How America Killed Its Middle Class

[4-2-7]

Originally Posted by Tom Joad

And therein lies a lot of the problem Pete. We no longer have enough Dudes like that. Check this chart out:



Union membership is way way down.

And who are todays Union members?

Mostly Civil Service types.

School Marms and dweebie little cube rats.

We need old school union types.

Guys with slab muscle arms, tattoos, and lead filled ball bats ready to go in and bust some heads. Guys that will put the fear of God into the Robber Barrons.

A report on Wednesday from the left-leaning think tank Center For American Progress notes that as middle-class incomes have steadily fallen, so have union membership rates.

[mpholland]

...and lets not forget that FICA is only calculated on wages up to 117K. I wonder how many billions are lost there by not applying to higher incomes. At least Medicare is taxed higher for over 200K.

[piece-itpete]

I said it was a bipartisan screwing.

Clintons' 'balanced budget' (there was never a single year US debt didn't go up) was also based on SS income.

Tom I thought about applying at the big 3 when I left school but the closings were already happening.

Pete

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

John, are we going to come up with 400k for every person in the US to cover what often appears to be continuing high school?

Pete

$400,000? What, everyone goes to Brown?

Other countries offer a free college education. (California used to...... Thanks, Ronnie!) Some countries even pay the students a stipend while they matriculate. These things are far form impossible. It just takes a people who recognize the necessity of it.

John

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

The old line colleges and universities in Cleveland are hardly hotbeds of conservative thought

That's what education does for you.

John

[piece-itpete]

For having a middle class problem we're doing alright:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/up...hest.html?_r=0

Although those darn Canadians

Pete

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

I said it was a bipartisan screwing.

Comparing the screwing we've gotten from the GOP to the screwing we've gotten from the Dems is like comparing a serial killer to someone with overdue library books.

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

For having a middle class problem we're doing alright:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/up...hest.html?_r=0

Although those darn Canadians

Pete

Alright? Are you fucking nuts?

John

[piece-itpete]

I would, but I can't find one big enough to fit it in.

Pete

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

For having a middle class problem we're doing alright:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/up...hest.html?_r=0

Although those darn Canadians

Pete

A family at the 20th percentile of the income distribution in this country makes significantly less money than a similar family in Canada, Sweden, Norway, Finland or the Netherlands. Thirty-five years ago, the reverse was true.

And that's not counting the cost of Health Insurance which citizens of Canada, Sweden, Norway, Finland or the Netherlands get virtually free.