Comments on: CBS Poll: The Middle Class Squeeze
Majority Think Life Has Gotten More Difficult For Middle Class
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- "A Rising Tide Lifts All Yachts"
The principle behind the Bush tax cuts. - Reply to this comment
- "Myself before any other." --- The new GOP slogan for the 21st Century.
Posted by acauble1 at 06:28 PM : Apr 15, 2007
Oh... and one other thing...
Based on the record of the GOP in the past six years, (and beyond)....
... JESUS WOULD URINATE ON TODAY'S CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN PARTY! - Reply to this comment
- Personally, I'd like to see some one from the GOP side layout all the great and wonderous things the GOP model has brought us in the last 6 years.
From where I sit, they've been a complete disaster.
Posted by jpesot at 06:04 PM : Apr 15, 2007
.........
As this story suggests, the GOP model has brought 'wonderous things' to those who primarily have annual incomes well into the six digits and higher. And it's primarily those people who will defend the GOP and Bush till the bitter end. These wealthier Americans will defend Bush's policies, including the war in Iraq, not because they totally believe in it, but only because they have more money in their wallets thanks to the Bush administration. Sadly, that's all that matters for many of those "Americans" in the upper income brackets.
"Myself before any other." --- The new GOP slogan for the 21st Century. - Reply to this comment
- How long has it been since a republican president has won a war?
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- Did they create a new Deal? Win a War? Balance the Budget? Improve Health Care? Improve life for the average American? Improve the Environment? Stablize the middle east? Improve the US's standing in the world? Medicare? Social Security?
No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.-Posted by jpesot
LOL!! Well of course they were just about to get to it, but first they had to ban gay marriage and make sure they tacked on "We support our troops" to the "We support the way George Bush is running the war in Iraq" resolution. - Reply to this comment
- To understand why the middle class is shrinking first understand that Bush is a scholar(?) of Hobbes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hobbes#Leviathan
And just as the Cold War and The Truman Doctrine instilled fear into the hearts of Americans, so too the WMD instilled fear. So if one examines http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfowitz_Doctrine and sees how leviathan's plan was to be carried out by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, the World Bank and the IMF and WTO at the cost of the middle class (all in the name of helping our society survive as Hobbes put it at all costs) by borrowing huge amounts of dollars and distributing them to the military economy and the third world democracies (now 185). And with the annexation of the 10 USSR nations into NATO and into the IMF, Russia is back into Cold War mode. So Cheney is certain that the congress will not cut off spending, as they can't, or the dollar can and will collapse. While the battle seems to be raging in Iraq, even greater battles are being fought where Russia, Iran and OPEC are aligned to change the OIL trading business entirely into EUROs from dollars causing a ripple effect, where our biggest creditors Japan and China would have no choice but to demand their debt be repaid. This might cause the weakest of the 185 democracies to fold and the dollar to collapse as the $ has no gold backing.
So consider yourself lucky, for now, as you might need an AK-47 and won%u2019t be able to buy bullets without $s. - Reply to this comment
- Its interesting to see so many posts reaching back a few decades on this topic -- rather than to look at what has occurred since the GOP controlled the executive, legislative and judicial branches.
If their philosophy worked, surely after 6 years of their control we'd see more evidence.
For 6 years, congress did what ever Bush wanted, and in return, Bush let the GOP pork up every bill.
They put cronnies in every office they could, in every department they could.
The GOP control of the US has been as complete as it has ever been.
Did they create a new Deal? Win a War? Balance the Budget? Improve Health Care? Improve life for the average American? Improve the Environment? Stablize the middle east? Improve the US's standing in the world? Medicare? Social Security?
No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
Personally, I'd like to see some one from the GOP side layout all the great and wonderous things the GOP model has brought us in the last 6 years.
From where I sit, they've been a complete disaster. - Reply to this comment
- Organized Labor can be Unions. Or it can be People Organizing in Mass to protect themselves FROM the Government. Your Labor (resources) are what The American Elite want.
A Middle Class is typically the class between The Elite/The Rich and the Poor. The Middle Class typically makes a certain amount of Money. Enough to make investments, save, start businesses, or waste on materialistic goods.
