There is a fundamental truth that is not being told, and it is key to understanding why jobs are not now materializing. The gist of it is as follows:

How do we try to understand the several years of prosperity before the recession hit? How, for instance, did job growth and wealth creation meet the needs of population growth during the Bush’s years?
Economists during the Bush years consistently told us that economic growth of six percent per year was needed in order to meet the needs of population growth and to maintain standard of living. Well, during much of Bush’s tenure, it looked like we were meeting that goal. But how? Was the growth healthy and sustainable, or based on “false growth,” or in essence, illusion?
It turns out, as we now know, that the major drivers for wealth creation and the attendant job growth during the Bush years were three main factors: sky-rocketing home values, sky-rocketing stock values, and easy credit.

So, let’s take these one at a time:

SKY-ROCKETING HOME VALUES

Home values doubling every few years (due almost exclusively to foreign capital looking for high returns during the boom years), is something that will likely never happen again, and SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN unless we want to repeat the economic fiasco that led to this recession. Home prices are still adjusting to reasonable levels, and when all has settled, tens of trillions of dollars worth of wealth will have evaporated as easily as it was created. This wealth should never have existed in the first place and was almost completely a paper illusion.

SKY-ROCKETING STOCK VALUES

The artificial creation of all the housing wealth, and absurd leveraging due to the easy foreign capital fed the stock market bubble, as did investor stupidity. The stock of healthy companies should trade at maybe 10-20 times earnings, TOPS. Instead, companies were trading at absurd multiples, many at hundreds of times earnings. This was the “irrational exuberance” alluded to by Greenspan. Again, as stocks adjusted to reasonable levels during the recession, trillions of dollars of wealth has evaporated. Also again, this was wealth that should never have existed in the first place.

EASY CREDIT

Foreign investment and banks flush with bubble cash made for easy credit. This allowed Americans to spend far beyond their means, even as they were making a killing off illusionary wealth that would soon disappear into the ether from which it came.

THIS LEVEL OF FREAK SPENDING, BOLSTERED BY THE ARTIFICIAL WEALTH CREATION AND EASY CREDIT, IS WHAT ALLOWED JOB GROWTH IN AMERICA TO KEEP UP WITH POPULATION GROWTH. SINCE ALMOST ALL OF AMERICA’S WEALTH CREATION WAS ON PAPER AND NOT BASED ON REAL PRODUCTIVITY, ALMOST ALL OF THE JOBS CREATED WERE SERVICE SECTOR JOBS FED BY THE IRRATIONAL SPENDING OF ILLUSIONARY WEALTH.
Service sector jobs are, of course, the first to go when spending slows.

THE BOTTOM LINE FOR RECOVERY

The tens of trillions of dollars lost in housing and stock market will likely never be seen again. More importantly, unless we want to have an economy again based on illusion, those tens of trillions SHOULD never be seen again.
This means that we had a decade of population growth for which little new real wealth was created. This lack of new real wealth means no new spending to create new jobs… FOR TEN YEARS WORTH OF POPULATION GROWTH!!!!!
In other words, the wealth simply doesn’t exist anymore that sustained the last decade’s worth of people that were added to our country. It evaporated! It’s gone, likely never to return… at least no time soon.

Add to the above one more exacerbating circumstance: those who would historically have been leaving the workforce to free up jobs for newcomers are now being forced to work past the traditional age of retirement. This will naturally translate into even fewer jobs for those trying to enter the workforce. Had this recent economic fiasco been averted with a little foresight, regulatory enforcement, and the intelligence to heed the Cassandras who warned those in power during the Bush years, then this compounding problem of fewer retirees wouldn’t exist either.

Now, with real wealth reduced by tens of trillions of dollars, there’s not enough money in the financial system to both give the ten year’s worth of added population jobs, and have everyone maintain standard of living.

This fact means that a trade off will have to occur:

either
1) we find a way to give everyone a job, but median individual real wealth is reduced
or
2) median individual real wealth remains level, but unemployment numbers remain high.

Either way, we face a major paradigm shift in America. In fact, we are already seeing that the length of the average work week is decreasing in America, to around thirty hours… this makes the first option look like the direction in which the country is moving.

This is the true legacy that Bush and the Republican Revolution left our country and our new President. The Bush administration was content that all of our growth be illusionary, that none of it be based on real increases in productivity… that it NOT BE SUSTAINABLE.

This is not to say that some Dems, especially Clinton, were completely blameless, but the real opportunity to avert the crisis was on Bush’s watch… at the moment when enough credible voices were beginning to alert those in power to what was happening. Of course, Republicans were solidly in power at this time and had overseen the creation of K-Street; never before had the Federal government been so closely and openly aligned with Wall Street and huge corporate interests. This did not make for an environment where regulatory enforcement was probable, or where malignant economic forces were likely to be reigned in.

Unfortunately, all the above leaves little hope that enough jobs can be created to bring our unemployment down to the low levels to which we’ve been accustomed. Also unfortunately, Americans will never place the blame squarely where it belongs, so we’re thwarting the best shot we’ve ever had at meaningful reform.

A SMALL GLIMMER OF HOPE

Finally, I submit that our best hope for ever again becoming a significant producer of real goods and rekindling a substantial manufacturing base, lies of course in producing something the world wants and needs. Importantly, it should be in sectors where U.S. technological prowess and innovation gives our country an upper hand.
The obvious area, I believe, is green technologies, as many have envisioned and proposed. New world realities ensure that leaders in green technologies will be guaranteed an edge in future trade deficit wars.
In all other areas of manufacturing, we have already lost the battle… let’s not lose this last and best opportunity.

Geez JP,

Do you rewrite this each time, or do you cut and paste it from a previous show?

By the way, I agree with most of it!

I believe it fervently, I believe the points are important, and so I rewrite it slightly and repost it when the topic is again job creation. This is the third posting, BTW.

There will be new jobs, and a return of prosperity soon enough. That is, unless some people want to wake up with their heads sown to the carpet. All kidding aside, our dollars are fiat, their only real worth is the Cruise Missile or Marines (I.e. honor this or will wipe the floor with you.) We still have that capacity, and the drop in prosperity has been quite sharp over the last year, and getting worse in a real world sense. That’s not only traction-less politics, that’s not even bad “Frog on a Hotplate” politics. No, a deepening, or even sustainment of our current situation is the kind of stuff French Revolutions are made of, and should the US suffer one, the domino effect could be of New Dark Age proportions. Yes, I’m sure hyperinflation of the dollar and or a third front in the GWOT might be toyed with, but at the end of the day, you fix this, or you die. It’s that simple. People who have lost everything have nothing to lose, and their ranks are growing everyday. I don’t know of one person who is willing to “Sign up for a lower standard of living.” In fact most would rather die than do so. If you think the Town Hall rage was deafening this last summer, you’re in for a real show if this Recession isn’t over by next.

