“Aftershock” by Robert B. Reich

[TruthSeeker56]

Liberals have a basic lack of understanding of even rudimentary economics. This includes the slobbering, bed-wetting, finger-pointing liberals in this forum, and all of their slobbering, bed-wetting, finger-pointing liberal political heroes.

Liberals not only didn't bother to attend "Economics 101" class, but they were the ones who skipped the class to smoke dope in their VW vans.

Newsflash for you liberals, and other "factually challenged" lemmings..........until you figure out the differences between "commentary", "opinions", and "cold, hard, verifiable facts", you will continue to look like a bunch of brainless dolts.

 

[TruthSeeker56]

This graph may interest people. I'm including it because it was in Reich's book.

Do you have ANY IDEA what this graph shows? Obviously not.

1. You failed to account for the U.S. and world economic impact of World War 2, unless you consider the war years (1941-1945) as part of "the golden age of the middle class".

2. Why no mention of the SHARP increase in income for the top 10% during the Bill Clinton years (1993-2001)?

3. And last but certainly not least, how does this graph PROVE that the MIDDLE CLASS benefited from the decrease in income for the top 10% from the late-1930s to the mid-1980s? This graph does not account at all for the possibility that perhaps the top 20% or 30% of income earners benefited the most during the so-called "golden age of the middle class".

Singling out the "top 10%" is both disingenuous and patently shortsighted.

 

[TruthSeeker56]

I never said anything about 'eating the rich'. I also made no reference to a 'zero sum game'. I simply mentioned the fact that the wealthy in this country are (and have been) taking an ever greater percentage of the national income vis-a-vis everyone else going back for some 35 years. It's an established trend, not an aberration.

I also made no mention of communism. That's little more than a rhetorical distraction which serves to do little more than derail any discussion of the political and economic trends that have pushed the American middle class closer toward the poorer end of the scale. Yelling COMMUNISM is also a useful scare tactic of the wealthy class, and it won't work forever.

We've always had rich people in the USA, it's why people keep wanting to come here: to become like that

What's changed in the last 35 years is the voracious appetite of government.

True Story

You keep throwing out non sequiturs like what's highlighted above. That doesn't have anything to do with what I was talking about.

As for the voracious appetite of gov't, without intending to sound partisan, you can thank Reagan for tripling the debt with his new emphasis on tax cuts and increased gov't spending on the military. You can also thank Bush 43 for his crazy ideas on economics where tax cuts aren't paid for even as spending explodes.

But both Republican and Democratic (Clinton) administrations embraced the deregulation of the financial industry which essentially sealed our economic doom because the Wall St wizards were set loose to wreck havoc on the economy and make a financial windfall (a killing is closer to the truth) betting against the very investments they sold all around the country and the world. And let's not forget globalization which ended up shipping our jobs overseas.

So, Obama inherits an economy in contraction. That means increased spending on unemployment benefits and food stamps at the very time of decreasing federal income tax receipts due to millions of people being out of work. That's not the same thing as cutting taxes at a time of war or pushing Medicare part D.

With that said, the issue at hand is the change in income distribution in this country and how the middle class is getting shafted, regardless of their ideological beliefs.

And now that a decent college education is finally financially out of reach for most people (due to cuts in state financial support for higher education), it will only become increasingly difficult for families (and students) to afford the education that helps them move up economically.

So, like I said, the middle class has gotten screwed, and conservatives better decide whose team their on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USDebt.png
U.S. debt from 1940 to 2011. Red lines indicate the debt held by the public (net public debt) and black lines indicate the total public debt outstanding (gross public debt), the difference being that the gross debt includes that held by the federal government itself. The second panel shows the two debt figures as a percentage of U.S. GDP (dollar value of U.S. economic production for that year). The top panel is deflated so every year is in 2010 dollars.

How about the LIBERALS deciding whose team THEY are on?

The only "team" tha the liberals care about is "Team Absolute Power".

When are you liberals going to figure out that going farther and farther into debt does not create PROSPERITY?

