China is building flying taxis, and we can’t finish a train in California. Our grandparents bought homes with 3 years of work. We need 10+. College was a summer job—now it’s half a year’s wages and decades of debt. And they tell us “real wages are up”? This is the biggest lie in American economic history. RAND says $79 trillion was stolen. I break it down—no jargon, just truth.
Let's not forget the illicit drugs being used to numb the powerlessness they feel as their futures crumble around them while poverty, mass incarceration, and medical bills threaten to swallow them whole. Suffice it to say that this trauma being experienced right now is likely to result in long-term repercussions that we can't even imagine yet. I hope I'm wrong.
I will point out the offshoring the privatization of industries ( for profit), the repeal of tax and other laws that helped keep corporate and private earningsand influence in check - began in a big way with Reagan. That was what supply side economics was all about- still is. this is when our love affair with debt began. No longer did we need to pay out bills we could finance our future in perpetuity. The debt was needed to cover the shortfalls- just so happens you can’t offer the same benefits with less $$.
You can pick whatever party you want to blame - but you can’t exempt the other. I will also encourage folks to look at legislation passed since 1980 and see what legislation had the biggest positives for People not corporations. Yet people still vote for leopards to eat their faces.
Yes we need to do better, we are reliving the late 1800s early 1900s - that was not a time to aspire to unless you are a robber baron. We need to demand and expect more from our government and representatives. It should be governments job to protect its citizens. Ours has been working for corporations and the rich for a long time.
In a word, things get worse when the primary motive is $ and more and more $. When businesses care more about investors than employees - things get worse for us. When we moved away from having pension plans, better healthcare etc because we bought the company line hook line and sinker- that cutting employment costs would be good for everyone. Nope that benefits the owners and investors.
The offshoring of jobs was probably inevitable. We like cheap goods. Give an American an option buy American for $25 of foreign for $10. Guess which one they are likely to choose🤔. Very likely more jobs were lost due to automation than strictly moving offshore. However for sake of argument if we didn’t move any jobs offshore- many of those would still be gone due to automation. If we had been more protectionist - that would likely mean less competition and very likely a lower GDP and fewer jobs all around. Think the American car manufacturers who used to plan for “repairs” and had lower quality standards- why ? No competition. ( or a perceived lack of competition).
We have grown because of globalization. That said many of these jobs do require post secondary education. We need to address that issue. It is an Issue especially in the digital economy we have today. Not everyone needs a 4 year college degree, but we may need to provide access to job training and technical schools. The idea you leave high school get hired by the local paper mill and are set for life without additional schooling doesn’t exist in a big way anymore.
We can argue pros cons pluses minuses place blame point fingers all we want. None of that helps us in this moment. We can take lessons learned and apply them to our collective futures.
There is still more that unites us regardless of political party. We want to be able provide food, clothing,and shelter for ourselves and those we love. We want affordable healthcare- no one should go into debt to be healthy. Education, the ability to retire, economic stability. We need to pay attention to the environment. Believe global warming or not- no one can deny the increase in frequency and intensity of global weather events- if we can have any positive impact shouldn’t we?
We can’t keep tearing each other down. Right now we are in a right vs wrong situation; not a right vs left situation. By all means bring your wish list let’s have robust discussions, let’s understand each other, let’s also bring our ears and hear each other.
Go have a conversation with your spouse or significant other - let me know how it goes when you say “you always, you never, you did, you failed etc. the blame game generally falls on deaf ears. The same will happen if you bring finger pointing and blaming.
Why is it we tend to think our constitution does not need fixing? Perhaps it's because we really don't want to be a "democracy." Or maybe it's because we are comfortable with minority rule, even while it decimates our environment for profit and cripples the average American with debt.
Whatever your gripe is these days, be it climate change, immigration, corruption, education, healthcare, it all goes back to the framers intentions to suppress the democratic spirit of "the mob." Maybe they were right. So far, "the mob" has not figured out their game. We have not organized ourselves to deliberate over a new constitution, one that is fully democratic and fully effective. One the protects the majority from the minority of the opulent! Thats our bad.
The future is on our hands, we have the right to make and to alter our constitutions of government, but no one has a clue about what that mans or what we could create. We all have better face the facts. This is a break the glass moment. We need to think and act decisively.
