A Strong Middle Class

[rayboyusmc]

"We need to level the playing field for workers and the unions that represent their interests," Obama said during a signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House.

"I do not view the labor movement as part of the problem. To me, it's part of the solution," he said. "You cannot have a strong middle class without a strong labor movement."

Obama touts middle-class task force led by Biden - Yahoo! News

 

[sealybobo]

May I also post this?

ThomHartmann.com - Democracy - Not "The Free Market" - Will Save America's Middle Class

1. There is no such thing as a "free market."
2. The "middle class" is the creation of government intervention in the marketplace, and won't exist without it (as millions of Americans and Europeans are discovering).
The conservative belief in "free markets" is a bit like the Catholic Church's insistence that the Earth was at the center of the Solar System in the Twelfth Century. It's widely believed by those in power, those who challenge it are branded heretics and ridiculed, and it is wrong.
In actual fact, there is no such thing as a "free market." Markets are the creation of government.
Governments provide a stable currency to make markets possible. They provide a legal infrastructure and court systems to enforce the contracts that make markets possible. They provide educated workforces through public education, and those workers show up at their places of business after traveling on public roads, rails, or airways provided by government. Businesses that use the "free market" are protected by police and fire departments provided by government, and send their communications - from phone to fax to internet - over lines that follow public rights-of-way maintained and protected by government.
And, most important, the rules of the game of business are defined by government. Any sports fan can tell you that football, baseball, or hockey without rules and referees would be a mess. Similarly, business without rules won't work.
Which explains why conservative economics wiped out the middle class during the period from 1880 to 1932, and why, when Reagan again began applying conservative economics, the middle class again began to vanish in America in the 1980s - a process that has dramatically picked up steam under George W. Bush.

 

[rayboyusmc]

I listen to him whenever I can. He is a knowledgeable talk show host who consistantly brings on conservatives with opposing views and demonstrates that we can disagree without name calling.

He is not a screamer or shouter or peddler of hate.

About Thom Hartmann
Thom Hartmann, who started in radio in 1968, is also is an internationally known speaker on culture and communications, an author, and an innovator in the fields of psychiatry, ecology, and economics. The co-founder (with his wife, Louise) of The New England Salem Children’s Village (1978) and The Hunter School (1997), he has led national innovations in the areas of residential treatment for abused children and private/public education for learning-disabled children.

Hartmann is the four-time Project Censored Award-winning, New York Times best-selling author of nineteen books currently in print in over a dozen languages on five continents. He is the former executive director of a residential treatment program for emotionally disturbed and abused children, and has helped set up hospitals, famine relief programs, schools, and refugee centers in India, Uganda, Australia, Colombia, Russia, and the United States through the German-based Salem International program. Formerly rostered with the State of Vermont as a psychotherapist, founder of The Michigan Healing Arts Center, and licensed as an NLP Trainer by Richard Bandler (who wrote the foreword to one of Thom's books), he was the originator of the revolutionary "Hunter/Farmer Hypothesis" to understand the psychiatric condition known as Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). A guest faculty member at Goddard College in Vermont, he also synthesized the “Younger/Older Culture model” for describing the underpinnings - and possible solutions - to the world’s ecological and socio-political crises, suggesting that many of our problems are grounded in cultural “stories” which go back thousands of years. His most recent books are "Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class," “The Edison Gene,” “The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight,” “Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights,” "We The People: A Call to Take Back America," and "What Would Jefferson Do?"

ThomHartmann.com - About Thom Hartmann

 

[Skull Pilot]

yeah Biden is a great representative of the middle class.

Here's a guy who was in the top 5% of earners in the country for the last what 30 plus years and he hasn't managed to save a fucking dime.

great role model eh?

 

[del]

"We need to level the playing field for workers and the unions that represent their interests," Obama said during a signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House.

"I do not view the labor movement as part of the problem. To me, it's part of the solution," he said. "You cannot have a strong middle class without a strong labor movement."

Obama touts middle-class task force led by Biden - Yahoo! News

pretty edgy, coming out in favor of the middle class and unions.

 

[doeton]

rugged individualism...pairs nicely with a dandelion salad.

 

[sealybobo]

I listen to him whenever I can. He is a knowledgeable talk show host who consistantly brings on conservatives with opposing views and demonstrates that we can disagree without name calling.

He is not a screamer or shouter or peddler of hate.

About Thom Hartmann
Thom Hartmann, who started in radio in 1968, is also is an internationally known speaker on culture and communications, an author, and an innovator in the fields of psychiatry, ecology, and economics. The co-founder (with his wife, Louise) of The New England Salem Children’s Village (1978) and The Hunter School (1997), he has led national innovations in the areas of residential treatment for abused children and private/public education for learning-disabled children.

