Speaking of pessimistic, glass is half empty views....
- Thread starter 82hoosier
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Definitely pessimistic, but maybe some good stuff will happen. maybe we get a sensible infrastructure bill and it puts a bunch of folks back to work. those are usually high paying labor gigs. maybe trump's mantra takes shape given the virus and china relations and we do bring back manufacturing and start making more and more stuff here. maybe biden beats trump and the country gets excited about that and a spike of optimism ensues that kick starts us. maybe something comes along. Tech in the 90s that carried so many people for a decade, the housing market after that with construction, title companies, development, flipping houses, etc., while it ultimately proved illusory it employed a shit ton of people in decent paying gigs for almost a decade.
we have such a wonderful entrepreneurial spirit in this country that i rarely believe the doom and gloom crowd.
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I have a college buddy that went to work for Perot at EDS just before Perot sold out. In one of his first days there, Perot brought in an economist to talk to the employees, and the economist told them that the golden age of America was over. Never again would Americans have it better than their parents.
This fit Perot's view somewhat, very early 80s and Japanese cars had already completely broken into the American market. US car companies seemed unable to do anything right.
We have had some very good times since, our problem has been an unwillingness to extend the good times down to the floor. So half of America greatly exceeds their parents, half do not. It did not need to be that way, we chose it.
Gloom and doom predictions do not need to be true. We still have a say in what happens. There is still time to invest in the future. We desperately need infrastructure. We need to invest in it. We need an educated workforce, our tremendous hatred of intellectualism needs quashed. We need to think in terms of improving America and not, "screw everyone else as long as I get mine".
These are in our power. I think we can and will do it.
This fit Perot's view somewhat, very early 80s and Japanese cars had already completely broken into the American market. US car companies seemed unable to do anything right.
We have had some very good times since, our problem has been an unwillingness to extend the good times down to the floor. So half of America greatly exceeds their parents, half do not. It did not need to be that way, we chose it.
Gloom and doom predictions do not need to be true. We still have a say in what happens. There is still time to invest in the future. We desperately need infrastructure. We need to invest in it. We need an educated workforce, our tremendous hatred of intellectualism needs quashed. We need to think in terms of improving America and not, "screw everyone else as long as I get mine".
These are in our power. I think we can and will do it.
I stopped reading at the word “empire”. Someone who doesn’t understand the USA doesn’t have much to say to me about its future.
That being said, the single biggest threat to the USA is the insatiable appetite of government to seize more and more power and authority and to govern more and more minutiae. The means by which government holds power, by dividing us into groups and pitting groups against each other, is not a sustainable political model.
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Reportedly 30% of renters did not make pay their rent in April. I wonder what the middle class is going to look like in three or four months. I think there are a lot of people that consider themselves middle-class that right now live paycheck to paycheck. We all know what that looks like.
The top 1% of wealth are expected to get 83% of Trump’s tax benefits over 10 years. That 1% of the population owns an estimated 40% of the wealth in the United States. Over the last 20 years or so the rich have gotten a lot richer and the poor are still poor. And the ranks of the poor are growing.
Assuming this virus lasts another six months or so I don’t see how we recover from this without a major redistribution of wealth. And that would require major tax increases. Remember that the top marginal tax rate when Reagan took office was 70%. When Willy Sutton was asked why he robbed banks he replied “that’s where the money is”. The alternative is that the government just prints money and our economy looks like Germany after World War One.
Also implicit in a recovery will be a return of a good bit of overseas manufacturing to the United States. Remember when NAFTA was passed? The theory was that we were going to export low skilled jobs and the workforce was going to be retrained for the new high-tech economy. How did that work out?
Trump was absolutely right when he said we need to bring jobs back to the United States. But unfortunately he never had any intention of doing so once he got into office. He never had any intention of doing anything that would depress the stock market.
Odds are whoever is the president in January 2021 is going to have a much worse situation to deal with than our current situation. Right now we don’t even have a plan for coronavirus tests or personal protective equipment. Mike Pence says that this is going to be largely behind us by Memorial. Day weekend. That’s the plan! Is anybody else besides Donald Trump and his family buying that? If so I’ve got a bridge that you might want to buy.
The top 1% of wealth are expected to get 83% of Trump’s tax benefits over 10 years. That 1% of the population owns an estimated 40% of the wealth in the United States. Over the last 20 years or so the rich have gotten a lot richer and the poor are still poor. And the ranks of the poor are growing.
Assuming this virus lasts another six months or so I don’t see how we recover from this without a major redistribution of wealth. And that would require major tax increases. Remember that the top marginal tax rate when Reagan took office was 70%. When Willy Sutton was asked why he robbed banks he replied “that’s where the money is”. The alternative is that the government just prints money and our economy looks like Germany after World War One.