The Democratic Party needs to embrace Bernie Sanders and quit running away from him. If they had embraced him years ago we would be in a different world. If they had embraced him instead of Hillary in 2015, we would live in an unimaginably different world. It’s time to stop trying to compete as Republican-Lite. The Democratic Party leadership has to go.
Trump just crashed the economy the worst it’s ever been crashed by any president, destroyed the US as leader of the world in tech and science, is in the process of destroying any possibility for future gains by the next generations, and violated the constitution multiple times.
Oh, he’s destroying our alliances as well. Which means the dollar will not keep us rich anymore.
Nobody knows why for sure—but it’s worth noting that any oversight of the corporations or the rich or ability to tax them for any public benefit is probably gone for good.
So most people will be focused on that, not on this long-term problem of destroying the middle class that was also initiated by Republicans—Ronald Reagan.
What Trump did just dwarfed that. There will be no middle class now.
“So how do families survive? Xanax, SSRIs, and Debt. Crushing DEBT.”
Far and away the biggest thing there was the extended period of EZ cheap credit and related crap like payday loans.
But another huge factor was offshoring. It was a two-edged blade, as it were. While threw away relatively good jobs, the upside was depressed prices to balanced depressed wages.
Thanks to Trump, who can only do things the worst way possible, a huge percentage of workers and maybe professionals will be getting depressed wages, much higher costs and yet more reduced buying power.
Right back to the Gilded Age as the GOP’s dreamt for over a century…
"The system is rigged against you" are words straight out of Elizabeth Warren's and Bernie Sander's mouths. And Kamala Harris campaigned for the construction of 3 million new housing units, working “in partnership with industry to build the housing we need, both to rent and to buy, and to take down barriers that stand in the way of building new housing, including at the state and local levels.”
And we all know what FOX and the Republicans have called that - that dirty word called SOCIALISM. Never trust the government! Obama wanted Healthcare for all, but the Tea Party railed against it. Protests depicting Obama as Hitler and the Joker, signs of "No Big Government!, Obama makes me Sick!" Conservatives even have always railed against Social Security, wanting it privatized. Exactly what they are doing now.
Unfortunately most Dems, rather than educating voters to the fact we are a very large society requiring a strong government committed to supporting the people, particularly when the free market is obviously failing us, ran the other way in fear of repercussion from the accusations of socialism. They were afraid to back Warren and Sanders. And undoubtedly, one of the disasters of Citizens United was the fact Dems felt forced to go after corporate money to compete in elections, leaving particularly the older Dems now beholden to that free market support.
Unbridled free markets is exactly the goal of the oligarchs. Bezos came right out and stated that to his Washington Post employees. That is the fight. Unbridled free markets in control of our government, or a government for the people, for a people who not only understand, but demand that their government protect their well-being. That means stop being brainwashed by FOX.
I'm told Democrats are weak on messaging, and that seems very correct. Someone up there has to figure out a way to frame what you are talking about. Strong government committed to supporting the people. Why is that so difficult to explain in a clear manner?
That's a good question. When a valid concept has been demonized by a political party, the opposition must stay loyal to their beliefs, doubling down on the importance of it. Not forsake it out of fear, which to me describes the Dems reaction. Strong government committed to supporting the people. There you go.
I've seen complaints about the Dem party going whatever direction the polls currently point. "Socialism" doesn't poll well. So they just let the label stick instead of fighting it. How about saying it's not Socialism, but Social Democracy? That's as opposed to Free Market Democracy that seems to be the prevailing beliefs of current Dem leadership. Social Democracy would advocate for social programs that benefit all citizens, by appropriately regulating corporations and financial systems.
The right was so successful in their anti- socialism campaign that we are now experiencing, in real life, what happens when oligarchs take control of our government for the purpose of eradicating government as a service, and replacing it with a greedy free market. Our taxes go in their pockets.
No more lectures on what would happen IF. Life can teach some hard realities, but perhaps there will be a coming together in our country with a new respect for the purpose of government.
So if we know that many Democrats, elected Democrats at least, are too afraid to back the kind of policies needed to put us back on track then wouldn't it be reasonable to ask that our Progressive leaders work hard to replace those incumbents that refuse to fix things?
My entire theory is based on building a Democratic party that resonates with an overwhelming majority of Americans. And I think the only way to do that is to rebuild it. I don't think the current Democratic party has it exists is going to fare well going forward but maybe I'm wrong.