Upon reading my comment, I feel that I should clarify that “you” refers to every person–from CEO’s and Government Representatives, to Joe Sixpack–across not only this nation, but the entire Western World. We’re all in this together, and while everyone is taking their knocks, and trying to figure out what to do, the motivators at the end of the day are of the most dire sort. We will find a way. We have massive resources, and the most educated population ever seen in recorded history. It will work out, because if it doesn’t, everyone is going down. We got into this because, essentially, we all wanted to. It’s the same reason we’ll dig ourselves out. Survival is a heck of a motivator.

Constantine,

Good stuff.

Here is my fear. I have this fear (trust me, I’m afraid) that the rest of the non western world will engulf and surpass us. Not necessarily by military means either. I think the western capitalist model could be winding down. We have the ability to make it ugly, no doubt. China is positioning itself as the future world leader, and India is not far behind. The west basically got fat on colonial spoils, and are no longer very hungry or competitive. Now, it may be too late to turn it around. Our education system is behind, we are materialistic without much ability to delay gratification, and we are trying to hold onto natural resources with a bullies’ militaristic method. Other than the proverbial “Big Stick”, how do we turn this around? Perhaps the staggering growth of the service industry in this country is preparing us for our future role in the world.

My opinion is that no matter how you dress it up, the “Big Stick” as you put it is the basis for all real power. It’s not very nice. No sir, it’s really not. It’s also the most basic truism of all life. The biggest, baddest predator is the “King of the Jungle” and he gets to sun himself on the veld while everybody else is nervous about waking him up. Everything else is essentially nicety and semantic. Literally everything we have, we took. Yep, we really did. We took it, and it was wrong, but life is a zero sum game in many ways, and it’s always better to say “I’m sorry” than get told “No.” If the western world likes their running water, and abundant electricity, and KFC, then we’ll just have to make peace with the fact that it comes at the cost of starving children in Africa, and horrible corruption on afar done in our name, and start appreciating that it’s either them or us, so as sad as it may be…F-em! This crisis is good, it’s a last wakeup call to a spoiled Baby Boomer Generation, and a totally ignorant subsequent set of generations, that prosperity comes from ruthlessness, and if you like your prosperity, you’re going to have to “man-up” and go get it. The surplus from WWII has been exhausted. I know I’ll get a lot of flack for this, but you watch even the greenest of hippies club baby seals and sling a rifle when he’s hungry. He’ll do it.

The problem, and the solution are sociological, because all of this that you see around you, is just a construct of man. It behaves as people do, because it all just what we decided to “make up” for lack of a better identifier. Growth is painful. You can most easily equate it to the life of a person in their 20’s. They’ve got a lot of ideas in their head, and unless they are supported totally by their parents, they take their knocks, and learn to see the world as it really is; harden up, and take the reins of leadership. That’s where the West is right now as a society. Remember, your 20’s sucked when you remove the bad decisions to hang out in bars (which in retrospect we tell ourselves were “fun”). It wasn’t “fun.” It was hand to mouth most of the time until we shook the static out of our heads and got pointed in the right direction. We lost a few of our ranks in the process too. They can’t all be winners. But this all comes at a good time, because the West still possesses the majority of the financial, educational, and military resources. It’s not too late. It will get better. People will become less tolerant. It’s a double edged sword, but it also has a beneficial side. With the loss of charity, will also come the reduction of nonsense. Ok, I’ll take the monocle out. I’ve said enough for now. This is just my take. Maybe I’m wrong. I do know this: The times, they are a changin’, and it’s not going to be a party this time.

THE NEEDED OUTLOOK TO BEGINING TO TURN THIS ECONOMY IN THE RIGHT DIRECTIONS !!!!
This is your Joe Plumber who created 300 jobs this year. Hope to create another 80 jobs in Mass. in 2010. Problem is my financial institutes are out to get us. My current loans are going up over 70% and anyway my additional expenses can help pay back the Government’s Tarp repayments will be the death of the small business JOB creators which will be the only stimulant to turn this economy back in the near future. Everything I have heard or read the past 12 months is how to keep up with unemployment payments. I try to see the brighter side by JOB creation. I seem to be like salmon fighting my way upstream. I am interested in finding some government assistance to make these commitments to REALLY helping this shrinking economy by paying working JOBS to pay the needed TAXES so the States and Federal government can begin to see a turn around in 20…

It should be noted that in the Netherlands the unemployment rate is about 4% right now.

Spain is a basket case with a about 20% unemployment.

France is the only European country with a rate close to ours.

I am not counting the Eastern European countries as they are not exactly in the same league as the west.

I think we are going to see permanent high unemployment and under-employment in this country for years.

It’s the economy…..

It’s no secret China and India will provide the material side of the “green economy” in the absence of trade controls. Therefore, unemployment will probably remain high or increase, Obama is out and ‘Pubs are back in the White House in ‘12.

Have a nice day.

Believe it or not, Like it or not, unlike the most “Free / Less Regulated Economical Theories” the “Regulated Economical Theory” seems to be working best in this toughes of tough times…

India and China, have pulled growth, even in this despair, despite the fact that we are bleeding jobs, they arent!

Both the countries, seem to have a very tightly regulated Market, ofcourse they are “free” but not any sense as our Market has been..

Did we incidently discovered something during this crash that a “Totally Free” market is as bad as a “Tightly Regulated” market?

Any ways, whatever happens, I’m keeping my fingers crossed and really trying to sharpen my skills across the spectrum to have atleast a ray of hope, just in case..

Really cool guests today, would be looking forward to hear Prof. Warren!

Have been posting the same solution since Jan 2009.
Can Elizabeth Warren answer this??????????

Subject: We must stop the massive transfer of wealth from an average people’s lifetime savings to the pockets of people who cooked up the mortgage lending sceams. Ending Foreclosures and erosion of home values.

State Attorney Generals know which Mortgage companies have engaged in deceptive mortgage contracts with fine print. Why can’t District Courts be given broad guidelines to give relief to distressed pro-se mortgage owners who were subject to these contracts and shift the burden of proof on the Mortgage Companies who may claim that they acted in good faith without deception.

In short of this, we will not be able to counter the lawlessness that happened during the mortgage/borrowing bonanza. If we do not reverse this, public will lose and government will lose.

Why can’t the local courts deliver justice in the form of “postponement of monthly payments” for a few years if the mortgage contract was deceptive???