We live in a Corporate Controlled Fascist Country. Small business is being slaughtered by Corporations. Where there use to be Mom & Pop store we now have a Walmart, Walgreens, Gamestop, McDonalds on every corner. ONE Wal Mart consistes on 20 small businesses. One Microsoft consists on 100's of smaller computer companies that could have existed if not for the crushing, MONOPOLISTIC actions of Microsoft.
I love the idiots that say Wal Mart has a Competitor - Target. The question being... CAN YOU START A BUSINESS AND COMPETE WITH WAL MART??? No way.
We were ruled by MONOPOLIES in the late 1800's. Carnegie, Rockerfellar, J.P. Morgan. The Robber Barons. We are RULED by MONOPOLIES not. The American Elite. - Reply to this comment
- When an entry level helpdesk support job that pays $10/hr demands nothing less than a BACHELOR'S degree, there's a huge problem afoot.
hawksprings - your Dem argument is accepted. Now tell me what Republicans are doing to spare us the indignity of slavery that Dems purportedly put us in? And if Repubs are so much anti-slavery, how come they no longer shout "We are the party of Lincoln!"? Or even "We are the party of fiscal responsibility!"? MORE IMPORTANTLY, how come republicans give welfare to large, successful corporations? (you may know it as 'government subsidy'.) In short, both sides don't give a frig about the working class. And if it wasn't for the working class, there would be NO upper class at all.
king77shaw - China cannot be our enemy. Otherwise we wouldn't have been doing what we have been since the early 1970s. Even liberals loved Nixon's visit to China and the subsequent low-low-priced goods that came from it. - Reply to this comment
- Here's a statistic for you: an average entry-level college grad with a degree in science or engineering had his/her salary drop by 27% between 1967 and 2007 (Source Chicago Tribune, see Chicago Magazine April issue for discussion).
That's not a misprint - the entry level salary for Engineers had not just dropped in the last 40 years but dropped significantly.
Posted by chicagotp at
Chicagotp, did you see the story last week about the 2008 H1B1 visas being snapped up in one day? The tech companies are clamoring for more, they claim they can't find technical people but what they mean is those willing to work 30 to 40% under market value. The company I work for is one of the biggest offenders, you would be hard pressed to differentiate my stateside campus from Bangalore if you didn't know where you were. - Reply to this comment
- king77shaw, so the Welfare state put in place by Democrats 40+ years ago has NOTHING to do with making people dependent on Government and having a 'vast working poor,' does it.
Democrats have been and still are the party of slavery.
Posted by hawksprings at 12:33 PM : Apr 15, 2007
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What the HELL are you babbling about. Now follow along here and for God's sake take off that stupid Hood and Sheet. When the Democrats and FDR took over this nation it was in COMPETE shambles. The Stock Market had crashed and the Radical Right Wing Nazi's were attempting to take over ALL of Europe. FDR put in place an Economic Plan that remained in place until we got stupid and went with Trickle Down. During those 70 PLUS years this nation went from that low to become the Greatest Economic Superpower on the PLANET. Unlike today we could PROUDLY proclaim the HIGHEST standard of living in the entire WORLD. Not ONCE in all those years did we fall OUT of that position. That's just a matter of RECORD Sparky. Now you can put your hood and sheet back on!! Sieg Heil Y'all. - Reply to this comment
- Hawksprings when you get up in the morning how do you remember to breath the air? In all my life I have never seen so many followers like today. But the good news is the 60's may be comming back thanks to you clowns. Those were the times when people though for themsleves and did not listen to someone who hears voices and sees a 900 foot Jesus. Wonder if they are on meds or maybe they should be.
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- last part of my spiel:
But wait haven't non college educated blue collar workers gotten hammered since 1970? Yes they have - and so have tech workers since 2000. The tech wreck has decimated the field since 2000. It's a financial bloodbath with aggregate employment, income and everything else down by double digits.
Yet you don't hear the media talk much about it. You still hear discussion about the loss of manf jobs but not about the loss (in America) of tech jobs. Why? I suspect it does not jibe with the "skills" myth.
Bottom line: the middle class is getting hammered. - Reply to this comment
- Americans are beginning to realize that this so called war on "terror", and the war in Iraq is not to protect American interests but corporate interests, an increasing number of which are not even basing there operations in the US ... which is why we can't get enough people to fight these wars... unfortunately, the overwhelming burden is falling on the very middle class that these Republican policies are supressing ...
