The Middle Class in America Is Radically Shrinking.

[evli1966 88]

I would

1) slap massive tariffs on foreign-made (esp. Chinese) goods to encourage the growth of the domestic manufacturing industry.

2) seal the Southern border airtight, Soviet-Union-style, to stop the influx of cheap foreign labor

3) renegotiate all trade agreements, starting with NAFTA

4) provide investment tax credits for businesses to modernize their factories and purchase new machinery

5) introduce severe tax penalties for sending American jobs overseas

Matt I like you more and more

[Heracles 417]

In every other first world country............

A prize for anyone who guesses which VJ'er would begin a reply with these words.

I gave up on expecting you trying to form a logical argument the day I realized you were not Eric. Here is just another example of it. Strange how this is not happening to Australia's middle class. In fact, the middle class is not only the largest demographic but is also having the best time ever over there.

I thought about your complex the other day while read an international study ironically directly related to your one of few responses to everything, being the world's most happiest countries. One guess who made the list and another guess who didn't.

[evli1966 88]

I gave up on expecting you trying to form a logical argument the day I realized you were not Eric. Here is just another example of it. Strange how this is not happening to Australia's middle class. In fact, the middle class is not only the largest demographic but is also having the best time ever over there.

I thought about your complex the other day while read an international study ironically directly related to your one of few responses to everything, being the world's most happiest countries. One guess who made the list and another guess who didn't.

Not to be rude but with all the positives in Aussie you are not here to become a US citizen or not planning on living here.

[Peikko 1,575]

If the US isn't self sufficient, point 1) likely be counter productive, point 2 would entail a massive increase in government employees and increase taxes or add to the deficit and number 3) would likely end in American having worse trade agreements than it enjoys currently (because of point 1). 4) would be a good idea if American business is lacking in modern equipment (which I somehow doubt, but I don't know) and number 5 would encourage successful global businesses to relocate elsewhere, as would number 1. After all that went down, it would be interesting to see if the US was better or worse off

[Heracles 417]

Ding ding!! We have a winner!! You win a free trip to Australia with BY as your tour guide.

How about discussing the following points? Better yet, compare them to that of Australia or Canada. Or are you going to continue with the same bullcrap of they are happy. Apparently, the tens of millions of Americans living in one of thousands of ghettos or trailer parks, with no retirement, with poor paying work, with high homicide rates are happy.

Do you think those who these stats apply to, like 1 in 4 American children living in poverty are happy?

• 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.

• 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.

• 66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.

• 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.

• A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.

• 24 percent of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.

• Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.

• Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.

• For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.

• In 1950, the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.

• As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.

• The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.

• Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.

• In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.

• The top 1 percent of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America's corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.

• In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.

• More than 40 percent of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.

• or the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.

• This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.

• Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.

• Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.

• The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income.

Edited July 25, 2010 by Booyah!

[Heracles 417]

Not to be rude but with all the positives in Aussie you are not here to become a US citizen or not planning on living here.

Nah, we are moving to AUS around about Feb 2011. The Q.O.L simply does not compare to a country like AUS anymore. It's a shame, but it is what it is and it's not going to change as long as both parties are driving the country into 2nd and 3rd world status.

Edited July 25, 2010 by Booyah!

[evli1966 88]

Nah, we are moving to AUS around about Feb 2011. The Q.O.L simply does not compare to a country like AUS anymore. It's a shame, but it is what it is and it's not going to change as long as both parties are driving the country into 2nd and 3rd world status.

fair enough thanks for the reply

[Heracles 417]

I would

1) slap massive tariffs on foreign-made (esp. Chinese) goods to encourage the growth of the domestic manufacturing industry.

Tried that and it caused the depression. A better way is a GST/VAT, where the country earns a significant amount of money off a product sold. After all, taxing goods you don't manufacture a premium is smart business. Unfortunately you cannot do this using tariffs.