India and China are growing because they are about where the US was 150 years ago. These things work in stages, and for them it is just an early stage of capitalism. They still have a long way to go, though (what’s with hundreds of millions of people in each country in an abject poverty). On the other hand, the U.S. is a mature economy. We have to find a new economic model fast, or else… At this stage of history, we will not be able to seamlessly pull ahead all the time simply by resorting to the “free” economy. Other countries are getting better at it. While here free market has morphed into the means of funneling wealth to the 1% of the richest, other countries are learning to make capitalism serve the entire nation through the power of the government. “Trickle down” is too unpredictable to trust it. It does not mean Stalin’s capitalism, it just means more balance between the power of the Government and the power of The Corporation. We either achieve that “sweet spot” or will eat the dust.

Did I just say “Stalin’s capitalism?” I meant to say “Stalin’s communism.” A freudian slip.

Unemployment is at 9.8%, and now Obama and the Democrats want to pass “Cap and Trade” which will increase fuel and energy costs substantialy which will in turn do further damage to a weak economy. Al Gore and Goldman Sachs who have secured the rights to sell and trade carbon emissions under “Cap and Trade”, are going to be laughing all the way to the bank while American manufacturers will be put at a competitive disadvantage against their Chinese and Indian counterparts who want no part of “Cap and Trade”. Thanks Democrats.

Wasn’t most of the “loss of value” suffered in the USA during the crash loss of “value” in homes and loss of “value” in stock accounts? Such “loss” is a paper loss. It isn’t as if Alaska sank into the sea or coal mines vanished. What it was, was the chicken come home to roost, or the golden goose come home to roost. The hollowness of the “profits” that allowed “money” to be available far and wide has come home to roost. “Profits” that are a trick of the pen are not real value. It’s just overvaluing assets until people, promised by their investment managers, think they are “entitled” to a way of life (one that is not sustainable by them out of their pockets, nor for the planet, insofar as we have called down the gods of global warming along the way). Now we are cooked.
If people don’t know how it is we got here and therefore stage a revolution, as Constantine suggests (rather than getting on with what’s next), oh, let me move on to the hereafter.
I expect Robert Reich will have some suggestions.
BTW, Noam Chomsky on a rebroadcast of Democracy Now! last night was saying that in the 1776 revolution, the Brits thought fine, the Americans will continue to buy our high-quality manufactured products, but James Madison, who ran our economy, said no, we will put HUGE tariffs on British products. And because of that, the fledgeling country developed the very best manufactures. Up to World War II, we were very protectionist, I believe he said, and would not allow the import of higher quality stuff until we had the very best to offer.
Now, we think, like the British in 1776, oh, Brazil can develop steel manufacturing; they will never offer as fine a steel as the USA does.
But now globalization is a reality, and the tariffs are off, and we are naked against competition, and with our sense of entitlement, we are losing. (I could have misunderstood; I only heard a segment.)

JP, I read your piece last, and would only point out: The Social Security Administration has gagged on the unexpected number of new retirees brought on by the recession. Employers looking to save money will offer older employees “buy-outs” and put them out to pasture. And though stock portfolios drive many back to jobs, for others there are realistic ways of living on less. I’m remembering the song from the late ’60s, “I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden; along with the sunshine, there’s got to be a little rain sometime.”
And here we are. Was the illusion all that great? Don’t we look back on the days when we were settling the west, seeing great promise in doing for ourselves in a dangerous and forbidding world, don’t we recall that and think, I will gird up my loins and forge ahead?

@ Louise,

I’m not an Obama fan, neither I’m a Bush fan.. Having said that, your view of “Sticking to the Old” technology is no sense at all.

We need to move forward, the entire world is embracing the new technologies in which everyone is trying to reduce the Carbon footprint.

Now, I dont know how it will impact the Environment in the Long or Short runs, however I’m sure that it will definitly take us away from the dependance on Oil because we simply dont have enough oil (even if you claim we have oil its too expensive to get to the tank), and that will definitly help us to have a sustainable economy on short and long runs.

Its not about Politics alone, its about Moving Foreward…

=== Repost======
I put Louise’s name accidently instead of mine
================

@ Louise,

I’m not an Obama fan, neither I’m a Bush fan.. Having said that, your view of “Sticking to the Old” technology is no sense at all.

We need to move forward, the entire world is embracing the new technologies in which everyone is trying to reduce the Carbon footprint.

Now, I dont know how it will impact the Environment in the Long or Short runs, however I’m sure that it will definitly take us away from the dependance on Oil because we simply dont have enough oil (even if you claim we have oil its too expensive to get to the tank), and that will definitly help us to have a sustainable economy on short and long runs.

Its not about Politics alone, its about Moving Foreward…

Louise,

Even without cap and trade we can’t compete with India and China (and Afica eventually). We CANNOT compete for a manufacturing economy with nations 4-5 times our size with 1/4 our standard of living. Your best hope would be to build high tariff walls and just build what we need here(I actually like that idea). I also believe both parties are responsible for the disastrous globalization that we’ve seen over the past 20 years. The economic road we are headed down is one-way with no u-turns allowed. Globalization makes 95% of us poor or worse, while the 5% become super rich. Thank global corporations and purchased governmental aquiescence.

Where is the creative economy…money is pouring into the same top down systemically broken pipelines….getting it released into the system has been slowing any recovery that has no incentive to start.

H1N1 and H1B, where jobs are given away to foriegn workers is part of the problem. There are ten of thousands of skilled engineers right here who lost their jobs during the down turn. Yet, foreign workers (who work for much less) are still being imported.

The USA can compete if our “Soprano”, mob like federal tax structure would stop punishing production and grabbing 25%-35% of every dollar when it changes hands. If we enacted the Fair Tax (www.fairtax.org), corporations and investors would flock to this country and we would be the world’s tax haven. This would be a much more appropriate position for the “land of the free”. Stop looking to the Feds for solutions. Stop overspending my money. Let us compete.

There will be no U.S. economic recovery; because that’s not in the globalist money-changer’s plan to create a one-world economy/government. This economic “crisis” was engineered, just like all the others since 1913, when the big NY bankers bribed Congress into passing the Federal Reserve Bank Act.

If you want recovery, then end the Fed.

Robert was the guy pushing “high tech job economy” ten years ago..went bust…says it is great to outsource and move jobs overseas….is it time to rethink our economy and stop these so called free trade agreements?

I am one of those discouraged workers. I don’t show up in the numbers because I am not collecting any public assistance. My technical skills are getting outdated.

Jobs are the power that drives the economy. I have value to add to the nation through work but we aren’t willing to make any change that effects any sector of the society.

We should have two years of mandatory public service after high school. We need to build the infrastructure of the nation, from a nationalized passenger rail to solar water heaters on every roof.

We have the workforce and the vision, we need to accept change as part of our growth. Not through personal consumption but public infrastructure.