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- well, we could go back farther than 40 years and include the New Deal ... I would argue that since that time until the Reagan years, the middle class enjoyed unprecedented growth and prosperity ... since Reagan, the real welfare state has nothing to do with "we the people" and everything to do with "we the corporation" so much so that it threatens the very definition of what America is ... we borrow billions daily from China (a communist country) just to stay afloat while at the same time giving tens of billions in tax breaks to Exxon/Mobil, who once again are boasting record quarterly profits ... we are selling huge chunks of our freeway systems and ports to the highest international bidder because America needs the money, while at the same time our troops are fighting Halliburton's war, they're moving to Dubai to avoid paying US taxes - needless to say, they're profits are through the roof as well ... is this national security ? WE had a brief economic respite with Clinton but he sold out to corporate interests as well with NAFTA - for decades we had laws (tariffs) in place that protected the American way of life - good employment, good health, good education, a comfortable retirement - that was the America we were willing to go to war for, to protect those interests ...
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- What about statistics showing an ever greater disparity between college grads and non college grads and the idea that more "skills" are the key to making more money? Well the college/non college disparity has been increasing but not for the reasons that are implied and the business about skills is just fraudulent.
The growing gap in the U.S. economy is almost solely due to massive increases in the management/authority sector - the top 10% and most especially the to 1%. Also professional athletes, Hollywood stars and top lawyers have seen huge gains. These are the ONLY sectors that have seen consistent gains since 1970.
The salaries for all college grads have only risen because the overwhelming majority of management jobs require a college degree. The real line should be "if you want to make more money be the boss" not "if you want more money get a college degree". Key point: even those in management without a degree saw big increases since 1970 - think Bill Gates.
Also when college vs. non college comparisons are made typically the sick, those in prison, the disabled and so forth are counted in the "non college" category. IE people with problems to begin with. If you narrow the comparison to healthy people who *chose* to get blue collar employment rather than college the picture is very different. Basically there is no advantage to college unless you go into management. None. Nada. Zip. This contrasts sharply to the picture before 1970. - Reply to this comment
- The middle class is getting hammered and the so called "liberal" media is not getting half the story out there because actual numbers would call into question some of the basic economic "truths" of post WWII America. Truths that we really want to believe in.
Here's a statistic for you: an average entry-level college grad with a degree in science or engineering had his/her salary drop by 27% between 1967 and 2007 (Source Chicago Tribune, see Chicago Magazine April issue for discussion).
That's not a misprint - the entry level salary for Engineers had not just dropped in the last 40 years but dropped significantly. - Reply to this comment
- What Middle Class??
The ONLY opposition to a FASCIST GOVERNMENT is ORGANIZED LABOR and a HEALTHY MIDDLE CLASS.
We the People will be seeing CIVIL WAR in America again. - Reply to this comment
- the squeezing of the middle class is by design - a careful plan put in place by economic conservatives (i.e. Republicans) over the last 35 years ... a vibrant middle class means a participatory democracy which elitist Republicans hate because they lose control/power ... so it began with Reagan's war on unions, his deficit spending, absurd funding levels of the military and corporate welfare for the Reublican elite ... all the while, middle America has to have two bread winners to attempt to tread water ... big oil & big pharma aren't feeling the pinch and neither is Wall St. - the Republican goal of a small ruling elite, a small middle class and a vast working poor is becoming a reality ... here is the neo-con American dream ... trickle down is just not trickling ...
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- Don't know what your situation is Hawksprings but people doing an honest days work earning the typical income are facing a grim future. It's not so much what is happening now with people's ability to purchase all the material *** marketed at them but what will happen when people need to retire in their latter years. The ones who think they are doing well are the type that have inadequate foresight and planning. This type may struggle someday even if they earned twice what they earn now.
The fact is, it is virtually impossible for most americans to sufficiently save for retirement even if doing all the right things. The real feces will be hitting the fan in the future if this isn't dealt with and I doubt it will be. This type of evolvement isn't good for this country or any other.
One of the problems with right wing extremists is they think like an island till their own nest is spoiled.
Lou Dobbs is republican just to remind. - Reply to this comment
Mike Huckabee on GOP "rock stars," 2012, health care reform and more.