This is spot on. One of my degrees is in economics, and I was always bothered by some of the assumptions, especially in macroeconomics.
For example, when housing shifted from the durable goods market to the asset market, they said it was due to supply issues but what I saw was a wage collapse. It was just hidden in the form of an asset bubble.
Essentially, if you bought a house at $100K years ago but it is now worth $400K, some people would see that as being $300K richer; I see it as being poorer overall. Why? Because you probably wouldn't be able to afford that same house now without the equity you gained. So that equity is hiding a wage collapse--one that everyone else without equity is struggling to navigate. And for those with equity, it's only a matter of time before your equity runs out (or gets squeezed out through the manipulation of the markets by those who can afford a crash and have plans to gleefully soak up the assets that people have to shed to stay afloat during the collapse) and the collapse comes for you.
But since most people don't understand how the economy works, or the games being played (like with the money created out of thin air by our fractional reserve system), we bear the brunt of the burden.
The antidote? Articles like this.
Information rooted in truth is the best way to change the direction we are currently headed; a better way won't happen without informed citizens making informed (and responsible) choices. That's a lot easier to do with solid information that makes sense of the fuckery going on within our broken and dying systems--thanks for your contribution!!
The funny thing about economics is that it’s really psychological and sociological yet the profession likes to treat it and hold it out as a hard science like physics. It’s that at times to a degree but as something of an exception to the rule. Sort of like if the rule of gravity depended on people believing in it.
Exactly!!!! My other degree is in biochemistry, which made it really hard to see economics as a true "science". It leans closer that way on the micro level, but even there, I noticed some pretty wild assumptions. Macroeconomics was especially painful for me because it seemed to rely too heavily on data that doesn't paint a complete picture.
My Strategic Management professor said it best: never run a business (or economy) by numbers alone, because those numbers, no matter how well calculated, don't tell the full story; the better you understand the story behind the numbers, the better you will be able to manage and grow them.
Conservatives are now, and always have been - predators.
Liberals are now, and always have been - scavengers.
Without ever knowing why, i registered Decline to State in 1973. That's independent.
But in 1965-66, I read Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, as a high school senior. Many human behaviors I had witnessed within my own very conservative upbringing suddenly made sense. It was not rocket science, it was raw lust - for power, for control, for vicious sex, for landed property, for the pure greed of violence and its raw destruction.
Then I read about the Egyptians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Spanish, the English, the Dutch, the Belgians, the Huns, the Mongols. Looked just like Americans to me.
Behind all of this I saw impulse. Inability to control one's behaviors, one's thoughts, one's values. It went against discipline, authority, dominance of the just. But it was the just who were doing these things, in the name of obedience to some god.
So it became clear to me that gods could do whatever they wanted, with no inhibitions, and much violence to those who objected to the powers of impulse. In my very religious matriarchal family, not my father's, a god was everything, and all who espoused those powers were somehow invested with them, if they only took advantage of the opportunity to enact them.
Yes, there were laws, rules, expectations. But soon enough I saw that most of these protected the law enforcers against the 'defined' law breakers. And these 'permissions' based upon lust for power became the norm, not the exception. It happened in bullying, lying, cheating, name calling, sports, classroom work, relationships, family hierarchy, social politics, economics, education, careers.
And behind it all was the religious mythology of having the mafia boss on your side, who used you, protected you, promoted you, exiled you, defined your very existence as a pleve of the patron. Do what he would do, in his name, and he would find you useful.
Observe what the 'murkan constitution was created around - a creator of infinite power. Even Jefferson could not eliminate the ghost in the document, as the elusive language in the First Amendment ignores. And what behavior actually pleases the 'murkan god? The accumulation of wealth, the first tier of power in the ladder to heaven.
And this triune being was, quizzically, very white, very European, very christian. The Romans created this being to prop up their flailing empire, and infected all of their geographic domain with its mythology and bizarre magic. The last feather in the cap of impulsive power - a magical monster who could deliver a get-out-of-hell-free card for obeying the rules without question. Obey, without question, and all is good. Question authority, and you are toast.
What Trent has detailed is the End Game of the religious myth of exclusions for righteousness. Rules are for the weak, the poor, the uneducated, the 'minority,' the diseased, the sick, the unlucky, the victimized. Anyone who allows themselves to be victimized is unworthy of salvation, or, for that matter, of justice.
