Are we going "backwards" to an 1800's-style 99% poor/1% rich society?? (wages, healthcare)

[UbbyJuice]

Interesting article about the unusual "choices" the working class are being forced to make in 2017 as the economy, cost of living, etc keeps getting worse and worse:

TheGuardian: Poverty 'driving people to choose between eating or keeping clean'

It seems we are going "backwards" in this country, it seems once most of the population is poor or has no money, it's all downhill on the slippery slope to 3rd world status. Once enough people are broke or poor, it seems the "engine" of capitalism sputters and stalls out (as spending is the "fuel"). And it's even worse this time around with the prospect of robots/automation on the horizon, on TOP of the much larger (and still growing) human population.

It's eerily/strangely reminiscent of the old crony-capitalist "robber-baron era" from pre-1900's times, are we going "full circle"?
Think about how things were back then:

- most of the population poor or servants of the rich
- kids having to work to help the household make ends meet (this one probably "coming back" soon)
- no future, no "upward" mobility, no hope to advance economically... you're born poor, you die poor
- most of the population "renting" from the rich, living in subpar housing, etc
- no unions, no safety/sanitation rules, no consumer protections, no regulation
- low/flat wages, crappy jobs, and no job security at all
- no safety nets at all, you work til' you die or hope your kids watch after you
- no healthcare, if you got hurt/sick you were out of work and thus SOL
- a tiny % of rich own it all, own everything, have all the power, etc
- previously "essential" items such as cars, hygiene products, medicine, food, etc increasingly becoming a "luxury" (as the article details )
- cronyism and corruption rule the day, "pay for play" shamelessly out in the open for all to see

Of course, Trump and his right-winger supporters don't have a problem with any of this, they in-fact favor the rich over their fellow working poor and middle-classers. They're so cold/uncaring they don't even want their fellow Americans to have a living wage (forcing those low-wage workers to subsidize their $8/hr jobs with welfare, rent vouchers, food stamps, etc). They are also anti-consumer, as evidenced by the likes of Betsy Davos and that Indian tech dude that Trump put in charge of the FCC. "Great again"?? Or is it more like "poor again"?

[nononsenseguy]

Actually it's "progressivism" that is taking us backward. Socialism was once a thing of the past. The "progressives" are trying to restore it.

[UbbyJuice]

Originally Posted by nononsenseguy

Actually it's "progressivism" that is taking us backward. Socialism was once a thing of the past. The "progressives" are trying to restore it.

Nice try, but false.

[sandsthetime]

Originally Posted by nononsenseguy

Actually it's "progressivism" that is taking us backward. Socialism was once a thing of the past. The "progressives" are trying to restore it.

In the end, they’re all Wall Street. The right sells the public on less government, which is less regulation and law enforcement for the rich, while selling the working class stiffs on an illusion of personal responsibility and self-made riches that could be theirs if only the gov’mint didn’t get in the way. The left sells the public on “personal freedom”, incluidng the right to get rich, all the while knowing that the rich can do what they want to anyway.

So, both sides play everyone against the middle. Until we develop a new vision of a society—and social obligations—we’ll be stuck here until something breaks.

[Dane_in_LA]

Well, yes. The 1% are forming dynasties and they are the constituency being served by the current government. Looks like the US having a thriving middle class will come to be considered a historical aberration that lasted a few decades.

[UbbyJuice]

Originally Posted by Dane_in_LA

Well, yes. The 1% are forming dynasties and they are the constituency being served by the current government. Looks like the US having a thriving middle class will come to be considered a historical aberration that lasted a few decades.

Pretty much what you said ("dynasties"/fuedalism seem to be coming back), i imagine in the not-to-distant future historians will look back on the "middle class" with curiosity, it will end up being just something you read about in history books like the wooly mammoth

[Mtnluver8956]

I think Trump would love to see people starving and struggling.....

[BruSan]

Originally Posted by nononsenseguy

Actually it's "progressivism" that is taking us backward. Socialism was once a thing of the past. The "progressives" are trying to restore it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2y8Sx4B2Sk

It used to be the word "communism" that frightened the pants off Americans...tsk, tsk.

[10 2 4]

Originally Posted by UbbyJuice

Nice try, but false.

His was a nice try and he is absolutely correct. You are the one that is, well...., incorrect.

[T0103E]

So you're telling me the continuous rise of statism hasn't helped, and things are actually getting worse? I bet more state control will do the trick! /sarcasm

It's so frustrating for anyone who believes in individual liberty and laissez faire. You watch all this news about new regulations, new laws, new barriers for employers and employees, terrible economic and monetary policy, and all of these things (from both R's and D's) that are completely opposite of what we advocate, and then when things keep getting worse as predicted, the things we support take the blame and the same garbage continues. I'm just speechless when capitalism or free markets are blamed for anything these days.

My biggest annoyance the past few years...
"If you don't want big business, lobbyists, and politically connected cronies rigging things in their favor, don't let the government have that much power to give them in the first place"
*Ignores it* *Cronies continue to screw the general public*
"We need more regulations to stop them from doing that!"
"Except they're the ones writing and influencing the new regulations anyway! Get the government out of it and they have no special advantages!"
*Ignores it*
"See, this is what you get with unfettered capitalism..."