Friday, April 3, 2015
Progressive economics
The sputtering U.S. economy created just 126,000 jobs in March as bad weather, weak consumer spending and flailing corporate profits resulted in the worst report since December 2013.
February's numbers were revised lower to 264,000 from the initially reported 295,000,,,
January's number fell from 239,000 to 201,000.
The Federal Reserve's Atlanta branch is projecting the U.S. economy to show just a 0.1 percent growth rate in the first quarter.
Six years after the "so called financial crisis" efforts by progressives in both parties have produced little in the way of results. Despite hundreds of billions of dollars in stimulus packages that will have doubled our national debt by the end of Obama's administration it seems the government is very poor at managing any sort of recovery. Household incomes remain lower and look even worse when inflation is factored in.
It took over ten years and WWII to get us past our last uber progressive administration. It's a shame that the younger generation will have to live through another decade of progressive experiments.
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Wow. Just, flipping wow. Reading this is like hearing an abused spouse say they wouldn't have to get beat if they behaved better. What is funny about this William is that while you rail against alleged "progressive economics" you then make the claim that it's a bad thing household incomes are so low, something that I have been bitching about for years. In the midst of what you call progressive economic experiments, the uber rich in that fabled one percent have never had it so good. Low taxes, a FED who endlessly pumps money into the market to keep assets inflated and on an on.
ReplyDeleteFor all of the preaching you do here William, this post is arguing with yourself.
What the flip are you talking about Max? Of course I want everyone to do better, to have better lives, to gain financial security. What the flip are you talking about.
DeleteWe went through this in the 30's. Unfortunately the progressive/communist experiments that proved themselves hollow are not expounded upon in our history classes any longer. We busy ourselves with bakeries, with pizza parlors, with wedding cakes for gay people instead of macro stuff like,,can the average working man get a fucking job! And they aren't getting them because of? Maybe because the fucking progressives are in bed with the likes of their corporate cronies. And these corporate cronies take every chance they get to market themselves to a few generations of well trained proles.
Line up, line up,,,everyone from the valley of the silicone,,,,to the fly over wal-marketing big boxes are shoving each other aside to get in on the BIG PROGRESSIVE CON.
Where are the fucking jobs Max? Your fucking hero's have been running things for over six years! Seems the BIG PROGRESSIVE CON GAME ain't working Maxie.
The Fed cut their growth forecast to zero. Non residential construction is forecast to be down 22.5%.
DeleteWilliam, we have had 30 plus years now of contraction of wages, loss of benefits from jobs and wide open borders to countries like China. This "You've been running stuff for six years" is just plain fucking idiocy. In all seriousness William, this is a moron argument. If you want to have an adult discussion, be willing to talk about something more than a slice and diced piece of economic timeline.
DeleteBIG PROGRESSIVES are doubling our national debt while millions sit home collecting their government check. This is exactly what BIG PROGRESSIVES want. They are doing exactly what they set out to do. And I mean both parties are BIG PROGRESSIVES, and the Supreme Court are BIG PROGRESSIVES, and the withering main media products are BIG PROGRESSIVES. And read my lips the BUSH and CLINTON families are both BIG fucking PROGRESSIVES.
DeleteAnd yet mick points out the environmental promise of Jeb common core Bush. And Rick and Max lick the backside of Hillary server gate Rodham.
It is all quite disgusting.
Big Progressives?
DeleteBoth parties pass the budget.
The people of the US that bother to vote, elect the people in congress.
Both parties are full of progressives. A few generations of poorly educated proles vote these progressives in. Boehner spends as much money as Pelosi. Budgets are approved (expanded) regardless of who holds the gavel.
DeleteCan anyone dispute this BIG PROGRESSIVE attitude?
"Can anyone dispute this BIG PROGRESSIVE attitude?"
DeleteStatements like this, William, are why the tea party will never have broad appeal. In sympathy, I will grant you that we have never, ever had the pure laissez-faire capitalism that you seem to believe you want. Regardless, we have also not had the polar opposite of laissez-faire capitalism no matter how many times tea party types make that claim. The benefit for tea party types like yourself is that can make the ridiculous claims you are making here, which is essentially that everyone is wrong except for the purists like you. That's great if you plan on living in a mythical place like Galt's Gulch, but that attitude is childish at best for the world we actually live in.
