In 2007, Ralph Gomory, head of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, testified before Congress: "When you adjust wages for inflation, middle class workers in the United States make less money today than they did back in 1971:"
Corporations have always done what is best for them. It is the lack of true representation that has lead to the current catastrophe. Every problem in modern America stems from the unholy alliance of the private sector and a new political class, whom serve more as a statist mafia, letting the other half write policy, protected from encroachment, so long as the statist mafia get their racket dues.
This is what happens when the central bank prints money and gives it to all its rich friends. The new money reduces our real wages, and the banksters get the profit.
This makes no sense. An underclass is a particular problem in income dynamics whereby we have a significant proportion of the population who show no upward income mobility. That clearly isn't the case with the middle classes. One can refer to reductions in median income, and such like, but there is still substantial income volatility. The whinge about globalisation was just pathetic!
Even the corporate-state apolagists at CNN concede what you are denying. The so called free trade system is actually a mixture of neoliberalism and protectionism. The nanny state for the centers of power and neoliberalism for everyone else.
The use of the term underclass was wrong. There is no question in it One can certainly refer to the harm generated by neo-liberalism. However, that harm has been focused on the 'poor south' (i.e. the developing world). Whinge and whine about the US middle classes, given the absolute poverty problems encouraged, is really rather unpalatable!
yep, where does all that interest go that we pay the fed to print us new money that they then loan it to us? the gov needs to take over the federal reserve .
The Federal Reserve is essentially a part of the government--albeit independent of the democratic process. If by government you mean Congress, it should be clear that Congress will be no better than the Fed.
In Canada, 78% of the GDP is service sector, and the United States is not that far behind...as are all western cultured societies, social democracies etc. The middle class has evaporated, not due to greed or capitalism...but due to what historically happens to advanced socities. Manufactoring is limited, and the Primary sector is radically dimisnished, and the service sector becomes dominant. The blame of the above, becomes political cannon fodder for any party looking to distort the realities.
Oh yeah, the system wasnt designed to enrich and empower the centers of power at everyone else's expense. It wasnt designed to transfer major decision making processes to unnacountable multinational corporations and financial institutions. It was put together by a bunch of populists and this is just the way it turned out. Get real.. The problem is not capitalism. It's corporate-state capitalism. "Governments dont rule the world. Goldman Sachs rules the world."
Technically not true. The American middle class gets hurt worse because of a few factors that are unique in America's economy. The poor are generally taken care of through social welfare programs, the middle class don't qualify for these assistance programs so when money gets tight for them they feel it worse. Also, they pay the bulk of taxation at the local level so when things like property taxes, fuel, utilities of various forms rises, they feel it first. We don't even need to get into the higher costs of College or trade school for their children. Higher costs of food considering they wouldn't qualify for food stamps. It's hard when the middle class is struggling in America. They have to dig deep and budget. Unlike the poor, who generally get assistance. Unless they are responsible poor people and don't have a bunch of kids out of wedlock. Than they get nothing.
Wrong! I've used the term "underclass" correctly. The thread's title, by definition, makes no sense. The US has higher poverty than most other developed nations and also the least effective poverty alleviation welfare state. It would be true to remark that the US is inefficient at providing certain public goods, such as healthcare goods. However, that cannot be used to suggest an underclass. That just shows that right wing rhetoric has enabled an inefficient equilibrium.
