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Best way to fix this is to get money out of politics. In order to do that, though, Americans must stop the infighting and start voting for and pushing those parties that have more of their interests at heart: Dems.
Dems are nowhere near what they should be, but we can collectively get them there if we stop the infighting and if other people stop voting against their own interests because they perceive that everyone else is getting something for free.
Sadly, our history dictates that times have to get very bad and for a long time before real changes are ever enacted. Since Bush and Co's financial crash we've not been doing well financially, but I predict that things need to get much worse before the proletariat of this nation get their acts together and figure out that we need to collectively push for change instead of worrying about who's gay, who's on welfare, and who's parent is illegal because they were looking for a better job opportunity.
Money out of politics... my two cents.
Disagree. While I'm leaning Democrat, as they're the lesser of two evil IMO, I think that all US citizens should vote independent. Two giant parties isn't working at all for any of us and I think we need to break it down to more-at least 3, hopefully 4, possibly 5, maybe even 6 or more-we need a greater variety of choice. I also believe in this in the business world-I hate big business because we have little freedom of choice. For example, I'd rather choose between 10 different competitors for a paper towel brand than just 2 or 3, and I'd rather do it knowing that the tax dollars go directly towards my city from a small business.
middle class is being destroyed by a crop of apples that have not ripened.
they cant retire bek they are raising their adult non working children and their grandbabies.
they have co signed for student loans and are slowly going down hill.
on the other hand the corporations have found they can manipulate banks to give easy credit instead of paying good wages.
the banks are de facto now supported and subsidized by the government. a horrible mistake but only the 2nd mistake. the first was forcing them to make bad loans.
the next big mistake is going to be strip business of the right to hire and fire.
So from the life story of just two people, we are to conclude that the middle class is being ruined?
The middle class is being ruined by their own stupid decision to elect people who continue to screw them over...and yet still feel proud of their stupid decision.
"Politics is the art of getting campaign donations from the rich and getting votes from the poor."
Neither party represents the "people" they only represent the "people with money" now. I would like to see a 3rd party rise perhaps a "labor party". I know it goes back to Karl Marx, but when the rich own all the means of production, you're only bargaining tool is your labor. Stop thier flow of money and watch how fast they listen.
The "middle class" is being pulled apart in the tug of war between the greedy rich and the greedy poor - each of whom have huge entitlement mentalities.
Agree 100%.
Quote:
Originally Posted by swgirl926
Couldn't have said it any better myself.
I've wondered if I was being hypocritical or inconsistent when I'd post complaining about the barrage of donation requests at work and at local businesses, and about people I know in dire straits that do nothing to better themselves, while at the same time being upset with the excesses of the super-rich. But, I've thought about it, and it's not whether the person is very rich or very poor that bothers me. It's, like you said, the entitlement, and the lack of character and concern for others that gets under my skin. Rich or poor, it's the people who abuse the good will and hard work of others for their own personal again that makes being in the middle class feel, as I've bluntly put it at times, like "the meat in a sh*t sandwich".
That's exactly what we are and I don't like where the middle class is headed at all. Our country will falter and fall with no middle class.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrGompers
Neither party represents the "people" they only represent the "people with money" now. I would like to see a 3rd party rise perhaps a "labor party". I know it goes back to Karl Marx, but when the rich own all the means of production, you're only bargaining tool is your labor. Stop thier flow of money and watch how fast they listen.
You are right. It's no longer 'we the people' that government serves but 'we the lobbyists'.
Give me a third party candidate that I can support and I will do so. Both parties need shaken up. The whole country needs a wake-up call.
The middle class is ruined by the poor. The middle class is constantly paying taxes on all of the social reform programs for the people who can't cut it in society. The ones who make poor decisions and the ones who feel the need to spend all their money. The middle class is not rich and is scraping by, but still smart enough to make wise decisions with their money.. which is keeping them middle class. However, the middle class see no benefits from the social programs, it's all for the poor. The tax cuts are for the rich. The middle class is just stuck in the middle and constantly screwed.
Bingo!
Also, it's the current administration's policies that are helping to erode the middle class--that'd be those older Americans who are generally conservative with their savings that, due to the Fed's artifically-low interest rates, are seeing their nest eggs eroded. Yet this president, whose philosophy has always been to redistribute wealth, continues to croak about "preserving the middle class." Hmmm....Gee, Mr. President. Maybe Americans don't want to be middle class. Maybe they want to be rich, like you.
Anyone who thinks that, in countries espousing the redistribution of wealth, everyone gets rich and everyone swam in the Yangtze with Chairman Mao, is smoking the wacky weed. Redistribution results in two classes: Rich and poor. The middle class move down, and that's a fact.
Middle class people are just as entitled as everybody else. They take tons of expensive freebies from the gov't everyday. Public schools. Medicare. Enormous tax breaks for things like having kids and a mortgage. So much so that many pay no income taxes at all, but insead get free money refunded to them every year. Welfare is not just for poor people anymore. The well off are obviously sucking everybody dry through shady economic manipulations, and the government is the only thing keeping the middle class afloat. Without all the government goodies, there would be no middle class.
If you have a few spare minutes today, or later in the week, this article that recently appeared in the New York Times Sunday Review is quite thought provoking. To me, it speaks eloquently about what's going on with Wall Street and the financial institutions in our country and shines a light on WHY things are they way they are with the American economy. But others may have a different opinion. It's called For the Love of Money and was written by Sam Polk, a former hedge fund trader. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/op...oney.html?_r=1
For a closer look at the blow-back from this phenomenon Mr. Polk describes, the following well-written first-person essay is from Huffington Post's ongoing series about people who are having trouble in our current economic climate. It's called I'm a Member of the American 'Used-to-Haves' and it was submitted by a resident of Massachusetts. I'm a Member of the American 'Used-to-Haves'*| Kathleen Ann
I'd be interested in C-Der's comments on those essays. Do you think America's middle class will survive if the 1% is allowed to run Wall Street with few restrictions? Is the growth of the Used-to-Have segment of our population a problem as you see it? Do you feel threatened by "wealth addicts"?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
I have no love of Wall Street, but I prefer to focus on how the middle class is screwing itself. We actually have control over that, and there's plenty of scope for improvement. The way the middle class is screwing itself:
--41% out of wedlock birth rate.
--40% divorce rate.
Those two things are financial killers.
Besides the family structure issue, this blog piece does a great job of covering the rest:
Furthermore, Americans complain about Wall Street, but how many still do business with the mega banks like B of A, Wells Fargo, Citibank, Chase, etc?
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Hmmm....Gee, Mr. President. Maybe Americans don't want to be middle class. Maybe they want to be rich, like you.