To some degree William, I can make your case for you. With our spending being where it is, we have reached a point where we shell out just as much corporate welfare as we do individual welfare. I don't call that progressive, I call it the Aristocracy of Pull. That said, I also see an undeniable consequence of what laissez-faire capitalism is about. We have open borders to China and other third world countries and we as consumers don't want to pay extra to support American workers. We go the extra mile to bash them in the process and say they are all overpaid. You can't have it both ways. If you want the entirety of life to be nothing but one giant competition, don't complain when we lose. The tea party chant that everything we dislike about America is the fault of progressives is hollow bullshit when you really drill down. The country has chosen it's leaders and it has also chosen to consume cheap shit at the expense of American jobs.
Part of successfully becoming an adult means that you learn to not drink beer and eat pizza everyday if you want to get somewhere in life. Don't blame progressivism for individuals making bad choices.
We have open borders to China and other third world countries and we as consumers don't want to pay extra to support American workers. An American choice as is the auto purchase. Some applaud their buy American auto from non union low wage Kentucky foreign company (profits returned to foreign country) and then we do a rescue of the American company and complain about it.
DeleteInteresting isn't it.
We allow illegals to work in the US competing with US workers which has the effect of stagnating our wages as the over supply of workers continues. we subsidize the illegals workers via no taxes, welfare for their American born children and then we give UE benefits, welfare benefits, medicaid to the unemployed US Citizen. The underemployed certainly receive benefits via healthcare, sometime food, rent assistance.
Yet we complain about corporate welfare. I agree all corporate welfare should end including the poet industries of Solar and Wind. As a consumer of electricity I subsidize the homeowner who has solar via the electricity to the grid program which is laughable. Have to ask yourself, how does it get through a step down transformer. I have yet to figure that one out.
Here is one distinction I would make though, I see a difference between an automaker who ships profit home versus a multinational corporation who wants to produce elsewhere, sell here, have patent protection and contribute nothing to the country. An automaker who sets up shop here may indeed ship profit home, but since they employ the American worker who will then spend those dollars in the local economy, that's still better than the other company.
DeleteIn a true laissez-faire world, you win or lose with little in between. That is the bottom line. Whether we are talking about the illegal Mexicans crossing the border or the goods coming from China, our labor cannot compete with those who make pennies per hour. The result is completely predictable. Even for those who have jobs, they have been forced to be more and more productive without getting paid more. If income stagnates, it doesn't take rocket science to see that people are going to have a hard time getting by. For better or for worse, the government has been stepping in with social programs. But let's call a spade a spade here, food stamps and rent assistance to someone who works a full job is just as much corporate welfare as it is individual welfare, and that's the shit I bitch about. There has not been a shortage of profit, but IMO, a very, very large portion of that profit has come from arbitraging the middle class. Workers have produced more and have gotten paid less to do so. This picture is much more complex
Think HP wants to manufacture in China?
DeleteThe only reason they are there is competition. How will they sell a PC or printer made in America at twice the price? The tax laws of the US are prohibitive and punitive to corporations doing business overseas, selling products overseas from bringing the profits back to the US. Seems we need a tax overhaul and structure our corporate taxes like the rest of the world. See worldwide/territorial tax systems. Our corporate is a remnant of when we were the world manufacturing center and could afford our tax system.
Why should Microsoft selling software in Europe taking profits in Europe be taxed in the US on that overseas profit? Just what did the US do to protect Microsoft's patents in China where they duplicate the OS? Sue China in the world court?
We don't need the open border MAx. We have people here who can do what ever the illegals do including the construction down the street. Take away the incentive not to work and American will work. Take away the illegals and wages will rise. Take away the advantage China has in cheap labor and manufacturing returns to the US.
But then again, people would scream all day and night at paying 3K for the TV they pay 500 bucks for today. Yes there are trade off's to the not so free trade and apparently our elected officials think it's ok as does this and every pother past president.