Also implicit in a recovery will be a return of a good bit of overseas manufacturing to the United States. Remember when NAFTA was passed? The theory was that we were going to export low skilled jobs and the workforce was going to be retrained for the new high-tech economy. How did that work out?
Trump was absolutely right when he said we need to bring jobs back to the United States. But unfortunately he never had any intention of doing so once he got into office. He never had any intention of doing anything that would depress the stock market.
Odds are whoever is the president in January 2021 is going to have a much worse situation to deal with than our current situation. Right now we don’t even have a plan for coronavirus tests or personal protective equipment. Mike Pence says that this is going to be largely behind us by Memorial. Day weekend. That’s the plan! Is anybody else besides Donald Trump and his family buying that? If so I’ve got a bridge that you might want to buy.
An interesting observation. You stopped reading at the first word of the article and then stated your opinion that the author does not understand America. Ok.
I suppose it’s possible Hedges doesn’t know what an empire is.
Pessimistic but interesting read. Somehow we have to get back to where more people are participating in the success of this country. The difference between increases in long term productivity and wage growth tells part of this story in this country.
I live in a typical small Midwest town. The grip that Fox news and the Republican party have is staggering and bewildering. A good majority of the people in my town live paycheck to paycheck, even many of the ones that appear modestly successful. Of the many I've gotten to know, very few even have $500,000 in investable assets. But they all think Trump has their back. They actually identity with the 1% crowd. I just laugh.
All I can say is higher taxes are inevitable. Whether via a Roth IRA backdoor Roth if you make more than the limits, start preparing now. The economy that was so strong, yet everybody needing help after one month. Even folks not directly impacted by Covid. There is a disconnect in reality.
Do you? What part of a definition of empire did we miss? Just to throw this out there, in WW2 the Japanese attacked The Philippines, Wake, Guam, Midway, Alaska, and Hawaii. All were American possessions. I think Japan attacked more US possessions than British, yet we count Britain as an empire. So, what definition did we fail?
Shouldn’t we treat this as the Marshall Plan 2.0? Where we have to get to is not a real question. The how will be the part we debate.
You have a great title idea for our infrastructure. Though I might call it the Marshall Plan for America.
Bet he knows what HVAC is.
Good grief. I need another shower after reading this crap. Typical for Salon.
"[t]he neoliberal gangster capitalist policies that the Democratic Party has embraced." This was after several paragraphs listing all the policies that one would be voting for should one vote for Biden. Sounded like Goldwater.
Sounded like Hedges stopped his meds. Also looked like someone substituted in capital letters at the beginning of each sentence . . .
The implication of this point (often made around here) is that more people would agree with your views if they weren’t “gripped” by Fox News. That’s a pretty arrogant view of the world. It really means that “I am correct, and if you don’t agree with me you are gripped by some force, or you are racist, or you are misogynistic, or you hate the poor, or you are dumb, or you are otherwise deplorable.” I guess I’d ask that since you often disagree with me, who or what grips you?
Just being born in America may not offer everyone the advantages,
compared to those born elsewhere, that it once did.
Also who you are and where you live are vitally important in determining what advantages being an American can offer.
Who you are depends on the God given talents you were born with, how you we're raised, education acquired, opportunities presented, ambition, and a host of things which make each of us special.
Where you live is important. Important because who you are and your specialties can thrive or go unrewarded
depending on where you choose to live.
Speaking of where to live, it is no longer required that those born in America has to remain living here.
Finally for some of us the glass may never be half full as they are never satisfied. By the same token others see the glass being half full no matter what happens to them.
compared to those born elsewhere, that it once did.
Also who you are and where you live are vitally important in determining what advantages being an American can offer.
Who you are depends on the God given talents you were born with, how you we're raised, education acquired, opportunities presented, ambition, and a host of things which make each of us special.
Where you live is important. Important because who you are and your specialties can thrive or go unrewarded
depending on where you choose to live.
Speaking of where to live, it is no longer required that those born in America has to remain living here.
Finally for some of us the glass may never be half full as they are never satisfied. By the same token others see the glass being half full no matter what happens to them.
LOL. You still on that? You do realize that the fans GM installed in its ventilators are the ones used to cool you ass in their cooled seats don’t you? Not quite HVAC technology, more like blowing air up your ass technology.
What does that have to do with you totally misunderstanding the article you linked, which in no way supported your position? You are really a lawyer?
And yes I'm still on it. Want to make sure everyone realizes how stupid you are.
What is missing in 2020? Talk whenever you want, if we agree America had an empire, when did it end?
We have troops stationed around the world. I doubt any nation has trips in half as many nations as the US does.
I'm afraid I see the glass knocked over and spilling on the floor. Too many Americans today are confused about the distinction between society and socialism.
