It's not up to me or the Republicans to "help" people become middle-class. That's left to the individual.
How can you settle for any less than being on some government program? If you can't support yourself and need your neighbors to do so, then you are the one that hit rock bottom.
Before you make judgements on what Republicans believe, maybe you should try listening to them first. Try Rush Limbaugh sometime. He's constantly telling people to better themselves. He always tells people that government is a hurdle, not a catapult. He always said everybody can accomplish whatever their goals are. I never heard him say people should just settle for less.
In my industry, we need over 30,000 new drivers we can't find. It's gotten so bad that industry is now turning to foreigners to do the job. And let me tell you, you can make a decent living being a truck driver; much more than 30K a year. In fact, some companies will train and get you licensed if you sign a year contract with them.
My father did very well being a bricklayer. He's 87 years old and still getting his pension checks. But you can't find younger people willing to join the trade. The ones that do try can't pass the drug test because smoking pot is more important than securing a career which is in demand right now!
It was the same thing with my former tenants. They were both in their later 20's when they left, and both worked fast food jobs. Why? Because better paying jobs required them to take drug tests. So they opted to keep smoking pot and work lower wage jobs. The problem is a lot of younger people are doing the same. So it's not a surprise that many in our country are making 30K or less a year.
"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution that grants Congress the right, of expending on articles of benevolence, the money of their constituents."
James Madison, annals of Congress, 1794
Republicans don't even understand Capitalism much, apparently.
If 100% had PhD degrees the market would still demand burger flippers, toilet scrubbers, ditch diggers, lawn mowers, Walmart greeters.
So its actually the markets fault.
Capitalism creates winners & losers economically.
Natural selection creates winners & losers genetically.
Republicans don't seem understand either concept very well.
Not at all.
Let's say that instead of Obama's stimulus, he decided to give half of all adults in the country a million dollars each. They picked people at random.
So I got lucky and now I have a million dollars. But my toilet starts acting up, so I call my plumber. He's out of business because he got a million dollars too. So I call the next one in the phone book with the same result.
I finally locate a plumber that didn't get a million dollars and is still open for business, He says he can come over and repair my toilet next week, and the minimum charge will be $200.00. What choice do I have but to pay him or fix it myself?
Even though I got lucky and got picked, those who did not benefited from my fortune as well. That's the way capitalism works; that;'s the way supply and demand works. So toilet scrubbers and burger flippers would benefit just like my plumber. Businesses would have to offer more money to get labor.
Capitalism doesn't create winners and losers, people make that choice for themselves. If you want to become a winner, choose the path of a winner. If you want to be a loser, choose the path of a loser. Most people are satisfied with something in between, but that was still their choice.
I don't know you or much about your personal life, but I would be willing to bet that outside of your house, or perhaps an IRA at work, you never risked your money to make more. You live paycheck to paycheck and save what you can. You depend on your job for income instead of yourself. You want to work 40 hours a week and take three or four weeks of vacation every year. And that's fine.
But for those who went one, two, or several steps further, capitalism didn't "make" them do it. They did it on their own to be more successful than you or I.
