Today, over half of all American families live paycheck to paycheck. Unemployment is rampant and those that do actually have jobs are finding that their wages are rising much more slowly than prices are.Read the whole thing and if you still "hope" that things will "change" for the better then please explain it to me.
Solomon,
ReplyDeleteThat is bad news, but I figure in about twenty years or so when China (http://www.economist.com/node/18651512) and Germany ( http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/germanys-dire-demographics ) are old and depopulated, the jobs will be back. America's greatest strength are her citizens and so long as you guys have that, everything will work out.
Twenty years is a long time though...
twenty years is a real long time....add to it that China can see the problems coming and they might take steps to fortify their economy against movement of jobs out....
ReplyDeleteInstead of economics, let's talk values.
ReplyDeleteHalf this country thinks they are entitled to another's labor and property. Half of this country thinks they can use the tyranny of the majority to force the other half to live according to their terms, and enslave our children in an overt violation our Constitution and founding principles.
The nation is no longer ideologically compatible. Our economic disaster is merely a symptom of this and we are certain to see more crisis in the future.
What are our values?
i was thinking along those lines a while ago. i put this to Joe...what does the Northeast have in common with the South?
ReplyDeleteif the South (from Virgina over to Texas) were to break away from the Northeast...the West and the Midwest all go their separate ways then who would be hurting?
the Northeast and the West. all real production, labor etc...is done in the South and midWest....yet the West and North East are running the rest of us and determining how we will live!
its sad.
well Sol alot of production is done in the midwest and south but most economic engines are west and north east. the US economy is so intertwined, its almost impossible to seperate, from the ports and oil of the gulf, to the ports of california and washington state, the massive businesses in NYC and Wall street, we should end these bullshit ways of dividing us and find ways to compromise.
ReplyDeleteyou all complain about taking others labor and "enslave our children in an overt violation our Constitution and founding principles", my guess is you are talking about the healthcare bill. well its not a violation of the constitution, its legitament under the commerce clause, and IMO the general welfare clause. i know people hate programs but do you know how many people would die if mediciad was ended? the healthcare bill did things most agree with, like preventing people from being discriminated against based on pre-existing conditions. some things the government does is literally life and death, i am not saying its perfect, but you cant let perfection be the enemy of good.
Joe,
ReplyDeleteHealthcare, taxes, size and scope of the government, you name it. It is so massive that the private economy can no longer support it—hence our debt crisis which is a measure of money spent without income (it pains me to have to explain that to an adult). I challenge you to find any part of the Constitution that supports a government so large it destroys both the wealth of its citizens and the free market. You cannot!
If you believe Obamacare is Constitutional then you must believe that Fed power is unlimited under the 14th. If so, what powers do the states have? If you sincerely believe that the "general welfare" statement gives the government the power to seize industry, compel subjects to behave in a specific way, and redistribute wealth, then we are in trouble.
These have become Liberal newspeak that creates a poison pill. There is no need for the states with a specious interpretation of the 14th and there no need for a Bill of Rights when we are forced to forfeit those rights for the greater good under the "welfare" clause.
As far as people dying, well, a lot of people are going to die under Obamacare with the necessary rationing schemes as we’ve seen in Europe and Canada and anywhere else this tired and flawed ideology is practiced.
The reality of Obamacare has been decreased accessibility to care and increased costs for payers. Insurance rates are skyrocketing. Employers are cutting back on plans and passing more premium costs onto their employees. Many have decided to cancel their plans. So on a social policy basis, I would ask what kind of "good" has been done here?!?
BTW, who gets to decide what is good and just these days? When was the last time you were consulted? I bet you want to "spread it around" just like Obama, right? How do you feel about GE’s windfall profits and tax rate? An increasing wealth gap? Depression era unemployment in the black community?
It doesn’t work.
Thankfully, we know what does work because we had it for ~232 years. It’s just a matter of how and when we get back there.
P.S. "The perfect is the enemy of the good" bullshit is open door for moral relavatism. They push that so we will accept obvious flaws that are supposedly necessary for some greater good that never materializes. All we’re left with is the flaw we never would have accepted otherwise.
I may be holding the bag on that one, but I’m certainly not foolish enough to believe it and then go around regurgitating it.
Well Said! Well Said!
ReplyDeleteoh and let me add this.
ReplyDeletewe're in a depression, not a recession. the sooner everyone comes to grip with that fact the sooner we start clawing our way out of this mess.
another thought is this. the debt limit debate is really all about Obama care. they're doing there best to protect that program and everything else be damned.
sorry Joe, but we can't do business as usual. the US is melting down and the sooner you see it and accept it and plan for it the better off you'll be.
stack it deep!
well theres alot of problems with your idea resident, while the recession has hurt (we are no longer in a recession, the economy is growing, albeit anemically). the deficits are due to not increased spending as much as lower tax receipts. alot of the increased spending was stimulus needed to prevent a collapse of the economy, and trillions of wars. non-partisan economists agree the stimulus worked, the problems happening in the states now is the stimulus is running out!
ReplyDeletealso in healthcare, well if you look at the definition of rationing (or the base word ration), dictionary.com defines it as "to restrict the consumption of (a commodity, food, etc.)". well insurance companies already do that!!! they do exactly what republicans say the government will do, come between a doctor and patient. also its medicare and social security that's a regressive tax on the middle class. only income up to 106K is taxed (FICA taxes), after that nothing is taxed, so the more over 106K you make the less as a percent you pay, but you get the same benefits, this needs to end. also capital gains taxes should be raised to atleast normal income tax levels, because almost all that will come from the richest.
also your moral relativism argument is just a cop out, what morality? all morals are relative to an individual being able to make decisions on what they consider moral. there shouldn't be morality set in stone because that's not freedom, as long as it doesn't hurt the rights of others. also you talk about moral relativism badly but you give no solutions of your own? how would you get people healthcare? what about those who cant be insured by private companies, like those with genetic disabilities? it hasn't been that way for 232 years and then suddenly changed, social welfare programs have been around for decades, and succeeded. we just need to retool them (like means testing social security and medicare). also making a truly progressive tax (Clinton raised taxes and cut spending and we had years of great growth!, i am not saying we will repeat the same growth but taxes aren't killing "job creators").
also this isn't the first "mandate" on citizens, look at the milita acts of 1792, required all able bodied men to buy muskets. healthcare is the same for national security, because its economy of scale. if more people are in the system, prices go down, expenditures will go down (in an ideal world). its not perfect and already has been amended this year slightly and will require changes as things take effect.
i would love to be able to get a job, have health insurance, not have to worry about this shit. i would love to work with organizations about disabilities and not hear horror stories of getting kicked off private insurance because they got sick and have to rely on charity or declare bankruptcy because of healthcare bills or choose not to work because their job wont give them health insurance but they will lose Medicaid if they go to work. Show me how to do that and i will be happy to listen.