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Or just anywhere that doesn't have a huge system to fakely equalize everyone.
Bc frankly, left to human nature, natural differences in abilities/ambition, etc, there is ALWAYS a dichotomy.
The root of the problem, is that someone has to own the means of production. And the means of production is most-efficient when there exists an "economy of scale". Basically, big-business tends to be more-efficient than small-business.
For example, imagine if there was X-amount of land and Y-amount of people.
While it is a nice thought to imagine the land being carved up into equal shares, but it would be far more efficient for most of the land to be owned by a handful of ambitious corporations, who would not only be the most-capable of maximizing production from that land(IE profit-maximization), but they would also have access to the resources necessary for capital-investment into better tools and machines.
If the land was carved up and handed to the "common people". A large fraction of them would produce barely enough to be self-sufficient, if they produced enough at all. So there would be almost no food surplus, and thus almost no industry/services.
An industrial economy requires income inequality. In fact, most trade is the byproduct of income-inequality. If everyone made the same amount of money, there would be far less trade.
Rich people buy goods and services from the middle-class. And the middle-class buys goods and services from the lower classes. Thus you want to continue pumping money in at the top(IE trickle-down), to keep this system going.
Moreover, the demand for the US dollar is based on the demand for US goods, and since the US dollar is worth so much, we can't sell low-end goods, so we depend primarily on the sale of luxury goods and technology.
To maintain America's preeminence in the area of technology, we want to keep an economy of scale for luxuries. So our government wants a large section of the population to be very wealthy, to continue buying our technology, even if it requires heavy subsidization of that demand.
Let us not even get started on the massive advantage that capital gives to those who already own it. As the saying goes "it takes money to make money".
Thus, not only does the system necessarily perpetuate income and wealthy-inequality, it requires income and wealth-inequality. In fact, we couldn't have civilization without hierarchy, and thus, inequality.
Of course the real question is, is civilization even good?
"A man who is without capital, and who, by prohibitions upon banking, is practically forbidden to hire any, is in a condition elevated but one degree above that of a chattel slave. He may live; but he can live only as the servant of others; compelled to perform such labor, and to perform it at such prices, as they may see fit to dictate." - Lysander Spooner
The reason they like Trump is because he's a complete throw back to the "Mad Men" era - a non PC, foul mouthed, bully. Because daddy gave him a company he never had to take Harassment, Inclusion or Sensitivity Training. He is what they wish they could be if they could somehow undo the 1970s, 80s, 90s, and 00s. Back when their own daddies whistled at women walking by in mini skirts and called black people the N word.
Most of Trump's supporters feel that the politician establishment has abandoned common people in favor of moneyed, connected, largely coastal elites.
I just did a search on Indeed and found 390 IT jobs currently listed in Knoxville metro paying $50k and up and 80 in manufacturing making $50k or up. I'm not disputing the fact that all people cannot make that much, have they ever? Anywhere? I'm disputing the fact that you said there are no "viable" jobs anywhere in TN except Nashville, and that they pay $10-15. These are the jobs available TODAY in just two employment sectors. The economy in Knoxville is doing just fine. Knoxville had 4.4% unemployment in August of 2016, and 4.6% for the state. That's lower than California (5.5%) or New York,(4.8%) and is fairly in the middle for the nation (21st out of 50) (source: unemployment-rates dot careertrends dot com/
How many listings were for the same job through a contracting company?
For my current job, as an IT contractor, 14 different companies contacted be about the listing, all of which ended up being the same job.
Every single one of those companies had that job advertised on Dice, Indeed, etc as well.
How many listings were for the same job through a contracting company?
For my current job, as an IT contractor, 14 different companies contacted be about the listing, all of which ended up being the same job.
Every single one of those companies had that job advertised on Dice, Indeed, etc as well.
This is another huge problem I forgot about. SAIC has a call center in Oak Ridge for IT support. You'll see numerous staffing agencies posting the same job. There may be five positions, but ten agencies competing for that business. It makes the amount of available jobs look higher than it really is.
Changing the subject somewhat, I am utterly baffled as to why the locals regard a billionaire real-estate developer and reality-TV host as a "man of the people", while mere millionaire engineering-managers and lawyers are "elitists". People evidently vote less along considerations of economics, than culture. The real divide, I contend, is less between the assembly-line worker and the medical-doctor, than between two workers on the same assembly line: one who is trying to teach himself French in his spare time, using tapes from the county library; who takes the long-distance bus to visit museums in New York City, and who is building his own library of classic novels from the $2 bin at the local used bookstore... vs. another, who took out a loan to buy a new Harley and a fishing-boat.
I would like to see people less divided in that way and more interested in different things rather than following a stereotype. I like bikes AND classic books, there's a whole world of cool stuff out there to learn and enjoy but people hide in their enclaves just doing what everyone around them is doing. There is snobbery and closed mindedness on *both* (Clinton v. Trump stereotype) sides, again, a divide, but it is encouraged by politicians and the media. It really brings out cultural stereotypes and -isms. It is difficult for a free thinking individual to navigate and have a place.
The biggest change from about 1990 is that manufacturing went away. I worked for an electronics company that dropped local employment from 3300 to 350 by moving manufacturing to Asia. The survivors were the design engineers and the supply chain management people. The manufacturing employees were fired. Today, most of them are either retired or they work in a low paying job such as retail.
What we are seeing today is the result of changes like that all over the country and world.
The manufacturing that still exists has been automated. There is a lumber mill not far from my house that is a mile long from end to end. It manufactures dimensional lumber, pressed board, chip board and pellet stove pellets, as well as exporting wood resins. It has a co-gen plant that runs on wood, and sells excess electricity to California. The big steam turbines never shut down, and it uses the waste heat to kiln dry lumber and press wood products. In the 1970s it employed 600 people. Today it employs 120, and produces higher value wood products.
When Reagan started giving away free federal timber, it drove lumber prices into the basement and all the small mills out of business. Oregon lost 25,000 family wage mill jobs during the height of the Reagan overcut. That was a serious blow to small rural communities. They have never recovered. If they couldn't afford to spend millions on automation, they couldn't compete. The result of course is that the jobs went away forever.
The National Zoo is in DC. Maybe you meant the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Just sayin'.
Typo combined with a brain fart. I know the zoo is in DC and have been there many a time over the years. It's in NW and not far from the Maryland line and we came back via DC, Maryland and DC and Maryland and DC and finally Virginia as the GPS did a wonderful job ducking traffic. Lot of nostalgia and a sense of why? What is the draw to live in some of DC and pay such high prices when there isn't much within walking distance. My answer was Metro bus and subway.
It's no secret the USA is full speed ahead to a 2 class society, as is much of the undeveloped world, and many nations with very corrupt governments.
Many of the rural retirees we help live on far less than $30k/ yr, and we are in a relatively expensive locale. It seems amazing to me that they have beeh retired on so little since the 1970's. They are very happy and well adjusted; & active in the community.
It is vastly easier to live on a modest retirement income for those who own an unmortgaged home, than for those paying market rent.
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