And yes the picture is complex as the government makes it complex from the tax system to over regulation to the ACA and other burdens the government dumps on business. And no it will not change as there is no incentive to change the tax laws, just bitch about it.
p.s. Law of supply and demand reigns supreme. Can't get around it or legislate it away. You can artificially raise wages however business responds with fewer jobs, more automation. The more labor available, the less you pay for it.
“The slew of disappointing news about consumption and investment in recent months might be catching up with employment. It is too early to conclude that job growth is slowing down, but it is a possibility. However, at least some of the weakness in the past month may have to do with the long duration of the winter this year. Also, the effects of lower oil prices are also clearly visible in the mining sector.” — Gad Levanon, The Conference Board.
ReplyDeleteWe had a cold winter last year also Mick. And they blamed bad economic reports on that also. It always gets cold in the winter Mick, at least up here it does. When there's enough work to do people get out in the cold and do the work. Fact is there is not enough work Mick. This progressive lead shell game of an economy is not producing enough jobs. Now of course we listen to Max and he espouses the time honored leftist pap that someone has to retire or quit looking so some young buck can take his place,,what a bunch of communist hogwash.
DeleteHere in rich New Jersey we lost 55,000 citizens last year. Those rushing to the exits from rich and poor counties alike were replaced by 51,000 immigrants,,,60% of which located in Hudson county. A particularly beautiful place along the river that is known for particularly beautiful apartment buildings. One wonders who these new arrivals will be voting for in upcoming elections? Hummmmm? Any guesses?
Yeah, the same people made the same claims last month.... its the weather... its the snow but one little fact you have to question. If it is the weather, why on earth were car sales up? I mean, if you can't get to a resturant, how you gonna go car shopping.... and cloths sales were up too.
DeleteMax is right. Companies became meaner and leaner during the Bush Recession and now have seen that they can push more and more out of their workers. Hence there are less jobs to be had and those who have them keep them . It's not the big secret that the Conservatives make it out to be. Even in the little company I work for we now have only 3 managers per store where we used to have four and sometimes 5 if volume warranted. We operate with three managers and a couple of "key " employees. Guess where the "Key " employees came from? Right out of the ranks of the long term hired already. They get a premium wage during key hours and fall back to their regular job and pay when not needed in the key role. A manager in the company starts at about 50 grand, a "key" makes 12 an hour. Reduced costs and no one was hired. This goes on across the entire restaurant industry and I am sure it's caught on in many others.
ReplyDeleteLOL, meaner and leaner during the BUSH recession. Always the first to blame Bush when both parties are at fault.
ReplyDeleteAlways Bush when the first reality is Free Trade Agreements signed sealed and delivered by both parties in congress and the Prezzy have been the down fall for American jobs. Global economy and all. The second reality, open borders with Mexico allowing a flood of labor assisted by a complacent congress and willing prezzy. Pick your administration. Oh those poor people they are just trying to support their families while destroying opportunities for Americans who are content staying home collecting benefits. Whining about low wages the over supply of labor causes. The third reality we prefer imports, auto's to American brands. Yep. They open factories in low wage states and sell autos and return the profits to the home country while American profits remain overseas as we prefer our tax system to the territorial tax system.
Yes, it's all Bush's and businesses fault. Not the idiots electing both parties, not the people buying the foreign crap, just BUSH.
Have to love the new LED TV's from China, tools from China, all the nigfty latest and greatest technology developed by Americans produced in China.
We the willing consumer in our quest for cheap buy the junk and assist in export of jobs. One thing is for certain, nothing will change until people pull their heads out of their partisan ASS.
I'm never going to agree with that false premise tax argument, but I agree with the rest. A problem though, is that if we complain about the free trade deals, we are basically arguing against free capitalist markets. Reagan himself was also a protectionist when it came to trying to protect our auto market (http://mises.org/library/ronald-reagan-protectionist).