In Call Me Ishmael, Daniel Quinn presents humanity as divided into two groups - Takers and Leavers. I would modify this to Takers and Victims. A constitution written by Takers disallows any honest justice for victims, regardless of what we see taking place in our society. Only after persons become victims is their some potential balm on the many wounds of the Taken. And the costs are enormous to society, family, the 'economy,' and mostly the dignity and health of those victimized.
TFG and the maga cabal are the bottom of the barrel of the purposeful rape of the 'murkan citizenry, the penultimate grift, the deranged addiction to impulse, ignoring even self-respect or causality. To take any of this back, via some populist governance, will demand a purge of not only the corrupt Taker class, but also the Stockholm Syndrome of guilt and shame of the Victims.
We are not innocent in this fiasco. We have drunk the koolaid, even when the ingredients on the bottle vividly state that it is poison. Whether predator or scavenger, or prey or roadkill, we must murder the Nazi in each one of us. Hitler, just like Trump, felt victimized and unjustly treated. This is the tragic disappointment of the seduction to godhood, which is the ultimate mistake of humanity. We are and always have been victims of our greatest fear - that we are not, and never will be, the final triumph of biologic or supernatural life.
Beautiful thought. But the billionaires run our political parties. Hell, a billionaire is president, and the world's richest man is firing as many people as he can. I don't know what kind of movement you think is going to happen, when the people needed for the movement don't have the time or money to do anything, per your article.
I was born in 1963, and it sucked then too. Stagflation in the seventies with Jimmy Carter. Interest rates on homes over 12 percent. Things really didn’t get better until the nineties. My mom and dad never owned a home. Not ever.
It's pretty simple really. The framers invented a form of government that would protect the minority of the opulent from the majority. We continue to use their system today. Being the first constitutional democracy, our political system is glaringly outdated. Just take a look at some of the constitutions in Western Europe, South Africa, New Zealand, Norway!
If we want to fix any of this, we have to start by fixing the actual source of our problem. Our undemocratic constitution must be replaced with a fully democratic one, one that represents the majority of Americans and protects them, our communities, and our environment, from the minority of the opulent.
Minority rule has now become an existential threat. It is appalling that more Americans do not recognize the failure of their political system to serve them, not this oligarchy. Even Bernie Sanders can't admit it. Yet. It's as if we have become accustomed to minority rule and actually think it's better for us than governing ourselves!
I now believe we have a moral obligation to abolish this constitution peacefully and to peacefully replace it with one that is suitable for the 21st-century and the challenges we face, as well as the opportunities.
Tune in to this podcast if you would like to join the Peaceful Political Revolution in America. If we really want to unbreak America we will have to come together in convention of the people, to deliberate over a new constitution for the United States of America. Let's get going!
This is straight out of Trump and the Republican party's play book. It's only broken because they've been working to break it for so long, only so they can now point at it and say "see!" as we all lament and agree how broken it is. Mission accomplished, I guess.
Some things are broken, yes. But many things are working as intended and genuinely do a lot of good - Medicare, Medicaid, our disability system, public safety and in many ways even our school system (flawed though it is). The courts have done a pretty good job of blunting extremism and tamping down on corruption (with a glaring exception for Trump's criminality). And providing foreign aid (like what USAID used to do) is just the right thing for those who care about other to do.
So, we've gotten a lot of things right - until the arsonists took over, of course.
All of these things are now under direct assault because Trump and the republican party do not care about the rule of law and they just want to tear it ALL down. They hate empathy because they are a party of sociopaths. All they care about is holding power, gaining wealth and watching the world burn.
But we still have a lot left to lose. Is our time and energy better spent fighting our enemy, or amongst ourselves? Do we have the capacity to do both at the same time? Unclear.
I disagree with your fundamental assessment that it was just the. Republicans that worked to break this system and that things are going well.
Both Medicare and Medicaid are overpaying due to an out-of-control Healthcare System. Our Public School Systems and school systems, in general, are not producing nearly enough scientists, Engineers, tradespeople, thinkers, or builders.
I don't know anything about you or your background or your current situation but there are a lot of people in this country that are struggling very very hard to make ends meet and too often they have been ignored by both parties. I think the inability of democratic voters to see this has put us in a very precarious position as a party.
The link to the study is broken.
