coronation. Nothing will have changed, because the oligarchs have succeeded. They provide bread and circus to the masses, who have dumbed down to the point that they don't even have the capacity to THINK about what's happening to them. I'm not talking about people that frequent Thoms blog and other alternative sources of information. I'm talking about the 97%. "Hey Marge, bring me another beer **buuurp**, and hurry up! You're missing America's Funniest Home Videos!"
Just move from this plutocracy. We had a slim, slim chance with Bernie and you see what happened. Money has always won out and always will. The Catholic Church did it for a thousand years. Keep the people ignorant and poor. That's the key to power.
The canyon which must be crossed in order to solve this problem was put there intentionally; Globalism. The U.S. is competing with the likes of Ireland and the Bahamas, who value being the corporate home to such a degree they literally give away tax revenue with which to run their country. Of course, this will come back to bite the corporations eventually, as their pursuit of new markets will be fruitless, while their old markets will have dried up, and their income tax rate will be the least of their problems.
Chuckle8-The minimum wage was never raised to the massive extent proposed in the Democratic platform. It was raised incrementally. A better solution would be to significantly increase the Earned Income Tax Credit. This is politically "do-able", would be limited to adult, head of household full time employees who are US citizens, and would not cost jobs. I firmly believe thats what everyone should be pushing for. Also for a COLA on the minimum wage so it won't continue to fall behind.
A BIG idea: start now with President Obama, then hand it over to the next president; an immediate requirement that all states engage communities in town hall meetings - nation-wide; attended by whites, blacks who will educated with their personal stories, how it is day-to-day for young men, fathers, mother, sisters and brothers. They would express their fears as parents, grandparents. We need to teach whites and police personnel what it is like to be the other. The whites and police will be the "student" audience.
If this is too grand, well then, come up with another method of getting this done.
Thank you, Lydia
Pat Paine -- You have ignored a few non-linear effects. Giving $3.9 trillion to people, who would spend it, would greatly increase our GDP. Currently, it has been computed that for each dollar given to welfare returns $1.67 of economic activity (GDP). Before all our trade "agreements", that dollar returned $3 to $4.
Tom D -- I agree with most of what you say. However, we have increased the minimum wage numerous times, and it has never had the effect you describe.
Cost of housing is going up much faster than income in Denver.
YES OF COURSE YOURE CORRECT BUT TRUMP IS AN UNKNOWN ??? ONLY TIME WILL TELL??
STEVE
GREAT REPLY TO THE ??? IF CLIMATE CHANGE DOESNT KILL THE HUMAN RACE AS IN THE PAST PERHAPS ALIENS WILL FIND A DEAD PLANET AS YOU SAY!??
STEVE
If the solution is not recognizing that the right to life requires access to basic neccessities, which civilization and their economies ( and governments ) areresponsible for providing, then grab a gun and start killing people, because natural law has built in programming for all "life" to survive and reproduce. It doesn't require "permission" and success is determined by doing.....civilization and governments interupted this process by promising something better than the "natural order"......and in 1776 it "declared" that to secure these rights, governments were instituted among men.
Bernie, did not think his positions through, because he is essentially thinking on infinite growth lines, but he also didn't suggest Harvard should be free, he said, state schools....like U Mass, UCLA, etc. Providing free education at every level, is both easy and cheap......since it can all be done digitally. This doesn't help Harvard, or the "permission to play" system, but it will educate those who desire it.
"Inclusive sustainability" is easily achieved.....providing all 330 million on the 2010 census with a $1000/mo basic income from cradle to grave would run 3.9 trillion, or about 22% of GDP......but obviously, this would be much lower......not all are citizens, nor would it be required by all.
Now, this program would only be needed for 30 to 35 years.....and since we are required to completely tranform "civilization" during this time frame....to a renewable energy and sustainable future, at every level, the economic stimulus to do so....as well as clear individual sustainable goals, will have no problem being successful.
Or we can keep doing might makes right....you choose?
Thom,
Why is it that when a caller starts bad-mouthing Hillary on your radio talkshow, they are, too often, almost completely censored by you shutting them out with a forced, almost pointless, rant? You do understand that, relative to your audience, this relieves Hillary of pressure don't you? Pressure that is absolutely needed if we're going to get her on the progressive side of many critical issues, i.e. TPP, revolving-door, climate change, and many others. Some of these callers probably have great points to make and sometimes it's healthy for people to be reminded of how fickle Hillary really can be and is. Perhaps you'e scared of a divisiveness that could lead to a Trump candidacy? Well if so, then I'm sorry you are letting fear get the best of you. If you truly want the democratic party back, you're going to need to change how you treat your Bernie callers. What you do to them really calls your judgement into question.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-most-progressive-democratic-...