DeleteThe rest of your comment though highlights what you and I have always agreed on, which is that the middle class made a deal with the devil. They wanted to live fat on cheap imports and didn't give a damn about whether that would cost the country a lot of jobs. But, going back to para one, I guess we can't have it both ways. Freedom means freedom to choose, amongst other freedoms. If our only goal in life is to satisfy what are essentially insatiable desires for comfort and non stop entertainment, I don't think we can really complain when we get an inevitable outcome. Free trade agreements mean that we have to compete with cheap labor from around the world. What we have now is a reality of what happens when you compete and lose, your standard of living goes down. As you said to William up above, we have voted for this as a nation with our political votes and our pocketbooks and our mindless consumption mentality.
Max, taxes are just another tool used by the politicians to fund their re-election campaigns. The taxes fund the pork demanded by the voters. In some cases the lack of taxes is the incentive.
DeleteToday when you think about it, Tree Trade Agreements have become a tool for foreign policy. Tade jobs in the US for a growing middle class that stabilizes a country. Look what it has done for China.
The fundamental problem here is that we are using the term "middle class" at all. The Progressive propagandists have won this war and placed everyone in their neat little divisive boxes. The founders would be aghast at the Progressive divide and conquer campaign.
DeleteWe got rid of the fucking king because we wanted a classless society.
Man up, stop blaming the millions sitting out of the workforce on free trade. We had Japanese crap transistor radios back in the 60's. We have always had foreign junk, some good some bad. The cause of our problem lies in the progressive handout mentality. Kids encouraged to stay on their parents insurance until 27,,what fucking bullshit,,,go out and get a fucking job,,or make yourself a fucking job.
Such progressive bullshit,,,,,so many fucking minds made of mush,,,,thank you Wilson, Hoover, Roosevelt, Johnson, Carter, Bush I, Clinton, Obama,,,thanks for fucking nothing.
Obviously your unaware of the impact of free trade agreements on US labor.
Deletehere's a little one or 2.
US rescues GM to save jobs and encourage investment in America.
GM reciprocates with a new plant in MEXICO.
MEXICO CITY, June 26 (Reuters) - General Motors Co outlined plans on Wednesday for investing $691 million to expand its Mexican operations, including the previously unannounced expansion of its Toluca engine plant.
The plans include a new factory in Silao in central Mexico to build 8-speed transmissions and an upgrade to an existing factory in San Luis Potosi that will make next-generation transmissions, GM Mexico President Ernesto Hernandez said.
With numerous free trade agreements, a cheap, well-educated labor force, and proximity to the lucrative U.S. auto market, combined with growing demand in South America, automakers have been lining up for two years to set up shop or expand in a country that some analysts believe could eventually overtake Brazil as Latin America's biggest economy.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/gm-invests-691-million-in-mexico-plants-2013-6#ixzz3WXWU2far
President Obama and Mexican president Felipe Calderon have struck a deal that will allow Mexican trucks to cross the border once again; the new deal will end a sixteen year dispute which has effectively kept Mexican tractor-trailers from driving on U.S. roadways; the plan will allow an unlimited flow of trucks from Mexico to enter the United States so long as shipping companies register the vehicles, pass inspections, and do not break safety regulations; the new agreement could generate as much as $675 million in cost savings; each year there are roughly 4.5 million truck crossings and each crossing cost $150; last year more than $2.75 billion in goods travelled across the border
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/mexican-trucks-set-cross-border-again
So William, how many jobs did GM send to Mexico with the new plants?
How many US truck drivers now sit idle while Mexicans deliver goods across the US?
As a side note, where was the computer you use built, the TV you watch? the power tools you use? The appliances in your home? Chances are none are made in the USA. We are no longer a manufacturing society but a consumer society. We export raw materials and import finished goods. The middle class use to make the finished goods eons ago.
Maybe you should rethink the FTA problem, it's much larger than you think.
The plan will allow an unlimited flow of trucks from Mexico to enter the United States so long as shipping companies register the vehicles, pass inspections, and do not break safety regulations.