Let's not forget the illicit drugs being used to numb the powerlessness they feel as their futures crumble around them while poverty, mass incarceration, and medical bills threaten to swallow them whole. Suffice it to say that this trauma being experienced right now is likely to result in long-term repercussions that we can't even imagine yet. I hope I'm wrong.
I will point out the offshoring the privatization of industries ( for profit), the repeal of tax and other laws that helped keep corporate and private earningsand influence in check - began in a big way with Reagan. That was what supply side economics was all about- still is. this is when our love affair with debt began. No longer did we need to pay out bills we could finance our future in perpetuity. The debt was needed to cover the shortfalls- just so happens you can’t offer the same benefits with less $$.
You can pick whatever party you want to blame - but you can’t exempt the other. I will also encourage folks to look at legislation passed since 1980 and see what legislation had the biggest positives for People not corporations. Yet people still vote for leopards to eat their faces.
Yes we need to do better, we are reliving the late 1800s early 1900s - that was not a time to aspire to unless you are a robber baron. We need to demand and expect more from our government and representatives. It should be governments job to protect its citizens. Ours has been working for corporations and the rich for a long time.
In a word, things get worse when the primary motive is $ and more and more $. When businesses care more about investors than employees - things get worse for us. When we moved away from having pension plans, better healthcare etc because we bought the company line hook line and sinker- that cutting employment costs would be good for everyone. Nope that benefits the owners and investors.
The offshoring of jobs was probably inevitable. We like cheap goods. Give an American an option buy American for $25 of foreign for $10. Guess which one they are likely to choose🤔. Very likely more jobs were lost due to automation than strictly moving offshore. However for sake of argument if we didn’t move any jobs offshore- many of those would still be gone due to automation. If we had been more protectionist - that would likely mean less competition and very likely a lower GDP and fewer jobs all around. Think the American car manufacturers who used to plan for “repairs” and had lower quality standards- why ? No competition. ( or a perceived lack of competition).
We have grown because of globalization. That said many of these jobs do require post secondary education. We need to address that issue. It is an Issue especially in the digital economy we have today. Not everyone needs a 4 year college degree, but we may need to provide access to job training and technical schools. The idea you leave high school get hired by the local paper mill and are set for life without additional schooling doesn’t exist in a big way anymore.
We can argue pros cons pluses minuses place blame point fingers all we want. None of that helps us in this moment. We can take lessons learned and apply them to our collective futures.
There is still more that unites us regardless of political party. We want to be able provide food, clothing,and shelter for ourselves and those we love. We want affordable healthcare- no one should go into debt to be healthy. Education, the ability to retire, economic stability. We need to pay attention to the environment. Believe global warming or not- no one can deny the increase in frequency and intensity of global weather events- if we can have any positive impact shouldn’t we?
We can’t keep tearing each other down. Right now we are in a right vs wrong situation; not a right vs left situation. By all means bring your wish list let’s have robust discussions, let’s understand each other, let’s also bring our ears and hear each other.
Go have a conversation with your spouse or significant other - let me know how it goes when you say “you always, you never, you did, you failed etc. the blame game generally falls on deaf ears. The same will happen if you bring finger pointing and blaming.
Why is it we tend to think our constitution does not need fixing? Perhaps it's because we really don't want to be a "democracy." Or maybe it's because we are comfortable with minority rule, even while it decimates our environment for profit and cripples the average American with debt.
Whatever your gripe is these days, be it climate change, immigration, corruption, education, healthcare, it all goes back to the framers intentions to suppress the democratic spirit of "the mob." Maybe they were right. So far, "the mob" has not figured out their game. We have not organized ourselves to deliberate over a new constitution, one that is fully democratic and fully effective. One the protects the majority from the minority of the opulent! Thats our bad.
The future is on our hands, we have the right to make and to alter our constitutions of government, but no one has a clue about what that mans or what we could create. We all have better face the facts. This is a break the glass moment. We need to think and act decisively.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s1-e1-thomas-paine-and-political-revolution-in/id1592429626?i=1000539971035
The Democratic Party needs to embrace Bernie Sanders and quit running away from him. If they had embraced him years ago we would be in a different world. If they had embraced him instead of Hillary in 2015, we would live in an unimaginably different world. It’s time to stop trying to compete as Republican-Lite. The Democratic Party leadership has to go.
