Sounds like it's an economy for college educated people.
It's a "skillsocracy" as opposed to a meritocracy.
I thought this poll was an interesting observation and it's not the first time I've seen it. Look at the people who approve of Biden's job as president. One, 81% of Democrats which is no surprise since it's his party. 55% of blacks which, again, no surprise given how heavily Democratic they are as a group. The one that stands out is 53% of white college. Every other group has a negative view of his performance, especially men and whites without a college degree, two groups who tend to make up more blue-collar jobs.
So why is it that college educated whites see it differently from everyone else? College educated people generally make more money than non-college educated people. I have an MBA and my wife and I, while not rich, fall into the upper middle-class income category and I can honestly say that despite inflation we are not experiencing hardships in our household. We haven't had to make any sacrifices. We still take trips and go out to eat at nice restaurants here and there. In fact, we are headed to Europe again for two weeks next month. Strictly from the microcosm of my household we're doing well, but we were doing well before too and I gather this is what a lot of people in the college educated whites group are also experiencing. There is a disconnect between that group and what everyone else is apparently dealing with.
So that begs the question, is this an economy for the wealthy?
Any economy will evolve or devolve into an economy for the wealthy. The difference between a fully communist economy and a fully free economy or the infinite number of in-between economic systems is how the wealthy become wealthy.
In a fully free economy, meaning a strong government that makes sure that force is never a part of any economic transaction, those who are skilled at managing risk, and organizing production will become wealthy. They will hire the most skilled people to perform the tasked needed for production and those skilled will be the upper middle class. Those with moderate skills will make up the bulk of workers from mid-level managers to workers with just enough snap to be trained on the job. Those with no skills will be menial laborers, which will always be needed.
In a government-controlled system, the people running government, and those with connections to people running government will be the wealthy.
That's a great freakin' question. I'm not even sure I'll be able to make sense here, but what the hell:
We have an economy that allows for a rapid momentum that creates the wealthy. If money is just pissed away (like, say, what we see a lot of lottery winners do) it doesn't create wealth. But if leveraged properly, capital can feed on itself incredibly quickly. I think that's less a function of education level and more a function of instinct and opportunity. Some people have it, some people don't.
Our current tax structure plays a huge role in that. Tax rates are low, capital gains tax rates are low. And maybe most importantly, re-investment rules (generally ZERO taxes on capital gains if they're rolled properly) just throw the door wide open to exponential wealth growth. So utililzing leverage and tax law gives you a significant advantage in this economic "system" of ours.
Very good analysis.
This structure has created massive wealth disparities, and they'll only continue to increase and feed on themselves. So we're nearing a point at which we're going to need to make some decisions, before we see another French Revolution here. We already have a large group of people who feel they've been cheated and victimized, and are acting out over it. Which opens up ANOTHER topic....
Glad to see you write that. Progressives have been making the point that imbalances in wealth could lead to violence by the people on the wrong end of the see-saw. I've never heard anyone accuse progressives of inciting violence or wanting violence for saying those things.
Poor people have no cushion to take the Biden hit.
Exactly. I don't see how they are making it. The working poor - those with both jobs
and needs-based benefits - are doomed to never advance, never stop working, and never wean from the government teat if this keeps up another five years.
You may still be doing well, but you are not doing as well as before Biden. Your headroom has shrunk. You just have enough financial cushion to absorb the loss. So far.
That is our situation, exactly. We are two teachers with about 8 years left to retirement. We budget our money tightly, but we include vacations, weekenders, hobbies, and restaurants in the budget, so we are not suffering.
What is left after monthly and weekly expenses goes one of two places: Investment into our 403b, which is a regular amount, and our savings/emergency fund which is a flexible amount, depending on whether we have worked detention for the overtime, or summer school.
About a year ago, we had to adjust our monthly grocery money and our weekly expenses money upward. Gasoline had a lot to do with that, but also the higher costs of basic food. We also had to add to our planned light bill. Where did that come from?
From the savings/emergency fund contributions. A year after that adjustment, we are again starting to go through our weekly money in less than a week, so we will have to bump that up again. So our savings will get closer to zero. Meanwhile our 403b contribution is the same as five years ago, when we should be increasing it to keep up with inflation.
People with no cushion are probably running out of money before running out of month on a regular basis. They will feel the pain immediately rather than lamenting that retirement will not be as comfortable as they thought. Those are the people who will be looking for a way to get the economy back to where it was five years ago.