So what do you liberals do in your own homes, if you get laid off from your jobs, or stop making your mortgage payments, or stop making your car payments, or stop making your credit card payments? Do you try to borrow MORE money, so you can keep your home and your car? Do you not understand that you are simply postponing the inevitable? Are you liberals that shortsighted? Really?

 

[Mustang]

Liberals have a basic lack of understanding of even rudimentary economics. This includes the slobbering, bed-wetting, finger-pointing liberals in this forum, and all of their slobbering, bed-wetting, finger-pointing liberal political heroes.

Liberals not only didn't bother to attend "Economics 101" class, but they were the ones who skipped the class to smoke dope in their VW vans.

Newsflash for you liberals, and other "factually challenged" lemmings..........until you figure out the differences between "commentary", "opinions", and "cold, hard, verifiable facts", you will continue to look like a bunch of brainless dolts.

Liberals, liberals, liberals.

Do you know what the problem is with the kind of hyper-partisanship that is constantly postulated, pushed, and promoted on talk radio? (I'm including the less well-established liberal version as well as the more popular and successful conservative variety when I ask that question) It's a distraction. That's putting it mildly, frankly. It's a distraction from the problems, and it's a distraction from finding and implementing solutions to those problems.

Oh, it's a great business model for AM radio success. There's no doubt about that. People can and do make a very good living ginning up partisan rancor. It's a racket worth MANY millions of dollars. But why should they care what you think...as long as you and a few million others tune in to keep their advertisers happy? Truly, why should they care? And why should they care how the issues actually turn out? I actually sincerely don't think the vast majority of them do care all that much. They dish up the daily outrage, and people tune in to get their emotional fix. They support their 'side' and 'rally the troops' when that's what's required, and they 'rail against the opposition' when it serves the interests of whichever side they and their supporters favor. But what about average people? What do they (we) get out of all that? In my opinion, we get little more than entertainment value. And that's not really that much when you stop to think about it.

Average people are the ones getting screwed by the system. So, we're back to the whole issue of the distraction. I'm sure you've heard of the concept of divide and conquer. That's what's happening. Many of the politicians in this country have pretty much figured out that THEIR personal and professional interests are best served by throwing their lot in with the lobbyists and wealthy business interests (the politicians' campaign contributors and hence their benefactors) who keep their campaign coffers full and usually help ease their way from one electoral victory to another, on their way to either a lucrative lobbying gig after a defeat or a cushy retirement (on the taxpayers' dime, of course) after they've served for 18 years. As they say, one hand washes the other. Those folks are the powerful people. Some of them we know. Many of them we don't. And while many average people are fighting the 'liberal versus conservative wargames' that talk radio and cable news shows toss out for public consumption, the well-connected business interests and politicians are feathering each others' nests...almost always at the expense of average people -- both liberal and conservative.

Think about it! I say that because the chances are pretty good that the average conservative probably has a damn site more in common with the average liberal than either one of them has in common with the politicians and wealthy business interests who are running the system primarily to their own mutual advantage.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

We've always had rich people in the USA, it's why people keep wanting to come here: to become like that.

While there undoubtedly are a few innately greedy individuals whose purpose in migrating to the U.S. is to pursue the kind of power and sense of personal supremacy that derives from excessive wealth, the overwhelming majority of those who migrate here are hoping for nothing more than the comforts and security enjoyed by the fabled American Middle Class. Which, to the average immigrant, is relative riches. If you believe otherwise you are likely projecting from your own orientation.

What's changed in the last 35 years is the voracious appetite of government.

It is interesting that you ignore the truly voracious appetites of those recipients of collective trillions of taxpayer dollars extorted in the form of "bailouts." It is the appetites of those white collar criminals which is responsible for our current economic problems. But I will concede that certain elements of government are indeed responsible for facilitating the thefts by removing the regulations which for decades had prevented such devious manipulations and sustained the prosperity of the middle class. And I have no doubt that the motivation to eliminate those regulations was some form of bribery.

I've said it countless times: Jim Johnson, Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelick, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd should be serving million year prison terms