Whether Western levels of material affluence are possible for all in the absence of exploiting the labor and natural resources of poorer nations remains to be seen. I hope it is and the optimist in me believes it is.
For everyone, though? Is that possible? Will there be no victims in a perfect world?
See...i may be wrong, but I believe that in this game of capitalism, there are always exploited classes in order for the game to work. My basic whine...why I started this topic..is because I feel that the US middle class is currently being exploited.
Even if we educated ourselves and reinvented ourselves for future competition, at best we are only one of many in the race. This is depressing...hardly as exciting as jar makes it sound. Look, im 52 years old, have health issues, and cant run very fast. Jar may think that every day is a big adventure and that life is one big forest full of little surprises waiting to be discovered, but im getting a little tired of having to forage for food. Capitalism is no longer fun. Cant we all just find another planet to exploit or something?
jar writes:
We are always in the "here and now", and competition has always been an issue.
There are no solutions that are any good when the goal is the "here and now".
In order to retire in the future, we must earn liveable wages in the here and now. The math has only gotten harder as the bill increases. People sch as Jon who claim that the educated alone should earn the higher wages better prepare to take care of their parents (and Uncles) because we sure as heck are tired of being exploited by the wealthy and its no wonder we resist being pushed aside by the desperate newly educated poor who want our spot..
I understand that you think the American middle class (do you have anything called a "working class" in America - If so who qualifies?) in particular is getting a raw deal and that you feel a rather strong sense of entitlement and injustice.
But in global standard of living terms I suspect you and I are very much still amongst the richest.
I know. I really sound like a jerk don't I? I just don't want to be on the street when I retire.
I realize that the rest of the world sees my position in life as their dream and aspiration. And this is well and good. My basic question, however, is whether there is room for everyone. Will they take care of an old white guy or will they take care of their own and their kids before me? I dont mind sharing the spot that I feel I have earned through working hard for thirty years (and being American, of course) but I worry that I may get pushed out of line.
What is the answer? I dunno. I would like to think that the present course is unsustainable and that things like the occupy movement are the beginning of something bigger. But the pessimist in me is less confident that we won't end up blaming those even poorer than ourselves for our ills whilst the richest race ever further into the distance.
I heard an incredible though as yet unverifiable fact.(actually 2)
1) We borrow 42 cents of every dollar.
2) Even if every citizen were taxed at 100%, it wouldn't balance the budget.
You do know that debt and budget are two different things don't you?
Yes. Deficit and debt are also two different things.
My point is that we are already in too deep. Even if we eliminated the yearly deficit,(1.5 trillion most recently) and paid 500 billion towards reducing the debt, we would have to do both of these things for fifty years in a row.
It aint gonna happen that way. We likely will inflate the debt away.
Do you understand what "inflate the debt away" means?
Not entirely. I searched and found this from The Economist Magazine....(in a blog)Repress, then inflate and it appears that people agree that it wouldn't be easy and likely would destroy much of the savings of private citizens.
Its a lot easier to suffer all at once and get it over with than it is to pay a debt for fifty years.
Thus I suppose we cant inflate the debt away. What we need to do is prevent the rest of the world from adopting a new global reserve currency for trade apart from the US Dollar. If they sink us, it would destroy our recovery. Gas would cost a fortune. Taxes would go up up up.
14. Including dividends, the S&P 500 gained 135% from March 2009 through January 2013, during what people remember as the "Great Recession." It gained the exact same amount from 1996 to 2000, during what people remember as the "greatest bull market in history."----My Niece has a Masters degree in education and is having trouble finding a job. So much for college degrees!
26. U.S. charitable giving was $298 billion in 2011, according to the Giving USA Foundation. That's more than the GDP of all but 33 countries in the world.----I think that this is where the money is. I need to start a 501C3 organization! There are many worthy things I could do with the 1% money!
52. The number of workers aged 55 and up is about to surpass the number of workers aged 24 to 34 for the first time ever.----This is where I fit in. We are getting older, grayer, and louder! Expect a new wave of aging activists!
Here it is 2013, and I'm still working at Safeway and still whining, though less than I did before. So far, my union has been strong enough to keep the doomsday scenarios from happening, although we are getting self checkouts installed this month.
88. We are used to hearing how much faster the earnings of the top 1% grow compared with everyone else's, but we often forget that it used to be the other way around. From 1943 to 1980, the annual incomes of the bottom 90% of Americans doubled in real terms, while the average income of the top 1% grew just 23%, according to Robert Frank.
I miss the good old days. When I graduated from High School in 1977, I was making $2.75 an hour. two years later I landed a job that paid me $4.00 an hour...as a line cook.
If we were to take that 1980 $4.00 and extrapolate it through an inflation adjustment calculator, it would be roughly equal to the $17.00 an hour that I now make.
I dont know whats sadder...the fact that I make the same as I made out of High School, or the fact that the minimum wage is half what I make....which is a sad commentary on so many levels.
According to an article in the local paper, it is becoming more difficult for younger folk to find 'good' work. Not because there isn't work to be done, but because decreasing retirement/pension plan opportunities are forcing older workers to stay at their jobs longer. In the past they would have retired comfortably in their fifties; many now work well into their sixties.
Imagine spending the last sixteen to twenties years of your life in school only to have to wait ten more years for a suitable job to open up, and being forced into minimum wage crap labor that is insufficient for starting or raising a family regardless of how many hours you work.
I feel your pain, but we all need to work together to address these problems. Imagine being near retirement age and being unable to retire! Both old and young have problems....and it would be unwise for us to fight each other. Perhaps if health care costs were taken care of, more old folks could afford to retire.
I just don't want to be on the street when I retire.
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