Thom,
Why is it that when a caller starts bad-mouthing Hillary on your radio talkshow, they are, too often, almost completely censored by you shutting them out with a forced, almost pointless, rant? You do understand that, relative to your audience, this relieves Hillary of pressure don't you? Pressure that is absolutely needed if we're going to get her on the progressive side of many critical issues, i.e. TPP, revolving-door, climate change, and many others. Some of these callers probably have great points to make and sometimes it's healthy for people to be reminded of how fickle Hillary really can be and is. Perhaps you'e scared of a divisiveness that could lead to a Trump candidacy? Well if so, then I'm sorry you are letting fear get the best of you. If you truly want the democratic party back, you're going to need to change how you treat your Bernie callers. What you do to them really calls your judgement into question.
If you think the middle class is struggling now, just hope and pray that the Democratic platform endorsed $ 15.00 and hour minimum wage does not become a reality. The inflationary effects would be devastating to middle and upper middle class families, and would destroy the lives of seniors living on fixed incomes. Eight years of Obama have not been kind to the middle class. The Affordable Care act hurts middle/upper middle class workers who make too much for subsidies, and will hurt them even more if the Cadillac Tax on existing health care goes into effect. Obama turned his back on workers who wanted to unionize by not pushing for Card Check when he had a Democratic House and Senate. He pushed for fast track trade agreements that will harm US workers, and is willing to sacrifice coal and oil workers for the sake of windmills and other energy pipe dreams. If O'Bamas executive order allowing illegal immigrants to get work permits had not been put on hold, American workers in construction, manufacturing, transportation and other good paying jobs throughout the country would be further impacted by the wage reducing/displacement impact of illegal immigrants who could now work any job in the country (with a few exceptions), with the blessing of the government and the elimination of any stigma attached to hiring illegals. Our political leaders should focus on strategies that help the middle class, not further burden them downward redistribution of wealth schemes. While the "compassion" of a nation may be measured by the naive by how it treats its poor, the survival and well-being of a nation clearly depends on how well its middle class does. The last 16 years have harmed the middle class immensely, abetted by the absolute negligence of the last two administrations.
Queenbthatsme: "The days of excess are over"? ...Not for everyone. Paul Ryan was spotted recently polishing off two $350 bottles of wine. I'm not sure how much he shared? That's the same good ole Pauley who robs from the poor and middle class and gives to the rich!
Presently the days of excess for the top one percent are excessively well! In the United States we haven't seen this kind of income disparity since just before the Great Depression.
QueenB -- I searched the site of Gary H. I could not find anything relating to what Thom says. However, I only spent about 20 minutes. In the numbers I looked at Gary was quoting average incomes. How can a real economist not use medians?
The median wage of male workers has dropped (inflation adjusted) by $726 since 1973. The median wage of female workers has dropped $1154 since 2007.
It seems those numbers are why the middle class is losing members -- not single headed households or retiring.
#4 - I'd say the "better" half of humanity
No judgement... just an observation
They simply redefined their happiness parameters. Every generation has done this. The days of excess are over. Now the public live vicariously through the lifestyles and antics of the rich and famous, or like you said, live for experiences.
It is not that people do not wish to talk about the poor. It is that the solution cannot be handouts.
When the majority of a workforce is younger and traditional, you have a burgeoning middle class and can should read more viable social systems. When that majority is retiring, and the population has less viable workers, and more homes are broken up and headed by singles, you have decreased incomes, more poverty and as people retire, or divorce the incomes drop drastically.
Government assistance is not the answer because that assistance has to rely on worker incomes and a large portion of incomes are retirees.
My income will be reduced drastically in 3 years to almost 1/10 of what we have now (if I count savings being spent also)
The dominant population (including those of European descent in Europe) have a fertility problem. The Europeans entered a human pop decline in the 1990s, this has shut down entire villages and industries as the "workers " that the next generation relies on does not exist.
Ergo, less workers to take care of and finance elderly and handicapped subsistence.
When a person retires, most experience a huge shift in income as do those who divorce.
We can't afford to take care of, or handle huge amounts of the population needing government care and Europe and England (where I was born) know the socialism Americans want to embrace is in the long term, a FAILED model.
This is why many Nationalized services have become privatized now, including more private health insurance schemes.
Most Americans look to European socialist models and actually have NO IDEA of what they are trying to emulate or how it can be achieved.