Elizabeth Warren you are my hero. I would nominate you as mother for the nation. Your values are the leadership we need.

Robert Reich wants “Money into people’s pockets” so products can be consumed. Oh, no. I agree with whoever says we can’t consume our way out of this.
Ray, I agree, public infrastructure, jumpstarted with two years national service out of college. Supposedly the stimulus package is slow in the pipeline and will start green infrastructure soon. Infrastructure is not the sort of thing a consumer can jumpstart. Investors (my investment money) could do that, but it doesn’t seem that the stock market is coming back to life because of new green jobs.

What’s so great about jobs?

I’m unemployed, probably temporarily, and I’m happier, healthier, and more sane than when I was under a boss’ thumb. If it weren’t for the fear of poverty—cold, hunger, thirst, and living in a ‘bad’ neighbourhood—I’d be fine. (Admittedly, the ‘temporary’ aspect—a bureaucratic snag that will eventually be ironed-out…probably—ameliorates the pain.)

Most jobs have more to do with making sure that the majority of people, men especially, are in one of those primate dominance structures, than with getting work done, not even to say ‘necessary work’.

Unlike the Orthodox Hippies (and the Surrealists, everyone sane and decent, and Pigmeat Markham for that matter) I am not advocating ‘putting everyone on relief’—our technological level is still too laughably primitive for that, and it’s dangerous to pretend otherwise—but I think we’re a bunch of clever primates, and should be able to figure a way out of this.

Two things we could do: Ray (above)’s draft for young people, and making sure that Social Security is high enough that people can actually leave the work-force—that was one of its original motivations, now forgot, to co-opt the supporters of a political figure, Francis Townsend.

I do know that once I’m employed again, I’d be happy to pay more taxes. Anyone earning large amounts of money should be, if the money is going to help others avoid penury. As a moderately-wealthy person, my self-interest is best served by avoiding the sort of conditions that give them every incentive to take _all_ my wealth away—and, anyway, what worthy person would enjoy being king (or one of the lords) of a dung-heap?

Someone who is an expert on the USA during World War II might be helpful. We turned on a dime then. When actually under attack, we could repurpose HUGE swaths of our industry to a new purpose (war).

We are being so dishonest about our situation. When we the people decided to let our elite push globalization ahead, despite middle class concerns, they sealed out fate. When our corporations can now produce in cheap labor countries, our middle class must compete with them. WE CAN NEVER HAVE THE STANDARD OF LIVING WE HAD, THE HIGHER SALARIES, THE NUMBER OF JOBS, when we compete against a labor pool of the world poor.

You can look at this as World Justice, or American tragedy, but its REAL and HERE. Why won’t Mr Reich acknowledge this? It is impossible to re-inflate our economy to where it once was. The corporate elite have the global playground. All other Americans had better get used to Serfdom.

Listening to both Reich and Warren, it becomes increasingly obvious that we need to “eliminate Reaganism now.” I’m only half joking when I suggest we need to treat Reaganism in the way we treat the swine flu, menacing bombers, cholesterol, and sexually-transmitted diseases.

I’m beginning to think it’s hopeless. Is this common once you’ve listened to NPR for a while?

Intuitively (and I recognize that’s a flawed basis for thinking) I think that this massive, unprecedented amount of debt will have an equally massive negative effect on this country, whether it results in inflation, unemployment, high interest rates, whatever.

If anything, the influence of special interests (corporations, unions) has increased over lawmakers. They’re probably good people, but can any of them take on a long view that would result in pain for the next 10 years.

We are increasing in our role of policeman and nation builder for the world. Still haven’t seen our role in Iraq shrink and Afghanistan is only increasing. What’s next – Iran, Pakistan?

I heard on another show that the economy must create over 100K jobs per month just to tread water given population growth (that may be off, as my memory’s fuzzy). If amnesty occurs, health care is provided for anyone, the influx will only increase requiring even more job growth just to stay at the same rate of unemployment.

I’m probably just having a bad day, but it seems so hopeless. And as long as I’m in an Andy Rooney mood, is anyone else tired of Reich’s constant stream of clichés “socializism for the rich, “Cut throat capitalism”, “Money for main street”. Smart guy, but I wish he’d drop the simplistic phrases. Ok, I need to chill a bit.

During all the discussions about the labor market, I’ve only once (I think on another On Point program) heard someone mention a changing of the work week to, say 35 hours, as it is in some European countries. I’m curious what people think about this proposal?

AND… even though “free-trade” has murdered our middle class, it didn’t have to be. Are you kidding? the USA has everything it needs in terms of Natural Resources, people power, and character, to be self-sufficient at a very pleasant level. What has happened is we have failed as democratic citizens, and let our elite securitize, and sell off, our great country around the world for their short term gain. Thus, our once great Nation and its American Dream will be yet another historical, flash in the pan.

We don’t need to be socialist, we need to be self sufficient and guard against the corporate oligarchic elite.

This is a GREAT show……..

I FULLY AGREE with with Ms. Warren’s assessment of our current economic situation.

We have to return to manufacturing and producing tangible goods and services.

The recent rumor rippling on Wall Street of the move from the US dollar as standard and China’s push on an International currency bring to light that we the US cannot just rely on manufacturing dollars…..

Countries are starting to see through this…….

When we start to manufacture we start to put US people back to work…….

We should try capitalism before we pan it. We have an entity siphoning 35% of all corporate profit without contributing anything to the product of that company.

Let’s track a loaf of bread. The farmer grows wheat. Farmer sells wheat and pays the Feds 35% of his profit. The mill that bought the wheat mills it into flour and sells it to the bakery, paying 35% of profit to the Feds. Bakery bakes the bread and sells it to you, paying 35% of the profit to the Feds. And you, taking money from your pocket that you’ve paid income, Medicare, SS taxes on, pay for a loaf of bread.

Oh, I wonder what’s wrong with our economy.

What I don’t understand is that we can sit back and watch big businesses (like Visteon) pull stakes and take all their manufacturing and talent banks out of Detroit and go to other countries (China). We wouldn’t need to create so many jobs if we stopped them from leaving the country just for the sake of the all mighty dollar. The greedy people in big business are dictating what happens to us with a ‘little people be damned’ attitude. Why is that OK? NAFTA, CAFTA, didn’t work.. After seeing what it did for American jobs, why are we allowing yet another wave of jobs leaving? Our government needs to stand up to big business and say to hell with their claims of ‘responsibilities to the investors’. We need to keep our jobs, and we (the U.S) need to protect ourselves. We don’t compete in the world market like the rest of the world does. They practice their versions of protectionism, why is it wrong for the U.S to?
The experts say the merry-go-round is spinning so fast that we can’t stop it to change the way things are going. Just how bad does it have to get before our government (the people we elected to represent what the ‘people’ want) take control and say no to big businesses selfish interests. We also need to protect American businesses to insure that their efforts to keep jobs in the U.S. are rewarded appropriately.
On another note Why is your guest who oversees the TARP funds OK with rewarding executives with our tax dollars?? And, is anyone human being worth that much money on a per year basis??? How much can one person spend in a year. To say that it’s out of control is beyond obvious. To think that these ‘executives’ think they are worth it, is even more ridiculous than the fact we actually give it to them. Why don’t they give something back to the country??