Hartmann is the four-time Project Censored Award-winning, New York Times best-selling author of nineteen books currently in print in over a dozen languages on five continents. He is the former executive director of a residential treatment program for emotionally disturbed and abused children, and has helped set up hospitals, famine relief programs, schools, and refugee centers in India, Uganda, Australia, Colombia, Russia, and the United States through the German-based Salem International program. Formerly rostered with the State of Vermont as a psychotherapist, founder of The Michigan Healing Arts Center, and licensed as an NLP Trainer by Richard Bandler (who wrote the foreword to one of Thom's books), he was the originator of the revolutionary "Hunter/Farmer Hypothesis" to understand the psychiatric condition known as Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). A guest faculty member at Goddard College in Vermont, he also synthesized the “Younger/Older Culture model” for describing the underpinnings - and possible solutions - to the world’s ecological and socio-political crises, suggesting that many of our problems are grounded in cultural “stories” which go back thousands of years. His most recent books are "Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class," “The Edison Gene,” “The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight,” “Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights,” "We The People: A Call to Take Back America," and "What Would Jefferson Do?"

ThomHartmann.com - About Thom Hartmann

You know, the right wingers call MSNBC's Rachel Maddow a liberal show, but for a liberal show, she sure give Pat Buchanan an awful lot of air time.

Who does O'Reilly, Hannity or Rush have on to argue back?

 

[WillowTree]

I listen to him whenever I can. He is a knowledgeable talk show host who consistantly brings on conservatives with opposing views and demonstrates that we can disagree without name calling.

He is not a screamer or shouter or peddler of hate.

About Thom Hartmann
Thom Hartmann, who started in radio in 1968, is also is an internationally known speaker on culture and communications, an author, and an innovator in the fields of psychiatry, ecology, and economics. The co-founder (with his wife, Louise) of The New England Salem Children’s Village (1978) and The Hunter School (1997), he has led national innovations in the areas of residential treatment for abused children and private/public education for learning-disabled children.

Hartmann is the four-time Project Censored Award-winning, New York Times best-selling author of nineteen books currently in print in over a dozen languages on five continents. He is the former executive director of a residential treatment program for emotionally disturbed and abused children, and has helped set up hospitals, famine relief programs, schools, and refugee centers in India, Uganda, Australia, Colombia, Russia, and the United States through the German-based Salem International program. Formerly rostered with the State of Vermont as a psychotherapist, founder of The Michigan Healing Arts Center, and licensed as an NLP Trainer by Richard Bandler (who wrote the foreword to one of Thom's books), he was the originator of the revolutionary "Hunter/Farmer Hypothesis" to understand the psychiatric condition known as Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). A guest faculty member at Goddard College in Vermont, he also synthesized the “Younger/Older Culture model” for describing the underpinnings - and possible solutions - to the world’s ecological and socio-political crises, suggesting that many of our problems are grounded in cultural “stories” which go back thousands of years. His most recent books are "Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class," “The Edison Gene,” “The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight,” “Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights,” "We The People: A Call to Take Back America," and "What Would Jefferson Do?"

ThomHartmann.com - About Thom Hartmann

You know, the right wingers call MSNBC's Rachel Maddow a liberal show, but for a liberal show, she sure give Pat Buchanan an awful lot of air time.

Who does O'Reilly, Hannity or Rush have on to argue back?

All you have to do to find out is tune in.. simple as pie.

 

[sealybobo]

I listen to him whenever I can. He is a knowledgeable talk show host who consistantly brings on conservatives with opposing views and demonstrates that we can disagree without name calling.

He is not a screamer or shouter or peddler of hate.



ThomHartmann.com - About Thom Hartmann

You know, the right wingers call MSNBC's Rachel Maddow a liberal show, but for a liberal show, she sure give Pat Buchanan an awful lot of air time.

Who does O'Reilly, Hannity or Rush have on to argue back?

All you have to do to find out is tune in.. simple as pie.

I do. They have weak timid people.

And Rachel Maddow thanked a Republican who came on her show the other night because most of them are too cowardly to show up to a show like her's that will expose them as liars and hypocrites.

 

[rayboyusmc]

Here's a guy who was in the top 5% of earners in the country for the last what 30 plus years and he hasn't managed to save a fucking dime.

Maybe a fortune is not what is important to him like it is to many of our politicians. Too many of them have become the upper upper class and now couldn't see past all their dollars for the good of the American people.

Senators had a median net worth of about $1.7-million in 2006, and 58 percent of the members rated as millionaires, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan research group Center for Responsive Politics.

Actually, he has saved more than a fucking dime.

Plus what the fuck does that have to do with this thread?

 

[Skull Pilot]

Here's a guy who was in the top 5% of earners in the country for the last what 30 plus years and he hasn't managed to save a fucking dime.

Maybe a fortune is not what is important to him like it is to many of our politicians. Too many of them have become the upper upper class and now couldn't see past all their dollars for the good of the American people.

Senators had a median net worth of about $1.7-million in 2006, and 58 percent of the members rated as millionaires, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan research group Center for Responsive Politics.

Actually, he has saved more than a fucking dime.

Plus what the fuck does that have to do with this thread?

A fortune is not the issue. But after more than 30 years of being in the top 5% of earners in the country, wouldn't you expect that his net worth be more than 150K. For Christ's sake I have a higher net worth and I'm more than 20 years younger and I've never been close to the top 5% of earners

The issue is that you want people in government to save the middle class, to be shining examples to us all. These politicians you call the picks of the people, the best of us, they all have something we don't, something lacking in ourselves, they can save us.

