Forum Post: History Lesson
Posted 12 years ago on Oct. 7, 2011, 7:20 p.m. EST by MarkMiddleClass
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WWhen I was 8 - Pittsburgh and Gary were pumping out steel, Detroit was the leading producer of cars, I-65 was under construction, we had just landed on the moon. A middle class family could afford to send their four kids to college and expected them to have a better life than they had. Most careers, whether white collar or blue collar, lasted a lifetime and ended with a pension and some retiree medical benefits. China was then called Red Communist China, considered our mortal enemies, “made in Japan” was sure sign of an inferior product, usually a toy and India was were Meditation came from.
Since then Corporations, largely driven to increase share hold profits, have lobbied congress to pass several bills (over several years), which in turn they took advantage up.
Free Trade Agreements were sold to the masses as more places to sell USA goods to. Instead we shipped our good Union, middle class, jobs and our production and quality technologies to our mortal enemy and all other countries that have below living wage labor rates and populations that can be exploited. Who in the USA has benefitted from this? Wall Street, the shareholders, upper management, and to an extent the USA employees of these companies have been the benefactors.
By the way I recognize that’s Unions played a role in driving corporation to seek a lower cost, more productive and cooperative workforce, but the middle class would have never existed, at the scale that it once did, without Unions.
Trickledown economics: making the rich, richer makes us all rich. How’s that worked out for you? For the past 15 years corporate tax rates having the lowest in modern history, the ratio between upper management salary and the average worker is a high as ever. The “Job Creators” have had over a decade to create Jobs, yet unemployment runs high.
The wealthiest among us are very smart in the ways of keeping, guarding and generate wealth. They have both the desire and the money to sway our Country into doing their bidding. They have great lawyers and tax advisers. They have lobbyist and politicians. They have leaders in multimedia broadcasting. Literally billions of dollars spent to drive political leadership and policy that maintain or enhance their wealth.
We each have only two things in our favor, our vote and the fact that we vastly out number the wealthiest among us.
I agree with most of what you say, but John Fx is correct. Even the poorest of the poor in this country have much more than so many that live in the truest form of poverty (i.e., Africa, parts of the middle east, etc.). I do agree that many of the trade agreements, while in theory sounded wonderful, were, in effect, an easy out for some corporations. My only question to everyone is why do we continue to send the same people to Washington (on both sides of the aisle) and actually expect a different result? It is the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. We need people in Washington who are not beholden to any group, other than their constituents. I just wish more people would stop drinking the Kool-Aid on both sides and start thinking with their heads.
Minor quibble: The US actually has one of the highest tax corporate tax rates in the world. Also, our unemployment rates compared to most other industrialized countries have (on the whole) remained fairly competitive.
Now granted, tax rates over time have dropped, but the rising tide actually HAS raised all boats, as they say. The improvement in the standard of living over the past century for the average American has been remarkable. It's easy to set the bar relative to our own short experience, but just remember all the modern conveniences you have today and the fact that your kids don't have to work in the fields to feed your family like they did in the "good old days."
The outnumbering is the thing to watch. Let's go for it. the vote, only so-so. if they don't see us out there, we get forgotten.