The tip of the tail is unfortunately wagging the dog!!!

Robert Reich -

Why isn’t anyone talking about a transaction fee for using the country’s currency? A very small (less than 1%) is capable of generating a very large amount of money that could be used to pay down the debt – and then for Medicare and other programs.

With regards to Mr Reich’s last point about the people needing to “make” Obama et al. enact the changes we need. So true. What I fear, is that the polarized political culture we have creates in effect a funnel, that funnels proper outrage into Democrat or Republican machine, where the votes are absorbed, but the real change is vaporized.

Does anyone know of a non partisan movement going on? Something concerned and intellegent people can get behind to demand accountability of our government? There must some blogs or organizations- away THE PEOPLE can come together in a unified voice to scream at The President and the Congress, without falling prey to their partisan scam.

James, a hopeful idea, but keep in mind that power and wealth corrupt. Its inevitable. How about taking you example and making the tax progressive- less on the lowest workers, more on the higher levels who are just profiting on value-added, and ownership of the production. Otherwise you just get wealth made from wealth and value added schemes, and superpowerful interests that lobby congress to protect those schemes, until the unsustainable nature of it all crashes down inevitably on everyones head- ie what just happened!

Elizabeth Warren is quite right that there still is a simmering rage in the Country over the scandal of subprime mortgages and its aftermath. As she pointed out, Americans are well aware that the wealth destruction resulting from the S&L crisis, the Drexel Bernham era, the Enron era, the pump-and-dump dot.com bubble, and now the sub-prime debacle, has increased exponentially. We understand that the next financial crisis may be too much for central banks to handle. The only reason Americans are not in the streets over the issue is that we are working too many hours to keep our jobs, or find a job, to do so. There will not be riots in the streets. Americans, even middle-of-the road Republicans like myself, will merely vote out incumbent Members of Congress until we get a group that has the intestinal fortitude to support the significant, rational change Obama promised to serve up.

I wouldn’t be dying to go back to work for a corporation that had outsourced its work and displaced our own workers. I would also be wary of working for a company that imported their specialized workers from another country, displacing say engineers here who might be asking for a higher wage.
To a certain extent workers can boycott the Big Players. And to a certain extent American buyers can redirect their purchasing power to local concerns. That loaf of bread with all the $$ going in taxes is a much better value from a local farmer at a local stand, whose taxes on net profit from that loaf of bread are way lower than the poster above was suggesting.
At present, I am worried about the startups that Obama is trying to favor. Why? Isn’t the new medical insurance overhaul based on the idea that employers of fewer than 25 workers are exempt from providing health insurance? A Faustian bargain. The government is making it harder for those small businesses to attract workers. It would be better if insurance were not tied to employment at all — from the point of view of launching new businesses.
I think that’s very important.

Robert Reich was probably right that until the voting citizenry are mobilized in a much more overwhelming way, Washington will listen to the lobbyists rather than the voters.
Kirk is saying why we aren’t in the streets. We are holding it together with multiple jobs — ummm, not jobs. Paying enterprises. To some extent it is great being thrown to the wolves, of which there are many. Find your own niche, in a world where “too small to succeed” has become a political cartoon.
Also, maybe a lot of us are cautious about directly and forcefully confronting big players (let the legislators do that; it’s what they’re elected to do), our medical insurers, our banks. I don’t know. But the simmering rage is close to overflowing, for sure. The call of the demagogues, as Reich claimed, to blame the immigrants, to blame the host of examples he gave — action is needed. Not a search for a scapegoat.

I’m the fellow running against Peter Welch (VT) who called in this morning.

Dr. Reich is, IMO, proceeding from the ultimate of fallacious premises. Reich is arguing that once the economy is growing again—and once people have money and can spend money again—that the debt can be serviced. No problem. We did it before, right? But what Reich and his cronies choose NOT to mention is that three decades of “growth”—that is, economic growth that has pushed our GDP to some $14+ Trillion in 2008 (Up from $5.2 Trillion in 1979)—these 30 years of supposed growth have been created NOT through the development and creation of productive capital, but instead through the increased and fraudulent employment of DEBT. In other words, this growth about which Robert Reich speaks is not growth at all: it is false growth. It is growth based upon the elimination of reserve requirements and of oversight and of control mechanisms for banks and investment firms, and it is growth based upon massive increases in leverage at ALL levels of society ($2.5Trillion in consumer debt alone), and it is growth based upon our government’s LACK of political will—the political will needed to accept economic contraction and to suffer the electoral consequences of such TRUTHFUL actions.

And so that elephant in the room that Reich and his brethren refuse to acknowledge is that a return to “growth” must be accompanied by a return to legalized Ponzi economics. There can be no “recovery” without a repudiation of any kind of moves toward further oversight and regulation. True regulation and oversight and a return of real reserve requirements and capital investment requirements, etc. would mean contraction. The math is simple. How can a nation sporting a $14+ Trillion GDP experience 5% per annum growth when all of the past decades of growth have been predicated upon an elimination of laws that regulated growth??? Almost tautological isn’t it? You cannot have it both ways. If you want regulation and the elimination of the global Ponzi economy, than you have to accept economic contraction.

Dan, I did notice OnPoint was addressing the national debt, and you were addressing private debt — I think.
I believe you are running against the brother of my dentist, but be that as it may. How do you “sell” “contraction” to Vermonters? That state is pretty good at making do with less. How do you “sell” your insights in Congress? Big big question.
The loaf of bread guy, back there, a lot of the money that goes into that loaf — to reflect what listeners posted in the “hollowing out America” (rural futures) show yesterday, a lot of the cost of that bread has been subsidized by the national agricultural policies. So the bread is a lot cheaper because of government monies propping it up.
On the idea of taxing the “use” of the American dollar. Wouldn’t that favor the rich, who put most of their money into investments? Those who live paycheck to paycheck “turn over” every single dollar.
Also, wouldn’t taxing the use of the dollar begin to switch the international currency away from the dollar to, say, the yen?
Taxing the poor (the use of the dollar) is an idea for sure, but I can imagine the arguments (the shrieks).

THANK you for the guests – Elizabeth voices what many of us are asking and I continue to appreciate her frank honesty.

