We talk about this type of stuff often in salon. Fact is America needs to change course in so many ways or we will be eclipsed in the next 50-100 years. This problem is part republican, democrat, education, and broken government just to name a few culprits . No one issue or group is causing our descent but make no doubt about it we are descending. It is absolutely not too late to fix it but the truth is it probably won't happen.
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It's tough to have a middle class when there isn't a manufacturing base in this country.
It's created the gap in the classes.
The reason the middle class always did well in America was because of the work that was available to them-- men began working at Company X, and worked for 20-25 years. It was stable, it provided a good wage, good benefits.
That doesn't exist today.
How can that possibly be fixed?Comment -
You just need to visit the US to see how bad it is in here in comparison to most european countries. I mean go outside of NY, Boston, San Francisco or DC and what you see is horrible roads (full of holes), a lot of trailerparks and homes made of cardboard, old cars, fat cheap food all around...
And in the big cities there are homeless everywhere...how could you penetrate up so bad in the US?Comment -
Sam I agree we buy cheap goods from china, outsource manufacturing and even now service jobs like call centers. We don't produce nearly as much as we consume, Recipe for disaster.
Burkina what you say is in many ways true. Much of it is because of what Sam stated.
look at these huge trade deficits (US 2012 data). China 315 billion. WTF!???
Canada - $616.6 billion traded with a $31.8 billion deficit.
China - $536.2 billion traded with a $315 billion deficit.
Mexico - $494 billion with a $61.3 billion deficit.
Japan - $216.4 billion traded with a $76.3 billion deficit.
Germany - $157.3 billion traded with a $59.7 billion deficit.Comment -
America is ruled by corporations plain and simple. Corporations lobbied for NAFTA so they could ship their manufacturing
to cheap labor countries. Ship it back here with little to no excise tax. If they don't manufacture overseas, they automate.
One in four corporations pay taxes. The one probably pays the minimum. Corporations did the monkey see, monkey do
of dumping their work force on the door step of the govt. The Repubs want to cut corporate tax even more? Give me a break!
Our govt giving bail out money to corporations who dumped millions in the street? WTF? Some were loans, some weren't.
My solution would be for corporations to pay a flat tax on gross profits, excise tax on goods coming in from any and all
overseas companies. The free ride needs to stop.
Congress needs to get off their do nothing asses to work for us, not the corporations!
Jack up the minimum wage on companies with 50 or more. Not this pussy footing around with increments, all at once.
We as Americans need to be conscious of were the products we are buying are made. In other words BUY AMERICAN!
As far as other countries, they need to manufacture their own goods for themselves. Have their own little China within.Comment -
Ther is something really falatious about what you are saying:
Minimum salary hike = production fleeding the country = more unemployment and bigger net trade deficit
or
Minimum salary hike = rising prices of american products = company profit turning into company loses = Bankrupcy and Unemployment
The secret is investing in companies that have a market advantage...not something like the Auto industry, where the asian have cheaper cars and the germans have better cars in terms of performanceComment -
IDK. With every past minimum wage hike, the economy did better not worse.. Corporations are at all time profit highs,
which is why the DOW is doing good. If the market went by the economy which it's supposed to, it still would be in the
8 to 9k range.
$10 is at poverty level. $10.10 is above. Paying $7.25 is way below poverty level. Yes, that's supposed to be a stepping
stone wage, but there are too many people living on that wage and us Americans have to subsidize that low wage.
Full time people can't cut it on their wage and have to get part time work which hurts the unemployed from getting work.
You could say raising the minimum wage will have an eventual trickle up effect to people who are making more than $10. More money in the pockets of the middle class will increase economies all over the world, not just here.Comment -
US is getting poorer in comparison to the other developed countries and has been medium class although it has seen many hikes in the minmum wage. The problem is that hiking in the minimum wage inderectly means more PP for the medium class, as the companies that have to hike the wages, will not take a diminuishing of the profits but instead transfer this extra cost into the price of their products/Services. This will make the lower class pay the same in proportion for what they have already been buying while some marginal extra PP will go into buying mainly cheap imported products because they cant really buy american brands due to the extra cost. At the same time people of the medium class will have to buy american products at a higher price which will make foreign products more appealing for them...
Its a complex thema, but even in Europe some of the best economies dont have a minimum wage...Comment