DeleteWilliam, if you think you think for a moment that Reagan was not as progressive as the rest of them, you are sorely mistaken. Read the link I put above. He was protectionist, he approved the Chrysler bailout, and he was a massive spender who readily wheeled and dealed with congress to get his tax cuts in return for shitloads of spending.
DeleteThis is not all rocket science, but its more complex than you are making it. It's one thing William, to dismiss the rantings of a communist like me, but I'm not the only one here suggesting you are more than a touch off target. It's one thing to disagree, but you have done nothing here to support your premise. Kids on their parents policy until 27 is ruining America? That's a little simplistic and ridiculous.
Ask yourself louman, if free trade is such a spectacular win-win for Mexico why are they sending their children across our southern boarder by the hundreds of thousands?
DeleteObama and the dems bailed out GM unions and that did nothing to make the Detroit worker more competitive.
We used to do a fantastic horse and buggy trade here, as well as producing cloth out your kazoo. We no longer make buggy whips nor do we put the clothes on your backside.
What do we do well? We farm the hell out of our ground. We come up with fantastic products and ideas that raise the level of everyone around the world. When is the last time you heard of an Arab developing a software product or a frggin GMO?
We should let those that make radio's cheap and well make radio's. We should let those who can put a freaking tire on a car, put tires on cars,,,,after all we have been refining cars for well over a freaking hundred years in this country.
You sound like Max now in the opinion that we should go around breaking windows so we can replace them to create (progressively redistribute) economy.
Do you want the answer louman? In a nutshell louman? Lower the freaking corporate tax and bring Trillions home from overseas for investment. Slash taxes across the board and let American's once again decide how to spend their own money (not the freaking nanny state government) and expand the economy into areas that we can't even imagine today. Break the teachers unions around the country so we can get back to educating children instead of creating little occupy wall street wannabe's.
For heavens sake louman, ten years ago the iphone didn't even exist. Twenty years ago the internet was in diapers. Stop poor mouthing what the American people can do,,,sheeshhhhh,,you sound like our resident communists (Max and ric) lately. Just get the friggin progressive communists out of our friggin way.
It's a win win for them for it does increase the number of jobs available. Problem they have is to many people which they deal easily with by dumping them in the US. Americans respond, oh the poor people, they are just trying to take care of their families.
DeleteWhat about the Americans, the teens that are unemployed and cannot find work? What about the HS grads that cannot find work?
Guess that's ok as they have the government to take care of them.
Just try crossing the Mexican border and get a job in Mexico without the right paperwork and see what happens. Try and buy a home in Mexico in your own name.
p.s. I am for the American worker first and the rest of the world later. We have to be proud of a government offering top fly illegals children to the US for free and allow the parents to stay. So much for the rule of law.
Want jobs for teens and HS grads? Cancel the mnimum wage. Tens of thousands of jobs would open up overnight. Want vibrant economy? Cancel all sales taxes for those under thirty five married people that have kids. Want true economic growth? Fire every government worker that doesn't show up next Monday without a doctor's note. Do this three weeks straight and watch productivity in government explode.
DeleteWant real economic elasticity? Form a commission that is tasked to come to congress in less than 60 days with a list of programs that can be immediately slashed. Vote on closure of entire departments within two weeks. Cancel any regulation put in place prior to 1900. Cancel 50% of regulations put into place prior to 1950.
Cut and revitalize.
LOL.
DeleteIf you let them work for free, imagine how many jobs ill appear.
Should they chose which regulations to cut or just whack them according to date?
Talk about extremist.
You're starting to sound like Mick. Open your mind. Thousands of useless regulations support all sorts of wasteful do nothing government hanger ons.
DeleteOr we can just fucking continue to increase our debt year after year until we can wall paper our bathrooms with dollars.
Progressivism is killing the state where I live. I hope it doesn't reach your location. Keep your head buried in your ass and it will sooner than you think.
No one will work for free nimrod. The market will set the rate, kids will have work where they can learn to get off their asses everyday. Or we can just let our cities all turn into Detroit and Newark.
It is extremist and that's why it's ridiculous. It's also why people are never going to give broad support to the tea party because it's fantasy.