So tell me what the fuck can Joe Biden teach the middle class? He's a fucking poster child for what's wrong with the middle class. but yeah let's listen to him.

 

[rayboyusmc]

First, this post wasn't about Biden, you brought him up.

Second, he has enough to retire on and live as he wants, so why does he have to live up to your earning expectations? He won't be a drain on your taxes, so don't worry.

Too many of our politicians have used their offices to get rich rather than to work for their constituents.

 

[Skull Pilot]

First, this post wasn't about Biden, you brought him up.

Second, he has enough to retire on and live as he wants, so why does he have to live up to your earning expectations? He won't be a drain on your taxes, so don't worry.

Too many of our politicians have used their offices to get rich rather than to work for their constituents.

Biden to spearhead the effort to shore up the middle class? I didn't bring him up you did in your link

The effort is only as good as its leader and it's a fucking shame we can't find someone better than Biden.

And no his bloated government pension and his sweetheart insurance for life won't be a drain on taxpayers at all.

 

[Truthmatters]

In 1973 this man lost his wife and daughter to an automobile accident. He was a single parent paying for child care and domestic help.

I just dont get why you people have to conjur hate for people who deserve it for no reason. There is more to being a good person than maximizing your net worth.

I think this may be why the republicans wittingly or unwittingly ran the country into the ground while at the helm.

 

[doeton]

The effort is only as good as its leader and it's a fucking shame we can't find someone better than Biden.

And no his bloated government pension and his sweetheart insurance for life won't be a drain on taxpayers at all.

wait i thought he was living beyond his means...

so is this pension this alleged net worth figure?

 

[doeton]

The issue is that you want people in government to save the middle class, to be shining examples to us all. These politicians you call the picks of the people, the best of us, they all have something we don't, something lacking in ourselves, they can save us..

with obvious exception of the great savior hallowed be his name...BHO...uh really haven't heard anyone looking to politicians as role models, heroes or people to look up to.

that's pretty funny stuff.

 

[Sparky477]

"We need to level the playing field for workers and the unions that represent their interests," Obama said during a signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House.

"I do not view the labor movement as part of the problem. To me, it's part of the solution," he said. "You cannot have a strong middle class without a strong labor movement."

It's a matter of fact, that the countries that have the largest middle class, have the best economies, and yet there are tons of middle class people who don't understand. I receive emails from a woman who is both middle class and a conservative, and they consist mostly of conservative misinformation and lies. Even though I send her proof that she's wrong in her facts, the emails just keep on coming. Ahhhh

 

[Chris]

When Ronald Reagan took office we were the biggest creditor nation in the world and the biggest exporter.

Now we are the biggest debtor nation in the world and the biggest importer.

 

[Skull Pilot]

In 1973 this man lost his wife and daughter to an automobile accident. He was a single parent paying for child care and domestic help.

I just dont get why you people have to conjur hate for people who deserve it for no reason. There is more to being a good person than maximizing your net worth.

I think this may be why the republicans wittingly or unwittingly ran the country into the ground while at the helm.

Then more poor planning on Biden's part. They had no life insurance?

And he will teach the middle class to take care of themselves.

And i don't hate him. That's what libbies cry whenever they get criticized.

This guy is a poor example of fiscal responsibility and he's heading up the task force to save the middle class?

 

[sealybobo]

First, this post wasn't about Biden, you brought him up.

Second, he has enough to retire on and live as he wants, so why does he have to live up to your earning expectations? He won't be a drain on your taxes, so don't worry.

Too many of our politicians have used their offices to get rich rather than to work for their constituents.

Biden to spearhead the effort to shore up the middle class? I didn't bring him up you did in your link

The effort is only as good as its leader and it's a fucking shame we can't find someone better than Biden.

And no his bloated government pension and his sweetheart insurance for life won't be a drain on taxpayers at all.

Can you explain why the middle class has been attacked so hard ever since Reagan?

And how about this?

Reagan promptly cut income taxes on the very rich from 70% down to 27%. Corporate tax rates were also cut so severely that they went from representing over 33% of total federal tax receipts in 1951 to less than 9% in 1983 (they’re still in that neighborhood, the lowest in the industrialized world).

The result was devastating. Our government was suddenly so badly awash in red ink that Reagan doubled the tax paid only by people earning less than $40,000/year (FICA), and then began borrowing from the huge surplus this new tax was accumulating in the Social Security Trust Fund. Even with that, Reagan had to borrow more money in his 8 years than the sum total of all presidents from George Washington to Jimmy Carter combined.

In addition to badly throwing the nation into debt, Reagan’s tax cut blew out the ceiling on the accumulation of wealth, leading to a new Gilded Age and the rise of a generation of super-wealthy that hadn’t been seen since the Robber Baron era of the 1890s or the Roaring 20s.

ThomHartmann.com - Roll Back the Reagan Tax Cuts