Quote:
Originally Posted by 2e1m5a
Unfortunately, I think you may be right. My parents are Boomers and do not fit the mold but it's undeniable that Boomers in power allowed and probably sped up the disintegration of our country.
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Not possible.
You're incredibly weak in your math skills. The earliest Boomer would have been 35 and eligible to run for the senate or presidency in 1981.
Your country was already history by then.
You still had a chance to change things, but all power in the US is vested in the Bureaucracy. It is the Bureaucracy to makes policies and interprets the laws that are enacted by Congress (and paid for by unions, corporations, political action committees, special interest groups, think tanks and industry lobbyists).
So a policy-making bureaucrat that had been flying a desk for 30 years by 1995 was graduated from university when?
1965.
And born when? Before the Boomer Era.
Granted, the Boomers did nothing to change the policies that put you on the path to self-destruction, but it was not they who got the ball rolling.
What you don't understand, is that all roads lead to the same dead end.
Moral High Road: In the 1950s-1980s, invest heavily in 3rd World States; develop their infrastructure; help them extract and process natural resources; insist that US Corporations pay the taxes levied by the host State; stabilize their governments; provide guidance on social, economic and political issues. Those countries develop and compete against you,
and none of this exists......
Global competition would have kept downward pressure on wages and salaries and no one in the US would be making $48/hour working in a union shop, or even $38/hour, or even $28/hour. It would also have put upward pressure on the prices of all goods (and services).
Satanic Evil Road: In the 1950s-1980s, drop napalm; murder democratically elected heads-of-State in cold-blood; support puppet dictators; extract the natural resources and sell them for massive profits sharing none of the profits with the host State; oppress the people economically and force those countries to take on massive loans to build the infrastructure so that you can steal their resources and wealth more efficiently; allow your corporations to fraudulently devalue their assets below market value and real value to avoid paying royalties and taxes to the host State.
You have no global competition and so your wags and salaries sky-rocket to ridiculous and obscene levels, but then.....along comes BRIC (Brasil, Russia, India & China) who take the High Moral Road and develop the very countries that you oppressed. Now you have global competition, and your wages and salaries are stagnating or declining and you are losing jobs and increased demand and consumption is driving up the prices of goods (and services) and that will continue until there is a global equilibrium.
See?
No matter what happens, you arrive at the exact same end-point.
Whatever wages/salaries should have been, well, that's where they're going to be, and you cannot do anything about it (except rail against the system).
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2e1m5a
The Strauss-Howe generational theory is really interesting stuff....
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It's incredibly sloppy and cobbled together with a crow-bar.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2e1m5a
... but many of us have bigger, more revolutionary plans.
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Oh yeah? Are you going to act on those "revolutionary plans" before or after the US burns down, falls over and sinks into a swamp?
Pointing out the obvious...
Mircea
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gtownoe
A person makes $10 an hour. That's $400 weekly. After taxes in most states that's about $292. If it costs $70 to fill up each week that's nearly 25% of their income. 23% to be exact.
So in this scenario. The take home pay is $292. Subtract $70 and that leaves you with $222. Have a $600 rent payment? Subtract $150. That leaves you with $72. Need food and groceries? Well that's probably your remaining $72.
You haven't even calculated in insurance, unexpected expenses, or any luxuries.
That's what many Young Americans are facing these days even after working a full 40 hour work week.
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Well, my ass bleeds for you.
You people are just plain pathetic and weak. It makes me want to pray for a giant >X15 Class Solar Flare with a massive proton storm to send the US back into the Stone Age so Natural Selection can work its Majik.
You need to deflate your big heads and swallow a bit of pride. $600/month rent? Find a cheaper place. Do what Billions of people on Earth do and have done, and that is share living space with others. Use public transport, or move closer to work so you don't need a car.
When I left Romania to come back to the US to go to university, I got a job at the GAP for $10.25/hour. I rode the bus. I shared an apartment with 2 other people. We didn't have cable. We didn't have internet. We didn't have cell-phones. And I didn't use Student Loans to pay for tuition.
And I survived.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gtownoe
If you lost the auto industry then how does it still exist???
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It's just an expression, but to answer the question, for every auto plant that exists now, there were 8 in the past. We had 14 auto plants here in the Cincinnati area. Everyone of them is gone. Sure, Fisher Body did not make cars, but they did make the frames for cars. We aren't just talking about assembly-line facilities. We're talking the entire auto infrastructure, everything from transmission plants, to engine plants, to body plants to tires to parts, windows, interior, molding, frames, batteries, ignition systems, etc etc etc.
Amused...
Mircea
Quote:
Originally Posted by soulseoul
We aren't whining. We are telling you how things have changed and that it is not only us, but you that needs to understand those changes and how to respond to them.
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But nothing has changed, except that your ego-heads are over-inflated. You have outrageously unreal expectations. You erroneously believe that luxuries and amenities are necessities of life.
And that's why things are difficult for you:
because you make things way harder than they have to be.
In a heartbeat I could step into anyone of your shoes and do 1000x better than you're doing it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by soulseoul
It will be better, but in order for it to be better, the older generation must understand the new paradigm that exists.
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No, it will not be better, and if the "new paradigm" is "
I'm entitled to have a cell-phone and cable and Starsux and McDonald's and someone better cough up the money so I can have it" then you'll end up worse off than any 3rd World State.
Pragmatically...
Mircea
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