DeleteA word about Mexico, there are thousands and thousands of people coming from much further south where the people are fleeing violence. As for the rest, they come because people hire them. They aren't risking their lives for free shit, they are risking their lives for comparatively better wages. Which brings up an excellent point about capitalism that also addresses your question above about HP Lou, name, business owners don't give a shit about ethics when it comes to saving money and earning more profit. If every business was like yours needed intelligent skilled people, it would be a different story. This is one of several downfalls of capitalism.
To me, there is no perfect system. An economic system that grossly rewards a relative few is no more productive or virtuous than a system that rewards many for doing nothing. What William is begging for is for us to look like China, which is to say a shitty smelling chunk of land where the majority are truly peasants and the air quality is so bad you can't even see the sun. Reading Rand, I was captivated by the idea that free markets continuously force everyone to be on top of their game and to compete to stay ahead of others. In the real world, very few want to work hard and even fewer want to be a position to work hard, lose, and have nothing to show for it.
In my Marxist thinking, an economy where you can't make enough to do anything but eat and go to work everyday and not have any sense of security becomes a rigged game. Why bother trying? The government shouldn't be the decider of what is a fair wage, but without it, labor will be squeezed so hard that fucking nickels will scream. Some welcome this and believe it will somehow fix what they believe is wrong with a generation of people they think are spoiled and entitled. Meanwhile, we can't apparently say a word about some asshole executive who makes millions for failure and gets paid even more money to walk away and not work for that company any more. I think we actually had multiple decades where we balanced things out pretty well. No much rich paid in taxes, they always still lived better than everyone else and those who went to work could support a family with a parent who stayed at home and spent time with the kids. Much harder to do that today
I think people who believe in a failed Marxist ideology are fucking assholes.
DeleteWhat do you think about that?
Max.
DeleteIt doesn't need to be this way. As a country we cannot be everything to the world and take care of our own here in this country. Should we allow those fleeing violence in Central America to come here, break our laws and not allow a billion that want to flee violence and poverty in China access? How about the millions in Africa that want to flee violence? How about the millions in the middle east? Why do we not allow everyone access, and just the people to the south. How many are enough? When are we no longer a viable nation as we have 20 million illegals working subsidizing their poverty wages and subsidize 47 million Americans who are in need?
Do we nationalize all business take their profits, pay them 20 bucks an hour as that's all the government can afford? Nationalize healthcare and make healthcare workers, doctors the same as a 30 buck an hour factory worker as that's all the government can afford?
When do we as a nation have a right to declare we are a sovereign nation and everyone not invited must leave now? I see a very dark future for this country, a nation of poor, a nation where wealth has fled vs letting the government take all. A nation run by corrupt politicians milking every dime for themselves. More than today.
This is what our government wanted, a global economy where business moved to the least expensive and least amount of regulation to thrive. What our brilliant politicians didn't figure is that nothing would replace the business that moved with the free trade agreements.
Wages are decided largely by supply and demand.
At the bottom, the more people the less pressure on wages.
In the middle, the expertise and the number of workers in each specialty determines the wages and benefits paid. At the top, same thing.
Why do CEO's make exorbitant wages? Could it be they have a unique skill set and there are few waiting to replace them.
Why do certain athletes make million a year? Could it be their unique skill set and no one else can do what they do as well?
This is the economy our elected officials built for us, Obama, Bush, Clinton, Reid, Boehner, Pelosi, McConnell, etc.
Until we make the hard decisions, i.e. send illegals home, end free trade agreements, begin to take back our economy from the world, this is what we have and will have until the next broad sweeping changes. Might be at 30 trillion or 40 trillion in debt but it will come as this model of America is unsustainable.
Well, you describe the fair and 180 degree counterpoint to what I said. Does it have to be one extreme or the other? No, I don't think it does but seemingly all discussions take one extreme or the other. I've read Adam Smith and all sorts of conservative stuff and honestly, I really don't dispute the laws of supply and demand or the invisible hand. Yet, what I've seen in the real world convinces me there is a gigantic gap that is left unexplained by economic theory.