1. You cannot have large socialist programs, and still have the adjunct industries to that program be private.
2. OBAMAS Healthcare program will fail. You cannot have private hospitals, surgeries and no regulated caps on Healthcare services and education expenditures and private education and capitalists Healthcare programs.
For socialism to work, top to bottom the programmes must be government controlled and regulated.
Bernie Sanders, idea of discussing the shrinkage was taxing more, then spending it on capitalistic ventures.
For instance, he wants free college education but the federal government does not cap the costs of universities, colleges or private schools.
With no cap, who will pay the 150k per year bill to go to Harvard? How does the Fed government enforce caps when it is each STATE that dispenses scholarships and the private sector who control costs.
Put another wsy..we are getting older, more dysfunctional, and our coffers are almost empty. CHOOSE 1: either we address the environment, bring in more labor like Europe to increase the payers of taxes and foot the bills for social security and helping the special needs....., federalize all education and cap salaries for ALL jobs as well as mandate a living wage and promotion/salary system, Police the world and have a lot of military presence, Control most industry, Fix the social programs in lieu of economic growth, or nah.
JUST 1...we cannot afford to do more than 1 and the 1 we choose might make all the rest impossible.
My husband is Dutch, so we used to live in Holland. We were required by LAW (even in the 1980s) to buy Rivage insurance for health as well as pay into the public one based on our income.
There is no free lunch, not even in socialism, and Bernie is an old time politician, offering bottomless handouts..but that purse has been almost empty since the Bush days.
I know several people in my age bracket - mid 30s - that have given up on even trying to make it into the middle class. They've adopted a "Tiny House" lifestyle. No kids. Tiny House. Dual income but dead-end jobs. Starbucks barristas is a popular one. Spend their extra money on "experiences".
They don't own cars. They use Uber. They don't rent hotels when they travel. They use Air BnB.
They may night be "middle class" in the traditional sense. But they're happy.
SusanMerc -- Obviously, Thom also speaks about it.
A lot of the shrinkage is natural. It is due to people retiring and making less as well as splitting up and making less. There is a correlation to the level of income, and single headed households. At present, over 65% of homes in the US have single households.
Often, 1 person, 1 paychevk= less income. When my husband retires, his SS will be around less than 1/8 our present income.
If we were to divorce, My income alone would push me into the lower classes and his would be great until he retired.
Tsultrim Melong, pornography is a non issue that dishonest politicians bring up to to distract people with superstitious fears, foment intolerance and divide the public as a wedge. Richard Nixon commissioned a group of scientists to study pornography and it's effects and decided beforehand what its findings were to be. He said he "will not accept any conclusions that suggest pornography laws should be liberalized".
That is, however, exactly what the commission concluded. They found virtually no harmfull effects from it even upon children but in any case did conclude, in concurrence with most, by far, of the American public of the period, that any adult should be able to look at or view any sexually explicit material they choose. Later an exception was carved out for child pornography so people below the legal age of consent could not be used in the production of pornography
Later still, that ban on use of minors was expanded to criminalize consumers of child pornography and not because we think it's disgusting but because the same logic was being applied to that as was being applied to the war on drugs of that time of criminalizing the users because, the logic goes, the users create the demand which is the reason for the practice in the first place.
The public's horror and revulsion toward child pornography was stoked for its usefulness in creating witch hunts and many a political dissident, e.g., Scott Ritter, the UNSCOM weapons inspector who debunked George Bush's insistence that Iraq was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction in 2003; the BP whistleblowers and so on, went to jail on some dubious convictions for the crime that some close to the cases swear were on planted, bogus evidence. Not only does it get the dissidents out of the way but discredits their characters and thus their dissent..
Reagan tried something similar as Nixon and had his absurd, conservative Attorney General, Edwin Meese, head up a commission to study pornography in an attempt to authoritatively and "scientifically" vilify it. This time they were slick, instead of scientists they stacked the commission with Christian, evangelical clerics and ministers whose conclusions were clearly set before they even began studying pornography and its effects (as a members of that comission, I suspect they'd been studying pornography on their own since they were little boys, like most everyone else). Only three appointees to the commission were social scientists and all three were women - so, I suppose, Meese expected them to support the foregone conclusions of the heavily biased other members of the commission. All three refused to put their names to the commission's findings and disavowed any support for them.
So pornography has long been a political football in the exploitation of the superstitious hysterias of the American public.
I've posting for a long time: "Where do you think the shrinking middle class is going?" They are going into the poor class. No one wants to talk about the poor except Bernie Sanders. It seems as though "poor" is a four-letter word to politicians.