My questions:
1) Why hasn’t the government regulated the financial industry? How is this sector allowed to dictate policy and tell Congress how things are going to be? From the looks of things, the healthcare industry is following suit. When will Congress stand up to big business and lobbyists?

2) Why was there little discussion around wages – there has been no real wage increase for the 95% of American workers; wages continue to fall and now the “recession” has made it convenient and excusable to lower them more. As an employers market with eyes on Wall Street prizes, American workers receive less pay, more work, no pension, reduced if any healthcare benefits, no vacation, longer commutes with no opportunity to telecommute – in other words, because workers are in no position to negotiate or bargain, employers are taking full advantage of this. How can this be corrected?

3) Quality of life – what the heck happened to this? We work longer and harder yet we make nothing. Elizabeth alluded to this lack of making things. Big business sold out American manufacturing years ago and I feel strongly that’s one of the biggest problems.

Overall, everyone is so freaked out with protecting the concept of capitalism that everyone seems to forget – we are a democratic society. We were not founded as a capitalist society but a democratic one with a Bill of Rights. I think when the people at large get this clearly and what those in the top 1 to 5% are doing to us, maybe then we’ll turn out in numbers.

@ James

While the “fair tax” is an innovative approach to taxation with potential economic benefits, there are also inherent risks that cannot easily be discounted, and there is no guarantee that it will have the job-creating effect you describe. For those who don’t know, the “fair tax” is a proposed national sales tax that would replace the income tax. In the best case, it increases workers’ purchasing power and thereby grows the economy; in the worst case, it becomes a regressive tax that disproportionately affects the middle class. The stated mission of the Americans for Fair Taxation is to make such a tax revenue-neutral, and that is a difficult proposition. A complete analysis is available from FactCheck.org:

http://www.factcheck.org/taxes/unspinning_the_fairtax.html

Happy to hear Robert Reich remind (us) the American people that the change we all speak of is always within reach. However, few are willing to make the personal sacrifice required – often missing from the equation for change. For example, a portion of the population who refused to “spend” until their demands were met. No other tactic would be more effective or democratic. Imagine the power of 100,000 people who refused to pay their mortgage until(?)

I think the private debt is not a monolithic issue. Some portion is related to housing deflation and miscalculations by homeowners, some underwater. Some portion is reckless overextending of households, and the solution is big pullback in spending. I do wonder how many are like me, though. I have a chunk of money invested, and so long as it was appreciating faster than the cost of borrowed money was costing me, I had a motive for plowing money into my business. So that really isn’t “private debt”; it’s entrepreneurial investment. Unfortunately, there is no clear way to pull apart the two sorts of debt. About 2004 the banks began to offer “business” credit cards, and you could only use “business” cards as tax deductions. The cost of borrowing for a business is deductible. However, the best rates were not offered on “business” cards. So someone like me would put business expenses on the cheapest rate, not the business card.
Where am I now? The investments bounced back. Whew. And the personal business investments are paying off. This is very small scale. But I’m sure I’m not alone. I took risks. Actually I have one successful business, and another at more or less take-off stage. I will be earning more during retirement years than ever before, so I switched savings into tax-free Roth IRA’s. It’s a rabbit-out-of-a-hat trick, but not an all-of-a-kind story about borrowing.

Ellen…I don’t see the private/public debt debate as being separate. IMO, once the public gets its hands on trillions more in stimulus dollars, they will be “encouraged” to spend those monies on all manner of useless stuff in order to “grow” the economy. I think that folks like Reich and Krugman et al Krugman are not being entirely truth (nor intellectually rigorous) when they support increases in government expenditure to create jobs. They are purposefully leaving out THE CRITICAL element in his comparison of our current debt-state to the debt-state of the nation in the early 1950s. In the early 1950s the USA was the world’s leading productive society and the world’s most prominent creditor. Today the USA is the world’s leading consumer society—70% of GDP based upon consumer spending—and we are the world’s primary debtor nation. Reich is—again in my opinion—purposefully obscuring the truth because he has bought into the idea that we need to instill confidence—-even if it is false confidence—in the American people (viz our supposed incipient recovery) in order to make it through these difficult times.

…as for selling “contraction” to ANYONE…it is quite difficult.

Unfortunately…we can only “grow” if we continue to pretend that our growth is productive and that enough productive capital exists to support such growth.

I have a question that I ask would-be voters all of the time:

What is more important? The maintenance of our ’standard of living’ or the truth? In other words, I want to know what is more important to people: that we have 63 different types of breakfast cereal from which to choose, or that we create an honest system of public and private finance—that would mean 30% GDP contraction and probably mean only 20 different brands of cereal from which to choose. (You get my point)

Right now there is a surge in the underground economy. Tradesmen are trading skills, this will grow. Further killing the bleeding treasury. As was the case in the years before the American revolution no one trusted or would contract, as there was no confidence in the medium of exchange. England had flooded the colonies with negotiable paper. So the traditional economy is dead or dying. With it comes possible blow back from the Gov. and that leads to the following. When the situation gets dire enough, the normal thought of, irrational behavior becomes rational.
That is when as one posted the French revolution happens. We have one slim glimmer of a chance to avoid a civil/class war. It comes in the words of JFK
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable!” IF the republicans continue to block peaceful change, then they invite the later. Some of them believe they can survive it, of that there is no gaurantee, but in their mind they are willing to risk it. That is making the irrational rational, at the nations peril.

Dan, I agree that Reich was saying consumer need to spend and get over their (reasonable) caution, and I was shocked, to tell the truth. It is not so easy to see the real solution, which is more like total overhaul. Toward the end of the show, he was moving away from that. I would agree with Reich if he said that job-creators need to get over their caution. Why are we letting the Chinese take the lead in the green economy? The green homes and green vehicles of the future are barely on the drawing board, probably because we’re still trying to support the old economy models. Someone here posted about the difficulty of getting a start-up with about 70 employees under way. I’d like to learn more about that, state by state.

Just some math, If our previous debt driven GDP was near 15 to 20 Trillion, 3 to 5% and there is no debt engine running anymore, than our previous 4% GDP growth was false as JP stated. With no debt engine we are forced to run on real dollars avaiable, take away the DOD portion of the GDP and we have been negative GDP for 3 to 4 years, SO there is NO WAY to return to the previous GDP, as there is no debt engine to run. Which is just fine. THose that can do and build will those that shuffled money and equity, there is none left to shuffle. SO learn a trade, you will be glad you did.

Ellen…in my view we are in some manner proceeding from a false premise: That the economy can in fact grow.