DeleteYou ask an interesting question, "Why shouldn't we allow those in China the same opportunity to flee violence and poverty?" My response is, if China is booming off the freaking map, why are so many STILL subject to poverty and violence? Rhetorically, my response is that they still suffer because that is what happens when you leave it up to business to decide what is a fair and equitable way to divvy up profits. You see a dark nation where the government takes everything (an extreme I don't see) but for sake of argument, if it is instead a nation where everyone who works below the level of CEO gets shit for wages while those with money simply sit back and just live off wealth while dumping all risk onto everyone else, I have to ask what the FUNCTIONAL difference would be. While you may be happy the government doesn't control everything, I doubt you would be happy with the result of the other situation.
CEO's make absorbinant (neologism intended) wages because they can and because boards of directors are good old boy networks. For close to 20 years, I've seen little more than an arbitrage of labor and production costs. Do they need to make that much money to do their job well? Of course not. They could make plenty of money, and still live far far better than those below them, just as they have always done in this country. Without an outside restraint, however, they will not make that choice. Heck, I don't think I would.
Again, it is the result that interests me. No matter what you want to choose as a cause, there is no denying that for 30 odd years now, we have seen a massive shift in income distribution in this country. Those who work hourly wages or work in salaried non management jobs have seen a steady decline in benefits and wages. Those up the food chain have seen exactly the opposite. It's great to say, "Fuck the poor slob who can't better himself because he deserves to eat crap". Eventually, however, when you have a mass of people who have nothing to lose and little to gain, I believe you have a lot of social problems. THAT is the reality that I think we are headed for. Some of this, I think, will be abated when boomers die and relinquish both jobs and control over the country. Supply and demand will start to favorably swing back toward the slobs. I don't like the idea of the government stepping in to forcibly fix what has become a situation of grotesque income imbalance. But, whereas society might have shamed the top into being a little more equitable, there is now no shame whatsoever in flaunting inequality. The government, to me, is exacerbating the problem by making up the difference through spending and this is creating a double whammy.
And the difference is you attribute the disparity to business. I attribute it to government interference via the Fed, free trade agreements, illegal immigration, etc.
DeleteAny fix the government implement is sure to increase the damage to the economy and people.
I dont' disagree with you Lou, those three things definitely contributed. But it doesn't explain the whole thing for me. Are you suggesting that if we just shut down the Fed and sealed our borders from illegal immigrants and all cheap shit from China that everything here would be perfect?
DeleteI didn't say shut down the Fed. The Fed needs to dial back their intervention.
DeleteAs to illegals, the crossing needs to stop so we can deal with the problem already here. This cannot continue forever without changing our country and not necessarily for the better.
I would suggest reworking free trade agreements to fair trade treatment. Imports equal exports or tariff the balance. The only way to balance the labor difference is by balancing trade.
I don't have all the answers however the government isn;t even trying to correct the issues we face today.
I wish to congratulate all those people who are "beginning to sound like Mick".
ReplyDelete"I think people who believe in a failed Marxist ideology are fucking assholes.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think about that?"
I think William that we have once again reached a point where you have nothing to say and you are snapping at everyone. You are so attached to your labels and if calling me an asshole helps you feel better, I'm okay with that.
Maybe I should use some four letter words. Would that make me sound more intellectual and thoughtful?
ReplyDeleteNo, you would probably sound like the loose cannon that I am. If I could state things as well as you do, I would hope I would be less of a potty mouth!
DeleteI make a joke about purchasing servers and it goes right over your head. I deliberately use your form of argument which is punctuated by the f word in every sentence.
DeleteI call you an a - hole right to your face because you seriously believe that Marxism will truly work if only expedited by the correct group of socialists.
All this goes right over your freaking head max.
I apologize to Mick and his delicate constitution if my jersey guy persona made him reach for the malox. But my point is made that you max don't even consider other arguments prior to spewing your progressive pap. I guess Harry Reid isn't the only jerk off in Vegas.
Yeah, that server still thing still doesn't make any sense to me. To say I don't consider other arguments, however, is ridiculous.
Delete