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Author
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Topic: Are You In the Middle Class? Thank a Liberal...
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Motherkonfessor
unregistered
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posted March 05, 2004 12:15 AM
 
The first part of this articles talks about the forgotten voting class of the South, and why they do, or DON'T vote.The second part delves into a brief economic interlude, but somehow the author makes it work as a whole piece......
quote:
Actually, that is what has made America work. As author Michael Lind notes in the most recent issue of The Atlantic Monthly, a large, healthy middle class doesn't just happen in a capitalist system. "The truth is that each of America's successive middle classes has been artificially created by government-sponsored social engineering," he writes. Since 1800, you've had land distribution laws that promoted small farmers – America's first middle class – high tariffs, the end of child labor and strict immigration limits benefiting turn-of-the-century industrial workers and Social Security, Medicare and the GI Bill, among other initiatives, that solidified the middle class during the last half century.
quote:
The average white male, for whom the system has always worked, is having an increasingly difficult time making ends meet – as if consumer debt recently topping $2 trillion for the first time wasn't enough of a clue. His wages have dropped when adjusted for inflation. His health insurance premiums have skyrocketed (if he has health insurance). He and his wife both have to work, and they pay astronomical childcare bills. His younger kids' schools are crappy and under-funded. His older kids' college tuition jumped (14 percent in the last year, on average). And heaven help his children if they don't go to college, because they're bound for a near-feudal system of working for wealthy people in low-paying service sector jobs. Moreover, if the average Joe is like Sparks, 30 percent of what he stashed away for retirement evaporated in a stock market fiasco fueled by corporate greed that a bit more government oversight could have prevented.
So where's the anger? Why isn't he ****** that he's not getting more bang for his taxpayer buck? And why in the world is he going to vote for a president based on a side issue like gay marriage?
This so disheartens me. IMO, its like paying someone to rob your house, and then calling them your best friend. IP: Logged |
Motherkonfessor
unregistered
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posted March 05, 2004 12:18 AM
Whooooooops.......I hit the wrong button.Here's the rest, if anyone likes.... http://alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17998 MK IP: Logged |
Carlo
unregistered
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posted March 05, 2004 10:21 AM
Thanks babe  Love,
Carlo IP: Logged |
proxieme
unregistered
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posted March 06, 2004 01:37 PM
Yep - and this is always an interesting statistic (I've heard it innumerable times from numerous sources):And CEOs have really been rolling in the dough since the Reagan years. In the 1970s, they made 25 times what the average worker made annually. That number rose to almost 100 times by 1988. By 2000, CEOs made 500 times, on average, what the typical worker made, according to numbers compiled by economist and professor Jeff Madrick. These are inequalities that we haven't seen since the 1920s. The only difference is that during the 1920s, the economy grew rapidly. That isn't the case now, and it can be argued that such inequality leads to the search for scapegoats. "Roughly, since 1973, we've been growing about 1 percent a year slower than we did since 1870, and that's very significant when you accumulate it over time," says Madrick. IP: Logged |
Harpyr
Newflake Posts: 0
From: Alaska
Registered: Jun 2010
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posted March 06, 2004 03:06 PM
I find such statistics quite disturbing.IP: Logged |
StarLover33
unregistered
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posted March 06, 2004 03:49 PM
I want to add that colleges have become increasingly elitist (pulling off record high prices e.g. $38,000 a year) and public schools like the one I attend are no longer capable of giving you an amazing education. There is no way a middle class teenager who aspires to become a lawyer or a doctor can pay off the huge debt that will accumulate after graduate school and reach above lower middle class. On top of that the prices are still increasing. I'm also speaking from a suburban town in Boston. -StarLover IP: Logged |
proxieme
unregistered
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posted March 06, 2004 06:19 PM
Gah, yep - I remember seeing several reports on that. I'd be drowning in debt right now if not for the combination of the GI Bill and an unexpected baby gift from my grandparents (they paid of US$16,000 of my student loans). IP: Logged |
Randall
Webmaster Posts: 4782
From: The Goober Galaxy
Registered: Apr 2009
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posted March 07, 2004 08:52 PM
Probably no surprise, but BIG Reagan fan here.  In 1983, he said something totally shocking about how the income tax and the IRS are deserving of a rebellion and that it is about time we all rebelled.  I'll try to find the exact quote. ------------------
"Never mentally imagine for another that which you would not want to experience for yourself, since the mental image you send out inevitably comes back to you." Rebecca Clark IP: Logged |
Carlo
unregistered
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posted March 07, 2004 11:03 PM
I tend to feel that we should all pay taxes, and that we should expect certain services from our government and that we should pony up for them. We owe a duty to those we elect to govern our cities and towns and counties, and if the government provided free secondary education and health care for all, as in Cuba, I see a tremendous value in contributing to that. And so should corporations, and all should be made to pay. And I will hold my tongue on certain things and yield the balance of my time to the knowflake from Camelot...hey, we gots two Pisces and two Virgos on this thread...what does it mean??? it means sack the Gipper-loving Capricorn lol btw Starluvah, you are a cutie pi, I saw your pic...wicked Piscean looking girl, you omg, was I a randy Pagan last night...here is where I went: Anthesteria—A Dionysian Celebration of the New Vintage
Presented by: The Cult of Dionysos
Saturday March 6, 2004
Gather at 7:00 p.m., Ritual at 8:00 p.m. Join us as we honor Dionysos, Hermes, and the Dead
Spirits in a festival where we shall taste the new
vintage, celebrate in silence with our deceased
ancestors, and revel in honor of Dionysos’ marriage to
the Priestess Queen. This will be a reconstruction of
an ancient Athenian ritual with drumming, dancing,
feasting, and other madness. Bring percussion
instruments, beverages appropriate to the god, and
food for the feast/potluck (the feast is central to
Hellenic ritual, so please bring something to share).
Dressing up is always encouraged—feel free to
wear/bring togas, ivy wreaths, thyrsi (pinecone tipped
wands), and/or other ritual garb. There was about 80 of us marching through the streets of this adorable town, singing at the tops of our lungs, and I was one of the drummers. Satyrs (well, guys with horns on their heads in loincloths) and maenads frolicking with bottles of wine passing it around to everyone as we danced and caroused back at the ritual hall, it was so fun. We Virgs need times like that to let off steam, I felt wrapped a little too tight last week, yet much better now. And with Venus and Mars now settling into Taurus, it is all good. Maybe I will post the crazy songs we sang last night Have a fabulous week, dear one and all (and "dear one and all" contains the word "randall")  Love,
Carlo IP: Logged |
Randall
Webmaster Posts: 4782
From: The Goober Galaxy
Registered: Apr 2009
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posted March 08, 2004 12:08 AM
Taxes that are fair, sure, I agree. The income tax is hardly fair--not to mention that it is illegally enforced.------------------
"Never mentally imagine for another that which you would not want to experience for yourself, since the mental image you send out inevitably comes back to you." Rebecca Clark IP: Logged |
Motherkonfessor
unregistered
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posted March 08, 2004 02:26 AM
~sigh~ ......with visions of Satyrs dancing thru her head....... IP: Logged |
Carlo
unregistered
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posted March 08, 2004 11:31 PM
lol 
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Lindaland
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