For decades now, our government and our government’s money managers and the great men of Wall Street have succeeded in blowing financial bubble after bubble in an effort to “keep the U.S. economy strong and growing”. And of course with each new bubble we have accumulated staggering new levels of debt. Because that’s what bubbles are: Debt. Lots of spending of money that we don’t have. And now, quite unsurprisingly, we’ve become so addicted to the bubbles, that we need to inflate new ones every few years in order to not crash and burn. In other words, the end of bubbles means….you guessed it…DEPRESSION.

Right now The Fed is borrowing and printing enough money in the short term so as to present the illusion of growth—because as we know the actual and true measure of government expenditure in the past few years has gone from roughly 20% of GDP in 2007 to over 50% in 2009. And the government is choosing to paper over the truth in an effort to buy some time and hopefully spend our way out of depression. And laws and regulations that were created to keep banks and other major financial players from being able to game the system have either been ignored or destroyed altogether (Can you say Mark-To-Market Accounting FRAUD?) so that the Ponzi-economy can stay afloat. Because without the Ponzi, without the lies, without the continuation of false growth and legalized fraud, the whole thing collapses and we get—-yup—DEPRESSION.

So what’s it going to be: More bubbles, or contraction? More bubbles, or depression? What’s it going to be, continued corruption and fraud, or depression? More Ponzi-style false growth, or depression? I favor economic depression now. That’s because I favor the truth over lies. I favor solving the problem NOW instead of pretending it will go away. I favor legitimate suffering in the present over mass neuroses and national mental illness. Lest we forget, the Germans favored mass mental illness over the truth in the 1930s and 1940s. That worked well, huh?

The game is up. We have to choose. The end of fraud and the end of the great Ponzi, and depression NOW, or continued gaming of the system and continued false growth and continued destruction of the middle class and continued exploitation of the developing world…and total collapse later.

I choose DEPRESSION NOW.

I know this sounds crazy, and I know that folks the Bob Reich see views like mine as productive of nothing but suffering and hardship, but decades of FALSE growth and fraud have left us with 2 choices: A return to growth that is real and based upon limited productive capacity and attendant contraction in GDP (aka economic Depression), or an acceptance of the Ponzi economy as the M.O.of the nation.

Again, I choose the former. It is, unbelievably enough, the only sane choice.

Can we have Depression now without having demagogues attracting a majority in holy-scapegoating mode more or less as in pre-Nazi Germany?
I am inclined to think this really is the challenge in the USA. The challenge is to convince people that retrenchment really is in the cards. The challenge is to convince them to vote AGAINST their wallets, in essence. And the psychological therapy required to get America into that mode is hard to imagine. Lots of people with lots of money are fleecing us all the more desperately as we head toward that realization.
Why not make your crusade broader? If you won in your current campaign, you would be a tin horn in Congress. Sorry, but I think so. Reich says there is no place for cynicism.
For someone (or lots of people), there is a role is laying out for us all the nearish future in a less bleak manner. It was a sly move to show the First Lady planting her new-style Victory Garden. It may be a real part of the future.

“The obvious area, I believe, is green technologies, as many have envisioned and proposed. New world realities ensure that leaders in green technologies will be guaranteed an edge in future trade deficit wars.
In all other areas of manufacturing, we have already lost the battle… let’s not lose this last and best opportunity.”

Everyone keeps squawking about green technologies as if they’re coming right around the corner. The truth is the ramp-up started in 2000 and the big players have already been established! The production cycles for really big disruptive technologies generally look like an ‘S’ curve with a slow ramp up, to a knee, and eventually to a plateau where the market is saturated. To give you an example follow PV (photo-voltaic) production in terms of megawatts:

1975-1995: Annual production went from 0 to about 100 megawatts.

1995-2003: About 100 to 500 megawatts.

2003-2007: About 500 to 3800 megawatts! With the knee in 2003.

2008: PV production nearly doubling to 7300 megawatts!

Now, who are the big players? Here’s how production broke down by country for 2006:

Japan: 36.8%
Europe: 26.9%
China: 14.7%
US: 8.0%
Taiwan: 7.0%
Others: 4.9%

So, as it turns out, the big manufacturing centers in general, especially those with large chip manufacturing capacity, are the ones dominating PV. This makes sense because there is nothing exotic about “green energy”. All of the technologies are in place to produce it, and it’s all ready being produced at geometric rates. And as the data show, those countries with strong manufacturing bases will see the biggest gains from the green build out.

And, also shown in the data, is that once again, the US paying the price for having undergone reckless deindustrialization. When you move a manufacturing facility overseas, you lose four things: You lose the capital equipment; worse, you lose those jobs; even worse, you lose the knowledge and skill to make what it is you were making; and worse yet, you give that knowledge to your competitor. Over time, your competitor becomes skilled at making things in general and can easily apply that skill to solar panels, wind mills, hybrid vehicles, LI batteries, and so on.

We need a demonstration of the “fierce urgency of now” before a reactionary tide of fear and anger sweeps across the land. People need work. The jobs must be productive with highly visible asset formation. The costs must be effective, shared and transparent. This project of American renewal, while national in design and implementation, demands federal and state cooperation. Perhaps most important, there must be a quite literal “buy-in” from the American people.

I propose a Federal Development Bank dedicated to green, sustainable, job-rich, infrastructure development. Transportation projects that modernize essential existing highways, roads and bridges. The building of light rail and mass transit capacity in lieu of new freeway systems for exponential numbers of automobiles. New water pipes and treatment facilities, smart electrical grids, wind and solar energy, nationwide broadband, green buildings, and focused educational/training programs to rapidly improve the skill sets required. We all know the drill.

The new Federal Development Bank should be funded, at least in large part, by the selling of American Renewal long-term bonds, dedicated to building infrastructure capacity, marketed to the American people. The public appeal should be promoted by a call to economic patriotism. Early investors should be showcased. More progressive financiers such as Buffet and Soros, or perhaps foundation endowments (Bill and Melinda Gates, for example) would be asked to lead the way by buying American Renewal Bonds. However, all of us can do our share. For example, I believe that at present we have some three trillion dollars sitting in money market funds – paying virtually no return. There are countless other examples of “dead money” held by ordinary people ready to do their share by investing in America.

Some outright grants may be made. However, the resources of the Federal Development Bank can be leveraged by loaning to states for infrastructure projects. Drawing from the practices of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank), the new Federal Development Bank would offer reduced interest rates and deferred payments to the states, allowing time for the economy to recover before payback begins. Most of the jobs created would be private sector with reasonable profits earned by contractors.

“Yes we can” must be replaced with “Yes we will.”

RE: Tin Horn…

At best.

Yes, these are such dangerous times. Just listening to conservative talk radio—national OR local—is frightening. The scapegoating has begun. And as the economy continues to tank, it’ll surely get worse.