2) seal the Southern border airtight, Soviet-Union-style, to stop the influx of cheap foreign labor

3) renegotiate all trade agreements, starting with NAFTA

4) provide investment tax credits for businesses to modernize their factories and purchase new machinery

5) introduce severe tax penalties for sending American jobs overseas

Agreed. I was pondering the last point the other day and thought that we should slap a three year salary severance requirement on anyone laid-off due to their job being sent abroad. I think this is fair game, as any business that sends a job abroad would have to pay-out an employee for three years worth of their salary. The anti-business cries would fall on deaf ears as supporting my country over others is more important than the interests of corporate lobbyist.

While I agree in free-trade, I don't agree in a country doing nothing while jobs transfer to foreign countries. There is a lot we can do to assist those who keep jobs here and financially strong-arm anyone who has over x percent of their workforce abroad in cheaper countries that don't have the reciprocal percentage of workers here.

As you pointed out, free-trade works in an equal playing field. In reality, we have no chance of competing with a China, unless we too become some poverty stricken equivalent nation; which to me is not an option. We need to build the country and increase our standard rather than go down the race to the bottom path, something brought on by good old Crapmart.

Edited July 25, 2010 by Booyah!

[mawilson 2,133]

If the US isn't self sufficient, point 1) likely be counter productive, point 2 would entail a massive increase in government employees and increase taxes or add to the deficit and number 3) would likely end in American having worse trade agreements than it enjoys currently (because of point 1). 4) would be a good idea if American business is lacking in modern equipment (which I somehow doubt, but I don't know) and number 5 would encourage successful global businesses to relocate elsewhere, as would number 1. After all that went down, it would be interesting to see if the US was better or worse off

I agree that the US needs to become self-sufficient (esp. energy-wise) before we start a trade war with other countries.

[mawilson 2,133]

Do you think those who these stats apply to, like 1 in 4 American children living in poverty are happy?

Possibly. There are poor people who are happy and rich people who are miserable.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

I gave up on expecting you trying to form a logical argument the day I realized you were not Eric. Here is just another example of it. Strange how this is not happening to Australia's middle class. In fact, the middle class is not only the largest demographic but is also having the best time ever over there.

I thought about your complex the other day while read an international study ironically directly related to your one of few responses to everything, being the world's most happiest countries. One guess who made the list and another guess who didn't.

Got you panties in a bunch again? No complex here. Only you have a complex, constantly trying to convince anyone that will listen that the US is no good and the rest of the world is so much better. Why is that?

[evli1966 88]

Got you panties in a bunch again? No complex here. Only you have a complex, constantly trying to convince anyone that will listen that the US is no good and the rest of the world is so much better. Why is that?

Only on some points

[Peikko 1,575]

I agree that the US needs to become self-sufficient (esp. energy-wise) before we start a trade war with other countries.

Tbh, being more self-sufficient is not a bad idea, nor is reducing endless imports of cheap ####### from China et al.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Tried that and it caused the depression. A better way is a GST/VAT, where the country earns a significant amount of money off a product sold. After all, taxing goods you don't manufacture a premium is smart business. Unfortunately you cannot do this using tariffs.

Agreed. I was pondering the last point the other day and thought that we should slap a three year salary severance requirement on anyone laid-off due to their job being sent abroad. I think this is fair game, as any business that sends a job abroad would have to pay-out an employee for three years worth of their salary. The anti-business cries would fall on deaf ears as supporting my country over others is more important than the interests of corporate lobbyist.

While I agree in free-trade, I don't agree in a country doing nothing while jobs transfer to foreign countries. There is a lot we can do to assist those who keep jobs here and financially strong-arm anyone who has over x percent of their workforce abroad in cheaper countries that don't have the reciprocal percentage of workers here.

As you pointed out, free-trade works in an equal playing field. In reality, we have no chance of competing with a China, unless we too become some poverty stricken equivalent nation; which to me is not an option. We need to build the country and increase our standard rather than go down the race to the bottom path, something brought on by good old Crapmart.

You're right about that, Australia has no chance of competing with China.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Richard A. Levins is a senior fellow at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy -- www.iatp.org. He is a professor emeritus of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota. His most recent book, "Middle Class * Union Made" is available from Itasca Books at www.itascabooks.com.

http://cjonline.com/stories/082606/opi_levins.shtml