Trump just crashed the economy the worst it’s ever been crashed by any president, destroyed the US as leader of the world in tech and science, is in the process of destroying any possibility for future gains by the next generations, and violated the constitution multiple times.
Oh, he’s destroying our alliances as well. Which means the dollar will not keep us rich anymore.
Nobody knows why for sure—but it’s worth noting that any oversight of the corporations or the rich or ability to tax them for any public benefit is probably gone for good.
So most people will be focused on that, not on this long-term problem of destroying the middle class that was also initiated by Republicans—Ronald Reagan.
What Trump did just dwarfed that. There will be no middle class now.
“So how do families survive? Xanax, SSRIs, and Debt. Crushing DEBT.”
Far and away the biggest thing there was the extended period of EZ cheap credit and related crap like payday loans.
But another huge factor was offshoring. It was a two-edged blade, as it were. While threw away relatively good jobs, the upside was depressed prices to balanced depressed wages.
Thanks to Trump, who can only do things the worst way possible, a huge percentage of workers and maybe professionals will be getting depressed wages, much higher costs and yet more reduced buying power.
Right back to the Gilded Age as the GOP’s dreamt for over a century…
"The system is rigged against you" are words straight out of Elizabeth Warren's and Bernie Sander's mouths. And Kamala Harris campaigned for the construction of 3 million new housing units, working “in partnership with industry to build the housing we need, both to rent and to buy, and to take down barriers that stand in the way of building new housing, including at the state and local levels.”
And we all know what FOX and the Republicans have called that - that dirty word called SOCIALISM. Never trust the government! Obama wanted Healthcare for all, but the Tea Party railed against it. Protests depicting Obama as Hitler and the Joker, signs of "No Big Government!, Obama makes me Sick!" Conservatives even have always railed against Social Security, wanting it privatized. Exactly what they are doing now.
Unfortunately most Dems, rather than educating voters to the fact we are a very large society requiring a strong government committed to supporting the people, particularly when the free market is obviously failing us, ran the other way in fear of repercussion from the accusations of socialism. They were afraid to back Warren and Sanders. And undoubtedly, one of the disasters of Citizens United was the fact Dems felt forced to go after corporate money to compete in elections, leaving particularly the older Dems now beholden to that free market support.
Unbridled free markets is exactly the goal of the oligarchs. Bezos came right out and stated that to his Washington Post employees. That is the fight. Unbridled free markets in control of our government, or a government for the people, for a people who not only understand, but demand that their government protect their well-being. That means stop being brainwashed by FOX.
I'm told Democrats are weak on messaging, and that seems very correct. Someone up there has to figure out a way to frame what you are talking about. Strong government committed to supporting the people. Why is that so difficult to explain in a clear manner?
That's a good question. When a valid concept has been demonized by a political party, the opposition must stay loyal to their beliefs, doubling down on the importance of it. Not forsake it out of fear, which to me describes the Dems reaction. Strong government committed to supporting the people. There you go.
But the right calls that Socialism and everyone runs for cover.
I've seen complaints about the Dem party going whatever direction the polls currently point. "Socialism" doesn't poll well. So they just let the label stick instead of fighting it. How about saying it's not Socialism, but Social Democracy? That's as opposed to Free Market Democracy that seems to be the prevailing beliefs of current Dem leadership. Social Democracy would advocate for social programs that benefit all citizens, by appropriately regulating corporations and financial systems.
The right was so successful in their anti- socialism campaign that we are now experiencing, in real life, what happens when oligarchs take control of our government for the purpose of eradicating government as a service, and replacing it with a greedy free market. Our taxes go in their pockets.
No more lectures on what would happen IF. Life can teach some hard realities, but perhaps there will be a coming together in our country with a new respect for the purpose of government.
So if we know that many Democrats, elected Democrats at least, are too afraid to back the kind of policies needed to put us back on track then wouldn't it be reasonable to ask that our Progressive leaders work hard to replace those incumbents that refuse to fix things?
My entire theory is based on building a Democratic party that resonates with an overwhelming majority of Americans. And I think the only way to do that is to rebuild it. I don't think the current Democratic party has it exists is going to fare well going forward but maybe I'm wrong.
This is spot on. One of my degrees is in economics, and I was always bothered by some of the assumptions, especially in macroeconomics.
For example, when housing shifted from the durable goods market to the asset market, they said it was due to supply issues but what I saw was a wage collapse. It was just hidden in the form of an asset bubble.