If I understand your drift here, you are talking about income mobility. The same people are not forever trapped in the income level that the graphs portray. While the graphs portray the same or worsening divisions, the more important point is the movement of people in and out of those divisions. The top 1% a few years ago are not the same people now. Same for the lower levels. While I am no fan of widening income disparity, I think the more important policy questions involve barriers to mobility. Such as social conditions, education, geography, and more.
See.
I never said that. That fact is in the article. What isn't in the article is any support of your statement "As I read it, the UV shource is in the tube when the tube is inside the body." You also said "I got news for you. Internal UV light to reduce ventilator assisted infections is used now." That's not in the article. Got it??
America is a motion picture, not a picture book. Numbers and locations of overseas troops has nothing to do with anything. Advancing military technology is more relevant that troop positions. Taking snapshots of our history is not very useful. Talking about the dynamic nature of us is better. Hedges talks about the dynamic in metrics that I think are stupid crazy. He mention's "Trump" 50 times. Trump has been in office for 3+ years. Whatever Hedges thinks about the declining empire has nothing to do with Trump. He is putting an anti-Trump screed out there with a different gloss.
How would you describe these people? Here is an exchange on yahoo platforms this morning in response to a simple story/obituary for former Oakland A Matt Keough who died on Fri night. Just a small blurb from NBC Bay Area SPORTS reporter Ali Thanawalla- reporting on Keough's death with some human interest value...
He opens his story innocently referencing that the As are dealing with a double tragedy
"More tragedy has struck the A's organization.
Matt Keough, an All-Star pitcher for the A's in 1978, has died, the team announced Saturday. He was 64 years old"
He then proceeds to devote the rest of the story into a description of Keough, his career, various events that make up someone's life.
As the story concludes he returns (like any good writer would) to the first line he wrote, and gives a brief note as to why he referenced "more tragedy" ...
"Keough would finish his nine-year MLB career with a 4.13 ERA in 215 appearances.
Earlier this week, former A's minor leaguer Miguel Marte died after a battle with the coronavirus"
That's it, a perfectly innocent and informative article written for sports fans in the Bay Area by a SPORTSWRITER for a local NBC affiliate. No controversy, at least that is what you'd think...
But enter the conspiracy theorists, even in a story that inspired THREE comments, and a single reply to supplement one of the comments...One John feels the need to attack the writer as presumably a "fear monger"
"JOHN 5 hours ago
@Ali Thanawalla, you do not say what Keough died from but you managed to get the Corona virus (two words idiot) mentioned in your story. Just what kind of half baked reporter are you?"
(This post got 12 likes and 1 downvote (me)) despite there only being THREE PEOPLE who even commented.
But as loony as it was for John to attack Ali as a fear monger, a second John with a different avatar had no problem going a step further embracing the whole racist,anti-intellectual credo
"John
Look at the name of the reporter..... says it all. An over educated 3rd world inhabitant or descendent of 3rd world stock"
I was honestly surprised he didn't go even further calling him some slur like "sandn****r. Believe me, you see that plenty...
These are essentially the type of people you are defending. How many of the people who stormed the Statehouse with weapons in Michigan and who Trump defended as "very fine people" do you think these 2 "Johns" are representative of?
Ah . . . I see. I linked the wrong article, not the first time that has happened, nor will it be the last. I had several articles up at the same time. There is one about UV light in ventilator tubes which are now being tested--and that was going on when Trump mentioned it.
where did you get your law degree? Same place as those Bakersfield doctors got their med degrees?
I haven't defended anybody. I called BCC out on his generalizations and facially weak arguments. You made the same mistake in this post.
edited and made better.
When I went to law school, we didn't have computers, let alone the internet. There were two copy machines on the whole campus. We read books instead of computer screens and hand wrote notes. There were no safe places to hide from the Professor Kingsley humiliation. the old fashioned way.
Then I practiced for 50 years and things escalated.
The point is what you say here is amateur hour.
You missed some punctuation, but you are correct...I'm implying that you are "amateur hour"
Cannot imagine. about ten years ago there was a neat old criminal lawyer in town that had made a name for himself representing the mob. he still used a typewriter for all of his pleadings.
So as numerous people told you that what you posted didn't match with what you said, it didn't occur to you at that time to check what you posted? The possibility that you had made a mistake never crossed your mind? That says a lot about you. Glad you finally checked your nonsense after having to re-post it to you. Maybe have a clerk check your posts first.
Old enough to remember 6 oz Coke bottles, Hudson automobiles, and the political meaning of LSMFT.
I used to know a court reporter who did his work with real shorthand. He went through gobs of books. Can’t imagine how anybody could ever read his old notes if transcripts had to be reviewed.
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