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Families ar e moving away from large population centers as fast as they can. They are buying up old family farms with some fields, woods, a good water source and preferably on a dead end road. People want to buy a "bug out destination".
The opinions and actions of a few nutjobs do not amount to anything.
The urban % in the US currently stands at 81.6% and is climbing at a rate of ~1% every 5 years. It isn't the cities that are being abandoned, but rather the rural areas.
Somebody has to create jobs and money so you can sit at home and type.
Employment is about evenly divided between large and small firms, the dividing line being 500 employees or more to most purposes. Not all that small, really. Certainly not mom-and-pop small. And as many people as will claim small businesses to be some sort of "jobs engine", that many as well will omit mention of the fact that with their spectacular failure rates, they are the major driver of job loss and unemployment as well
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gtownoe
I actually don't disagree with you on some points. However, the Economy is not simply statistics. That's what many fail to understand. It's a Social Science. To truly understand what its like in an industry you need to be on the front lines seeing what's going on. Not sitting behind a computer screen simply compiling numbers.
Sounds like a special pleading to me. Those who can't talk a good game in the locker room are unlikely to be big-time producers on the field.
Sounds like a special pleading to me. Those who can't talk a good game in the locker room are unlikely to be big-time producers on the field.
Reynard32, it has been a long time since we talked last my fellow elite. I think the last time I chatted with you here you were under the following screen names (and probably have had 5-10 more since then):
Oaktonite, Fairlaker, VendorDud, and now Reynard32
You might be able to hide under different names, but the tone of us elites shines through like a beacon in the night sky. Bravo for championing the heroic efforts of out current financial system, the magnificent Federal Reserve system, and worshiping our prowess over the simpleton plebs.
Reynard32, it has been a long time since we talked last my fellow elite. I think the last time I chatted with you here you were under the following screen names (and probably have had 5-10 more since then):
Oaktonite, Fairlaker, VendorDud, and now Reynard32
You might be able to hide under different names, but the tone of us elites shines through like a beacon in the night sky. Bravo for championing the heroic efforts of out current financial system, the magnificent Federal Reserve system, and worshiping our prowess over the simpleton plebs.
The right-wing ideal is to shatter social cohesion in order to create chaos while replacing elected government leaders with appointed industry leaders. Then you monetize everything and run the show by maximizing profits for stockholders exclusively. Nobody else gets to participate at all. This is such a narrow vision however, that the right-wing has to use fear and other wedge issues to convince people to go against what are plainly their own best interests. Amazingly, there are enough dull people that this actually works from time to time.
It's not "shatter social cohesion", it's creating political dogma to get people to vote against their economic self-interest.
The strategic goal of the money behind the right wing is to slow down social democracy in the United States. The US has the lowest tax rate on the wealthy in the first world and the weakest safety net. They create distracting side issues to draw attention from that main strategic goal and pull in mouth-breathing social conservatives to vote against their economic interest. A 0.1%-er doesn't care about gun control or abortion rights or illegal immigration. A 0.1%-er wants no inheritance tax, very low taxes on passive income, and a cheap non-union labor supply.
As a 5%-er, I benefit from the 0.1%-er politics. My effective federal income tax rate is absurdly low by first world standards. In my good years, it's below 25%. In my average years, it's usually about 22%. Nobody likes paying more taxes than they have to but putting my tax rate back to pre-Dubya wouldn't change my life.
It's not "shatter social cohesion", it's creating political dogma to get people to vote against their economic self-interest.
The strategic goal of the money behind the right wing is to slow down social democracy in the United States. The US has the lowest tax rate on the wealthy in the first world and the weakest safety net. They create distracting side issues to draw attention from that main strategic goal and pull in mouth-breathing social conservatives to vote against their economic interest. A 0.1%-er doesn't care about gun control or abortion rights or illegal immigration. A 0.1%-er wants no inheritance tax, very low taxes on passive income, and a cheap non-union labor supply.
As a 5%-er, I benefit from the 0.1%-er politics. My effective federal income tax rate is absurdly low by first world standards. In my good years, it's below 25%. In my average years, it's usually about 22%. Nobody likes paying more taxes than they have to but putting my tax rate back to pre-Dubya wouldn't change my life.
No wonder you're in favor of illegal immigration. Everyone needs their servants, right, and how much better can it get than forcing the middle class to pay for their health insurance, food and housing needs so you don't have to?
Reynard32, it has been a long time since we talked last my fellow elite. I think the last time I chatted with you here you were under the following screen names (and probably have had 5-10 more since then): Oaktonite, Fairlaker, VendorDud, and now Reynard32
I'm sorry to learn that your history at C-D has been so painful. That's rather a lot of open, festering sores that you've pointed to, some of them apparently stretching back over many years. This can't be healthy.
Meanwhile, which other humiliated poster with nothing relevant or material to post did you say you were again?
Actually you don't. Only the top 0.1% has done better than productivity gains over the last 40 years. The concentration of wealth and income gains has been extreme.
It's not "shatter social cohesion", it's creating political dogma to get people to vote against their economic self-interest.
Six of one, half a dozen of the other.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GeoffD
As a 5%-er, I benefit from the 0.1%-er politics. My effective federal income tax rate is absurdly low by first world standards. In my good years, it's below 25%. In my average years, it's usually about 22%. Nobody likes paying more taxes than they have to but putting my tax rate back to pre-Dubya wouldn't change my life.
Tax cuts for the the rich were a terrible idea. They moved funds from those who spend money quickly in the real economy to those who diddle around with cash while deciding where to hide it away in the financial economy. That these tax cuts resulted in no economic stimulus (leading the Fed to freeze interest rates at 9/11 levels) was no surprise at all. We all know what dominoes fell after that one did.
And of course it's true way beyond the ability of most folks to comprehend that taxes simply don't affect the lifestyles of the even marginally wealthy. There were of course plenty of rich people running around during the Clinton years, and there would be still if upper income taxes were increased again today. It's not like these people are actually "job creators" that we need to treat with kid gloves. What a load of rubbish that is. Jobs are created by demand, most of which comes from the ranks of the middle-class.
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