Bad_Mr_Tree Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 Indeed. Needless to say, home ownership has never been any sort of golden ideal for me. The massive waste of resources, time and energy to create single family homes could have been spent in a dozen other ways to benefit us all. Link to post Share on other sites
Tanwen Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 After fighting a war to free yourself of such a society, it seems you've reverted to the English way after all. Here, it's always been the rich and the rest of us. Link to post Share on other sites
coyote55 Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 The good news is the crisis can still be averted. Stiglitz claims that better education and nutrition for the country’s poor can help even out the playing field. Likewise, fighting monopolistic corporations and ending corporate welfare regulations would help to increase wages. Personally, I'm afraid it's going to take more than this. As long as major corporations can avoid responsibility by chasing cheap labor and lax regulatory environments anywhere around the globe, any attempt to even things out is going to be difficult. The only way I can see to put a stop to it is to instigate global (or at least multinational) labor unions, which could put the brakes on this race to the bottom for wages.... but I confess I see no way those can take root with the world as it is. Link to post Share on other sites
Zerο Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 It's not impossible, but I do agree it's a struggle. Link to post Share on other sites
SorryNotSorry Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 The Thug class (paid to protect The Powers That Be from crude attacks by the peasantry) will likely be caught up in the middle and end up having to take sides. Not a pretty picture. Link to post Share on other sites
AshenPhoenix Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 I don't think it's impossible. I think for the most part the American dream has been overhyped, a lot of the time, it boils down to people wanting... A chance... Any chance, no matter how small, It's not dead, people just expect more now. Originally, the idea of the american dream was loved almost worldwide. Because in those times, when America was the first (or the most matured of many small budding) free and/or democratic countries, people who came from caste or social class based societies fell in love with the idea that your innate, human value was not determined by your birth. Yeah, you may have a crapshoot of a chance, but at least it's a chance, much better than a peasant from China or a Irish worker would've gotten from their home countries back in the day. Since then, it's seemed to turn into this idealistic "You can do anything if you set your mind to it" type deal, which should obviously be a lie. That's like how all parents tell their children they can be the president if they want to, of course if that were true, we'd have a hell of a lot harder time decided who of the 400 people in office should be swearing in today. Originally, the American dream was that anyone who came here was their own person, free to succeed, or fail, on their own. Hard work DOES still go a long way, but I agree, it's been much diminished in recent generations, and doesn't do nearly as much as it used to be able to. But social classes, and yes, even potentially the chances of children, shouldn't really have changed. I mean, if anything it oughta be better, the social gap (while still freaking huge) is much lessened in recent years, look at the 20's! That being said, I can also see the opposite reasoning, given that now many businesses have moved into a almost "dynasty" like structure, where now instead of bright eyed and bushy tailed new competitors arising, it's more about passing the company onto your next best groomed protege. So I'm not entirely sure where I sit on the idea of the American dream. Link to post Share on other sites
Nevyn Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 I find John Oliver to usually be spot on. Link to post Share on other sites
Bad_Mr_Tree Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 As long as major corporations can avoid responsibility by chasing cheap labor and lax regulatory environments anywhere around the globe, any attempt to even things out is going to be difficult. I agree, but we do ourselves a disservice when we talk about corporations and not their owners. Nearly all equity in these leading profit maximizers belong in the hands or is managed by the top 0.1%. Ever notice how the greatest trend of late has been to buy back stock or pay dividends to all those shareholders who worked so hard to make wealth... and it gets trumpeted as a "great thing" for us all to cheer! "Look ma, wealth inequality is growing! The rent seeking class has made an even greater killing!" Link to post Share on other sites
natsume Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 The war on the poor and the evaporating middle class is just beginning. As the government slashes welfare and the ACA creates medicaid funding problems the senate moves on the final front.. welfare qualification. The USA has a ridiculous poverty level line which under European union standards is considered extreme poverty. The Senate is now trying to raise the federal minimum wage to 12 dollars an hour. Sounds great! Right? Except... they are not moving the federal poverty line. So it will push millions over the artificial poverty line. So in exchange for making an extra 300-400 dollars per month you will lose your subsidised housing and food. Can you buy housing and food for 400 dollars a month? This is an effort to massively cut the budget by slashing the number of people who qualify for government assistance. But it's great for 16 year olds (our government refuses to set an over 20 minimum wage at the federal level like other countries as well). Link to post Share on other sites
SorryNotSorry Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 One of my lingering fears is if the shit ever did hit the fan in this country, I'd probably get some sort of draft notice ordering me to report to Mr. Rich's Thug Force to help defend him from the revolting peasants---or else. Link to post Share on other sites
Calligraphette_Coe Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 rent seeking class Ah, the magic words. That which the 'Young Turks' become given enough power, time and money. Yet, these same people pay lip service to enterprenuers as they scheme to make the enterprenuers service *them*. By being pigs feeding at the government corporate welfare troughs, even as they seek to enslave the innovators by doing all they can to stifle a meritocracy that would threaten, most of all, them. Rentseekers will never have enough money, and they never seem to get any joy out of creating wealth for *other* people. I often think of it as economic narcissism. I still love the way Ambrose Bierce put it in the Devil's Dictionary over a century ago: Politics, n., A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage. I nearly misspelled 'private' as 'pirate'...... Link to post Share on other sites
Skycaptain Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 Politics is the second oldest profession, it has a lot in common with the oldest Link to post Share on other sites
Zerο Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 Politics is the second oldest profession, it has a lot in common with the oldest Yeah, but it's less dishonest. Link to post Share on other sites
allrightalready Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 this is historically true of all nations/states, any hierarchical system will eventually result in the concentration of nearly everything in the hands of a few and the use/slavery/abuse of the majority at the bottom with a number scrabbling for scraps to be the middle/ bo betweens/enablers Link to post Share on other sites
lapat67 Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 Well, sure, allrightalready, but given that it has happened so many times before, with disastrous consequences every time (http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/deindustrial-reading-list.html), maybe we could learn from our mistakes and do better this time? Link to post Share on other sites
Vestal Posted May 21, 2015 Author Share Posted May 21, 2015 Deleted Link to post Share on other sites
Nevyn Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 The why is pretty simple. In the US corporations fund lobbys whose sole purpose is to throw enough money around so that politicians vote the way the lobbyists and by extension the corporations want. That has created the situation where the more money you have the more attention you get from politicians. The lobbyists claim this is fair because if the people cared enough they'd pool enough money to bend the ears of congress themselves, give them rides back and forth in their private aircraft and give them free access to all the best hotels and restaurants just like the lobbys do. Link to post Share on other sites
SorryNotSorry Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 "We have to re-write the rules" to tackle economic inequality.Mr Stiglitz has just retweeted this.He explains why he thinks the gap between rich and poor has grown so wide: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02rbvv6 B-b-b-but---if we take issue with the rules or the way they're made, God will ram lightning up our butts!!! Or so we've been brainwashed into believing here in the US. In The End Is Near And It's Going To Be Awesome, Kevin Williamson points out America's rule-of-law-gone-too-far and pokes fun at it. Link to post Share on other sites
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