Essentially, if you bought a house at $100K years ago but it is now worth $400K, some people would see that as being $300K richer; I see it as being poorer overall. Why? Because you probably wouldn't be able to afford that same house now without the equity you gained. So that equity is hiding a wage collapse--one that everyone else without equity is struggling to navigate. And for those with equity, it's only a matter of time before your equity runs out (or gets squeezed out through the manipulation of the markets by those who can afford a crash and have plans to gleefully soak up the assets that people have to shed to stay afloat during the collapse) and the collapse comes for you.
But since most people don't understand how the economy works, or the games being played (like with the money created out of thin air by our fractional reserve system), we bear the brunt of the burden.
The antidote? Articles like this.
Information rooted in truth is the best way to change the direction we are currently headed; a better way won't happen without informed citizens making informed (and responsible) choices. That's a lot easier to do with solid information that makes sense of the fuckery going on within our broken and dying systems--thanks for your contribution!!
The funny thing about economics is that it’s really psychological and sociological yet the profession likes to treat it and hold it out as a hard science like physics. It’s that at times to a degree but as something of an exception to the rule. Sort of like if the rule of gravity depended on people believing in it.
Exactly!!!! My other degree is in biochemistry, which made it really hard to see economics as a true "science". It leans closer that way on the micro level, but even there, I noticed some pretty wild assumptions. Macroeconomics was especially painful for me because it seemed to rely too heavily on data that doesn't paint a complete picture.
My Strategic Management professor said it best: never run a business (or economy) by numbers alone, because those numbers, no matter how well calculated, don't tell the full story; the better you understand the story behind the numbers, the better you will be able to manage and grow them.
No wonder economics is called the dismal science…
Whenever you read the term "technology", think "oligarchy economy." Technology, er oligarchy economy, is not good for America.
This is a great post about the problems. But very little on how to fix them. I am open to suggestions
Conservatives are now, and always have been - predators.
Liberals are now, and always have been - scavengers.
Without ever knowing why, i registered Decline to State in 1973. That's independent.
But in 1965-66, I read Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, as a high school senior. Many human behaviors I had witnessed within my own very conservative upbringing suddenly made sense. It was not rocket science, it was raw lust - for power, for control, for vicious sex, for landed property, for the pure greed of violence and its raw destruction.
Then I read about the Egyptians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Spanish, the English, the Dutch, the Belgians, the Huns, the Mongols. Looked just like Americans to me.
Behind all of this I saw impulse. Inability to control one's behaviors, one's thoughts, one's values. It went against discipline, authority, dominance of the just. But it was the just who were doing these things, in the name of obedience to some god.
So it became clear to me that gods could do whatever they wanted, with no inhibitions, and much violence to those who objected to the powers of impulse. In my very religious matriarchal family, not my father's, a god was everything, and all who espoused those powers were somehow invested with them, if they only took advantage of the opportunity to enact them.
Yes, there were laws, rules, expectations. But soon enough I saw that most of these protected the law enforcers against the 'defined' law breakers. And these 'permissions' based upon lust for power became the norm, not the exception. It happened in bullying, lying, cheating, name calling, sports, classroom work, relationships, family hierarchy, social politics, economics, education, careers.
And behind it all was the religious mythology of having the mafia boss on your side, who used you, protected you, promoted you, exiled you, defined your very existence as a pleve of the patron. Do what he would do, in his name, and he would find you useful.
Observe what the 'murkan constitution was created around - a creator of infinite power. Even Jefferson could not eliminate the ghost in the document, as the elusive language in the First Amendment ignores. And what behavior actually pleases the 'murkan god? The accumulation of wealth, the first tier of power in the ladder to heaven.
And this triune being was, quizzically, very white, very European, very christian. The Romans created this being to prop up their flailing empire, and infected all of their geographic domain with its mythology and bizarre magic. The last feather in the cap of impulsive power - a magical monster who could deliver a get-out-of-hell-free card for obeying the rules without question. Obey, without question, and all is good. Question authority, and you are toast.
What Trent has detailed is the End Game of the religious myth of exclusions for righteousness. Rules are for the weak, the poor, the uneducated, the 'minority,' the diseased, the sick, the unlucky, the victimized. Anyone who allows themselves to be victimized is unworthy of salvation, or, for that matter, of justice.
