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When more and more people rely upon government for a living, then the obvious result is that those who do not rely upon government can and will earn more. The bottom gets poorer, the top gets richer.
Your 2nd graph proves this to be true. More and more on the bottom, remaining relatively flat, leaves more and more money for everyone else. There is more money in circulation now than before, so where else would it go?
So how do you explain stagnant WAGES and the persistent existence of the working poor?
Re-locating local employment and businesses whilst investing money abroad helps the citizens that vote for you how?
And the Capitalist beacon of enlightenment, Hong Kong, has more socialist principles than any country in Europe. Apart from the luxury of sitting next to booming China, the State owns all the land, and leases it to businesses and corporations at very high rents.
50% of the country live in subsidised housing, the country controls the housing market, releasing property at a slow rate to maximise profits and the only reason the taxes are so low is because the State draws in the majority of its income from the land and property it owns. And, it doesn't have to subsidise an army.
Well, it looks to me like we are heading towards a revolution. Seriously, if the rich keep aggregating wealth and undermining programs meant to improve the life quality for their fellow citizens, it is just a matter of time. Middle class wages, national parks, social security, medicare, etc. were a grand compromise of the 20th century, and I think they worked pretty well. They were created by a social contract within the private and government sectors working toward creating the finest country in the world, where workers could earn enough to afford a home, a car, a public education for the kids,etc. There was generosity and optimism in our future. The rich were not suffering then by any means in the middle of last centry, but since 1980, it appears we decided somehow that they were. The net result is that your typical worker feels trapped, abandoned, and with his prospects declining, and he is right. The right wing zealots like to pretend that all citizens can be entrepreneurs and make millions in the markets,etc. Truth is, we have always been dominated by unskilled and skilled laborers, and their star has fallen. Some of it is unboubtedly global competition, but some of it is that their fellow citizens do not care much about them anymore.
It is in the rich's best interest to strike a bargain, but if they refuse to, they deserve what they will assuredly get.
Last edited by Fiddlehead; 07-25-2011 at 12:05 PM..
So how do you explain stagnant WAGES and the persistent existence of the working poor?
Because the rich want it that way.
Anecdotally, there is much truth to *many* of the higher paid among us wanting to keep the lower-wage people at that end of the economic spectrum.
Before I had a paying job, I was self-employed and made substantial real estate investments which have kept me going all these years. Among them was my home. I eventually worked for the most prestigious firm in my city where salaries were enormous for the partners. Twice I asked advice on tax or investment issues from two men. In both cases, when discussion of the value of my home or retirement account were mentioned, the astonishment was palpable that I, a lowly employee, would have assets this size. There are plenty of people in my income category who have far more money than I, but in the eyes of these people, their employees were on the bottom rung economically and socially and apparently shouldn't have anything. One of these men wanted to know where my house was located that it was so expensive, and the other surprised at the cash in the retirement account. I am very good at reading people. Both of these guys clearly resented my modest 'success' even though their incomes were ten times mine. Those two experiences removed the rose-colored glasses permanently.
Indeed, the rich are not in the business of giving a hand to those who work for them if they can help it. It's always been them vs. us.
Well, it looks to me like we are heading towards a revolution. Seriously, if the rich keep aggregating wealth and undermining programs mean to improve the life quality for their fellow citizens, it is just a matter of time. Middle class wages were a grand compromise of the 20th century, and I think they worked pretty well. They were created by a social contract within the private and government sectors, whereby workers could earn enough to afford a home, a car, a public education for the kids,etc. The rich were not suffering then by any means in the middle of last centry, but since 1980, it appears we decided somehow that they were.
It is in their best interest to strike a bargain, but if they refuse to, they deserve what they will get.
And what kind of social contract should I have...if i accumulate to much money I should hand it back to the Govt so it can be redistributed? What does suffering hvae to do with it? You have as much opportunity as I had...and if I work hard, sacrifice, get multiple degrees, move around the country from job to job to beter myself, and after many yrs get ahead of the average person you would expect me to give back to common good with my income....no thanks, I will pass...worked too hard for that...
(Reuters) - The sluggish pace of hiring may be hobbling the U.S. economy, but it's not been holding back big U.S. companies' profits thanks to growth overseas and cost controls at home. And that's bad news for the more than 14 million Americans without jobs.
Big businesses would normally be desperate for surging job growth as it would feed into domestic demand but these aren't normal times. Massive growth opportunities overseas, especially in China and other buoyant Asian economies, have some of the largest American companies on track for record profits, even if they're businesses are mostly treading water in the U.S.
The message last week from the chief financial officer of one of the nation's industrial giants couldn't be clearer.
"We've driven all this cost out. Sales have come back, but people have not," said Greg Hayes, chief financial officer at United Technologies Corp. "It's the structural cost reductions that we have done over the past few years that have allowed us to see strong bottom-line results.
The company, the world's largest maker of air conditioners and elevators, said second-quarter profit rose 19 percent, and it is doing most of its hiring in emerging markets where demand for its products is growing fastest.
I don't know why Americans don't understand this corporations are telling you all the time:
WE DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT HIRING AMERICAN WORKERS. EMERGING MARKETS ARE WHERE THE MONEY IS AT AND WE LOVE THE LOW COST LABOR.
F**K YOU!
SIGN THE CEO'S AND EXECUTIVES OF AMERICA!
Your critique in that excellent post was that the Republicans are selling a society that is so grotesquely unbalanced that it will collapse.
You also accuse the Democrats of being spineless. I agree. Now, do you think Obama should allow us to go into default if the Rs will not allow any increases in revenue? It seems like once again the Republicans are going for a big coup in slashing the government while protecting ridiculously low tax rates.
How should they be opposed? Just curious.
It looks like Ds are going to cave, but it will just push us one step further on the inequality scale you describe.
I don't know why Americans don't understand this corporations are telling you all the time:
WE DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT HIRING AMERICAN WORKERS. EMERGING MARKETS ARE WHERE THE MONEY IS AT AND WE LOVE THE LOW COST LABOR.
F**K YOU! SIGN THE CEO'S OF AMERICA!
Yep, I think we are now run by a bunch of mafia bosses. Obama is going to wake up to a horse head in his bed sometime this week...
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