Bummer, That a Bummer man

[BikerDude]

http://www.progressive.org/the-betrayal-of-the-american-dream-book-review

?What is happening to America?s middle class is not inevitable,? the authors charge. ?It?s the direct result of government policy, and it can be changed by government action. Look no further than at what the governments of our trading partners do to protect their people and advance the interests of their country. We could do the same.?

Barlett and Steele cover a lot of ground in this relatively short, fast-paced book. Their straightforward, impassioned prose is filled with real-life stories of people who are losing their grip on the American Dream.

?Our kids are going to be fluffing dogs and doing toenails while the Chinese are making leading-edge devices,? observes Douglas Bartlett, whose father founded the first plant that made circuit boards in the United States, which shut down in 2009 after 57 years. During that time the U.S. went from dominating the industry to being shut out, thanks to our benighted trade policies.

Many of the stories are tragic.

Computer programmer Kevin Flanagan kills himself after being forced to train his low-paid guest-worker replacement after losing his once high-paying, high-status job.

Joy Whitehouse, who worked hard all her life, was plunged into poverty by her husband?s early death and, soon after his trucking company?s refusal to pay out the death benefit it owed. (The company, pushed into bankruptcy by a corporate takeover, was able to walk away from pension obligations thanks to legislation Congress passed that allows corporate CEOs to renege on such agreements with employees, while keeping full compensation for themselves.) Whitehouse?self-sufficient to the end?died while collecting cans, which she sold to recyclers to try to cover living expenses and medication for her cancer and chronic lung disease she could no longer afford.

The Betrayal of the American Dream forces us to look in the mirror and see how different our country has become from the nation it once was, and still imagines itself to be.
- See more at: http://www.progressive.org/the-betrayal-of-the-american-dream-book-review#sthash.D40G11u6.dpuf

[jgiffin]

They correctly identify and characterize the end result as problematic and in need of change. However, they fail to perceive the underlying problem: ceding government the outrageous power to impose unreasonable restrictions on the people, prevent competition on a fair level, and instead funnel billions to their benefactors (republican and democrat alike). The "solutions" they propose would only further exacerbate the problem. The solution to over-regulation is not more regulations.

[BikerDude]

They correctly identify and characterize the end result as problematic and in need of change. However, they fail to perceive the underlying problem: ceding government the outrageous power to impose unreasonable restrictions on the people, prevent competition on a fair level, and instead funnel billions to their benefactors (republican and democrat alike). The "solutions" they propose would only further exacerbate the problem. The solution to over-regulation is not more regulations.

We are less regulated now in the most important ways than at nearly any time in the past.
All you have to do it look what happened when they deregulated the banking industry.
It opened the door to the S & L fiasco.
And once Glass Steagall was gone what happened then?
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/economic-intelligence/2012/08/27/repeal-of-glass-steagall-caused-the-financial-crisis

As usual it's a matter of trafficking in generalities (read "sound bite").
"Regulation id Bad".
No. Sensible regulation is essential.
But generalities are easy to sell to people with appeals to the evils of the "Nanny State".
Which are real and persistent because the people they effect don't have lobbyists and super pac's.


The problem that I have with the article in question suggests taxing our way out of the situation.
I think the time is right to be a lot more protectionist. Especially when it comes to jobs.
The only reason why we haven't is because of the undo influence of a very small and powerful constituency.

[existentialone]

Follow the money trail.  Its Corporate bribery of a system they have by the Johnson because the square community is a "you grease my palm, and I will give the working class the forced handjob" world.

Follow the bread man:

WHERE'S THE MONEY LEBOWSKI!!  WHERE'S THE MONEY

I tell you, Corporations are peein' on our rugs, but the "Chinamen" aren't the issue.

Follow the money, man

[BikerDude]

Follow the money trail.  Its Corporate bribery of a system they have by the Johnson because the square community is a "you grease my palm, and I will give the working class the forced handjob" world.

Follow the bread man:

WHERE'S THE MONEY LEBOWSKI!!  WHERE'S THE MONEY

I tell you, Corporations are peein' on our rugs, but the "Chinamen" aren't the issue.

Follow the money, man

This will burn yer J for ya.
Good read and frightening as all hell.

http://www.amazon.com/FRIENDLY-FASCISM-Bertram-Gross/dp/B0091L2H0U