In Call Me Ishmael, Daniel Quinn presents humanity as divided into two groups - Takers and Leavers. I would modify this to Takers and Victims. A constitution written by Takers disallows any honest justice for victims, regardless of what we see taking place in our society. Only after persons become victims is their some potential balm on the many wounds of the Taken. And the costs are enormous to society, family, the 'economy,' and mostly the dignity and health of those victimized.
TFG and the maga cabal are the bottom of the barrel of the purposeful rape of the 'murkan citizenry, the penultimate grift, the deranged addiction to impulse, ignoring even self-respect or causality. To take any of this back, via some populist governance, will demand a purge of not only the corrupt Taker class, but also the Stockholm Syndrome of guilt and shame of the Victims.
We are not innocent in this fiasco. We have drunk the koolaid, even when the ingredients on the bottle vividly state that it is poison. Whether predator or scavenger, or prey or roadkill, we must murder the Nazi in each one of us. Hitler, just like Trump, felt victimized and unjustly treated. This is the tragic disappointment of the seduction to godhood, which is the ultimate mistake of humanity. We are and always have been victims of our greatest fear - that we are not, and never will be, the final triumph of biologic or supernatural life.
Beautiful thought. But the billionaires run our political parties. Hell, a billionaire is president, and the world's richest man is firing as many people as he can. I don't know what kind of movement you think is going to happen, when the people needed for the movement don't have the time or money to do anything, per your article.
I was born in 1963, and it sucked then too. Stagflation in the seventies with Jimmy Carter. Interest rates on homes over 12 percent. Things really didn’t get better until the nineties. My mom and dad never owned a home. Not ever.
It's pretty simple really. The framers invented a form of government that would protect the minority of the opulent from the majority. We continue to use their system today. Being the first constitutional democracy, our political system is glaringly outdated. Just take a look at some of the constitutions in Western Europe, South Africa, New Zealand, Norway!
If we want to fix any of this, we have to start by fixing the actual source of our problem. Our undemocratic constitution must be replaced with a fully democratic one, one that represents the majority of Americans and protects them, our communities, and our environment, from the minority of the opulent.
Minority rule has now become an existential threat. It is appalling that more Americans do not recognize the failure of their political system to serve them, not this oligarchy. Even Bernie Sanders can't admit it. Yet. It's as if we have become accustomed to minority rule and actually think it's better for us than governing ourselves!
I now believe we have a moral obligation to abolish this constitution peacefully and to peacefully replace it with one that is suitable for the 21st-century and the challenges we face, as well as the opportunities.
Tune in to this podcast if you would like to join the Peaceful Political Revolution in America. If we really want to unbreak America we will have to come together in convention of the people, to deliberate over a new constitution for the United States of America. Let's get going!
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/peaceful-political-revolution-in-america/id1592429626?i=1000543022499
"The system itself is broken"
This is straight out of Trump and the Republican party's play book. It's only broken because they've been working to break it for so long, only so they can now point at it and say "see!" as we all lament and agree how broken it is. Mission accomplished, I guess.
Some things are broken, yes. But many things are working as intended and genuinely do a lot of good - Medicare, Medicaid, our disability system, public safety and in many ways even our school system (flawed though it is). The courts have done a pretty good job of blunting extremism and tamping down on corruption (with a glaring exception for Trump's criminality). And providing foreign aid (like what USAID used to do) is just the right thing for those who care about other to do.
So, we've gotten a lot of things right - until the arsonists took over, of course.
All of these things are now under direct assault because Trump and the republican party do not care about the rule of law and they just want to tear it ALL down. They hate empathy because they are a party of sociopaths. All they care about is holding power, gaining wealth and watching the world burn.
But we still have a lot left to lose. Is our time and energy better spent fighting our enemy, or amongst ourselves? Do we have the capacity to do both at the same time? Unclear.
I disagree with your fundamental assessment that it was just the. Republicans that worked to break this system and that things are going well.
Both Medicare and Medicaid are overpaying due to an out-of-control Healthcare System. Our Public School Systems and school systems, in general, are not producing nearly enough scientists, Engineers, tradespeople, thinkers, or builders.
I don't know anything about you or your background or your current situation but there are a lot of people in this country that are struggling very very hard to make ends meet and too often they have been ignored by both parties. I think the inability of democratic voters to see this has put us in a very precarious position as a party.