sigh . . . Then I guess there really will be a class war . . . The real thing, the full Monty (or the full Karl, whatever) . . .
It is if you have $25 to spend on a shirt, because you haven’t been laid off from your job at a retail store that had to compete with a new Wal-Mart.
If you mean we’re under the illusion that Americans deserve more prosperity than we get, I don’t think any “get over it” message is going to appeal to many voters, this year or any other. Nor is there any reason why it should.
Come on Sam, surely you can do better than cutting and pasting some hack article from the Heritage Foundation :
Are Heritage/you seriously expecting us to believe that business aren’t expanding or hiring because the government may pass some cap-and trade legislation that a. won’t take effect for years to come and b. will be a corporate giveaway anyway? It might not be because we’ve just had the biggest economic collapse in living memory and have massive overcapacity now anyway? Or because the banks still aren’t lending?
After the events of the last few years you’d think the guys who spent decades calling for less government regulation and massive tax cuts would at least have the good grace to keep quiet for a while but no, the same old crap over and over again. A sense of shame obviously isn’t something that burdens right wing nutjob think tanks.
And after the events of the last few years Heritage/you’re seriously arguing that less regulation is a good idea for American businesses? Christ on a bike.
It is a good idea for American businesses. Just not so much for the enviornment, workers’ rights, ignorant investors, etc.
Where the line gets drawn is what politics is all about, I suppose.
That’s the problem, of course. When things are good, the left urges politicians to share the wealth (through mostly permanent re-distribution programs). And when things are bad, they cry that this is the worst possible time to put people out of work, etc.
George Will did a column about this on Sunday
Any honest liberal would admit that this has been the US reality over the last few decades.
Reducing the jobless rate? Why would we do that? Full employment is Communist!!!1!
The other countries we trade with do protect their industries and jobs. China, India and many others have tariffs on foreign goods. They don’t allow foreigners to take jobs from their people either. They protect their production and their jobs. It is simply logical to take care of your homeland. But our corporations are so international that they don’t recognize America as anything special. We are just another market, that has too many environmental restrictions and the workers make too much money.
When our Engineering was going to India ,I thought I would check out working there. They made it plain that I was welcome if I was bringing work and hiring locals. But I could not take an Indian job. We don’t operate that way.
I’m amazed the right never seems to get this.
Income inequality is a major factor at work here. Republicans seem to have a “what’s mine is mine” mentality and how dare anyone take any of it away for something as quaint as equality. People need to work for what they get!
Thing is this income inequality is ultimately counterproductive. The rich get richer, everyone else is screwed. Taken to an extreme you end up with something like North Korean society.
Thing is, the rich get even richer still when the inequality is less. Yes, a greater percentage of rich guy’s money may be taken from him but a wealthier population overall can buy more stuff. Sometimes a lot of dimes can be more than a few dollars.
Evidence backs this up (bolding mine):
So there ya have it but despite this republicans just froth at the mouth to think some liberal will take their money for some do-gooder stuff even if they themselves make less money as a result.
IIRC there was a thread around here awhile ago where a conservative poster flat out stated they would rather make less money overall to be sure someone else did not get money from them they felt was undeserved.
Boggles the mind.
Ha-Joon Chang’s book has been highly praised by Nobel-Prize-Winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. Is he “far outside the mainstream” too?
You know, maybe this is an idea. We need to also cut 401K’s and healthcare benefits in the private sector as well. Think about it. This will relieve the burden on businesses, thus they’ll have more money to hire more workers. Are you in, IdahoMauleMan and other conservatives? Maybe it’s time to get congress to reduce workers benefits across the board, not just in the public sector.
If we all reduce the benefits owed us that will help with our prosperity!
Yeah, but they’re plenty stupid enough to opt for killing themselves on principle!
The only part of this that I object to is that both sides do this- they spend like crazy when times are good (on different things), then throw a fit when asked to tighten their belts when revenues drop.
It is refreshing to hear conservatives finally admit that the middle class life style is eroding alway and will never return just what liberals have known for decades. Some talk about economics like it was the laws of physics, this is baloney it was a series of decisions and strategies institute by elites in the business world to maximize profit at the top by using cheap labor overseas to realize huge profits at the top. I have no problem with free trade with nations at the same standard of living what you can not have is “free trade” with first world and third world nations.
Nonsense - nobody said this.
Unskilled labor has no future, and cannot be made into a highly-paid profession by protectionism or unions. The notion that this means the middle class is going to disappear is silly in the extreme. Standards of living are much higher now than they were during the heyday of labor in the USA, and the “disappearing” middle class is caused by people moving up into the upper middle class, and by the aging of the baby boomers as they entered their peak earning years.
There isn’t going to be a class war, Marxist fantasies notwithstanding. The fact that the huge majority in the US identifies with the middle class rules this out.
Regards,
Shodan
Interesting. IIRC a lot of Americans do view themselves as middle class while not actually being middle class.
The Human Poverty Index has the US ranked 17th in the world. Note the US has the highest probability on that list of not surviving to age 60 and the highest percentage of population below 50% of median income. Interestingly we have a better long-term unemployment rate than anyone else (i.e. fewer people unemployed for a long time). So, better employment yet the most below 50% median income.
Clearly other countries manage those things better so why the fatalism that the US cannot and things just are the way they are?
I’m absolutely in with that.
The government takes 15+% of the wages available in a employer-employee relationship right now (via FICA and Medicare taxes) to prop up bankrupt Social Security and Medicare Ponzi schemes. Supposedly for my own good…apparently I can’t be trusted to keep that money for myself and take care of myself.
And Obama wants more of that, by the way. A direct correlation to the OP. It will raise the cost of employment.
Let me negotiate with my employer for my share of those wages, and I’ll keep them and take care of myself at retirement. The government (meaning you) won’t owe me a dime.
That’s an outstanding idea. Thanks for bringing it up.
By the way, where do you think ‘401k’s and healthcare benefits’ that are attached to jobs come from? Where do you think that money comes from?
Historically, maybe, but I think that’s what the tea party movement is all about. An uncle who considers himself a member rails all the time about the need to reduce government spending. I think the ‘new crop’ of politicians (the Cantors, the Pence’s) are definitely making that their pitch.
Is there another Cantor and Pence you’re referring to of whom I’m not aware? 'Cuz the two currently in the House – having both served through the entirety of Bush 43 tenure – don’t really have a record that matches up with what you’re describing.
RWs often charge leftists, labor unions, and/or the poor with “envy,” that is, with basing their view of “social justice” on what others have compared with what they have. That’s as may be, but envy can take more than form, and this is another. (See Jesus’ parable about the laborers who object that the owner of the vinyard gives the same denarius to those who’ve worked all day and to those who arrived late.)