But Reich’s solution is not a solution. It may temporize the pain, but it cures nothing. In fact, down the road things are made worse…because IMO most dramatic falsehood being promoted by Reich and Krugman et al is that we can “print” enough money to create stability. And history is replete with examples of this being insane INSANE thinking.

That’s why I believe in “getting honest” now. If the Obama team (and remember, I’m a Democrat) stood up and told the truth and told us we’re going to work together and take of each other through the coming dark days of economic contraction—but that contraction IT MUST BE, because the past 30 years of growth have been false—and that we’re going to get smaller, and frankly be better for it…than maybe we’d get through w/out the demagoguery we all fear taking hold.

But our President has neither the stomach nor the will for such truth. And I think that is going to be the greatest disaster of all.

American jobs were turning into not really productive ones but rather into “who steals faster”.
Friday, it is a good day to ask your boss to raise your wages, why? Because others raise their income at will.

Read this sketch of America.

Dome Adorned with a Golden Pineapple.
Haibun.

I could’ve passed the metal detector unnoticed since the State House policemen abandoned it and were not visible. But I was not alone and the accompanying me law-abiding women would have stopped this prank or just make a ruckus. So we waited for the searchers obediently, patiently, slavishly.
We ascended to the upper hallways by the elevator and crossed the mosaics floor.

peeling the paint:
Byzanthine cathedral
turned Sultan’s mosque

Some small cubes in the mosaics pattern are missing. Instead of replacing them the restoration crew put generous dabs of lacquer into the cavities and the whole floor became glossy but not slippery.
 We find ourselves with Thomas Plihcik (Research Director, Joint Committee on Housing, House of Representatives, room 38 in the basement).
Good news first. Condominium owners who are terrified of medieval revenges by the managers and Condominium Associations Institute CAI’s lawyers may file their complaints and depositions anonymously. The papers will be stored and open to the public. But in this society of writers who is going to read them? I am afraid only Thomas and his interns if they have time which they don’t have.
Still we, the doomed activists are set to start some desperate campaign among look-alike sufferers and even collect neatly made papers from all our contacts and deliver them to

Room 38
State House
Boston, MA 02133.
�
We also paid a visit upon Laura E. Teicher, Director of Services and Policy Aide, Massachusetts Senate.
She provided us with the texts of S 654 and S 667. They are not long and allow good reading in the elegant legalese.
They all contain amendments to the keystone Chapter 183A of the Massachusetts General Laws. MGL cannot be enforced or may be enforced only for a high attorney’s fee which not many people (and they are mostly McLean Hospital patients) have decided to pay so far.
Thus I render the amendments utterly useless since they allow wide loopholes for secretive dealings (S 654) and they do not specify who pays for the “alternative dispute resolution” (S 667).
No law enforcement mechanisms are even mentioned.
Only when the town/city inspectors and auditors get involved we may see some relief in our hijacked buildings which are sailing with us and by us, the presumed galley criminals manning the oars. We are whipped but not killed to allow our travel in time.

my own cartoon-
the picturesque pirates
capture the high-rise

We encourage everybody who is able to go to the State House, no appointment necessary. The secretary there reads such nonfiction as Dava Sobel’s Longitude if it may help in any way.
Austrian mountains…
“What are going to do after death,
it’s already paradise?”
There are two other venues to be explored (nightmares of summer nights are not useless for inspiration). One way is to go to the Housing Court, a great new building with an excellent air conditioners, and start fishing out the kindred souls who appear before the clerks of the court and the judges to be invariably crushed and humiliated. They even might mumble, “Your Honor, here is the law!” and shake the papers. The Judge might have some pity on these truth and justice seekers and advise them in a fatherly manner to get a lawyer. “But, Your Honor, a lawyer wants $250 an hour. I make $20/hr. How can I get justice?”
“You got your day in court for your hundred bucks, bloke.” And using esquire’s body language the Judge dismisses the desperado.
The angling for plaintiffs in the fishbowl of the Housing Court Building is laborious, the statistics of cases is unclear and the disillusioned people outside the court room might be beyond the reason. Looking for the home owners who are victimized as defendants may be a better choice. These lunatics had a chutzpa not to pay the ransom money to the fiefdoms encrusted in the resplendent fabric of democracy.

PEOPLE TO PEOPLE
two guys reaching deep
into the clothes collection box

Let’s turn to the Internet. Google “condo problems” and the lawyers’ site will jump out as #1. Twenty million of entries to comb through but do not do it. (You may see such pearls as problems with “board managers” while in our neck of the jungle we got boards of trustees and hired management companies or free standing managers.)
Please consider the second venue, the road less taken, namely the direct contact. We should reread Tom Wolfe’s book “Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers” Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1970. It is a story of success of the inner city groups propelling themselves into the City Hall and getting all the help they needed.
We should brainstorm our tilted equations and come up with a new way to reach the hearts of the functionaries who are in power.

summer apogee:
goldfish and me caught
with shortness of breath

Ah, CAI is throwing an “educational” event for the sheep they are prepared to fleece (www.caine.org). This event will take place in Norwood hotel this month of October. The prospective buyers of condominiums which are not going to appreciate as quickly as before are lured in with a free lunch. Let’s go there and not understand each other like in the old joke: Two ships meet off the Israeli port and people who are leaving Israel shrug their shoulders at the immigrant people who shrug their shoulders in return.
Row, row, your boats! The advantages of condominium housing are here and these advantages often supercede your condo fees, assessments, fines and penalties. If you think condominium ownership is deceitful, try honest renting! Later you will be rewarded with subsidized housing…

Jobless recovery? Kind of like seedless corn.

To call Wall Street’s solution “Socialism for the Rich”, is no more simplistic than to say that Waging War and Satisfying Greed have become the “American Way”(sic Gecko).
Mr. Reich and Prof. Warren are insightful and needed, especially for us simplistic types; out of work, disabled and/or on fixed income.

I’m no sophisticate, so I’m sure that many will find my reactions too simplistic:

1. The Micro-Problem: To paraphrase John Smith, no workee, no eatee. We need to retool our social services to promote education and job training that reduce longterm economic dysfunction and increase longterm employment. I’m willing to pay into the till to help neighbors attain employment for a living wage with benefits. I’m even willing to continue helping them over a graduated progression rather than chopping off their child care and their health care the moment they find a job for $7.00/hour. I’m willing to pay for public transit to get them to and from work 24/7/365.

However, I am fed up with paying into the till to subsidize persistent willful dysfunction. Producing children born out of wedlock and burdened with fetal alcohol syndrome or a drug addiction at birth as an income stream to avoid growing up in this life is not a career choice that I can defend, much less advocate. Bill Cosby was right: you should get your check when you prove that you have been attending school or training AND that you were doing your work while you were there.

Don’t believe me? Visit my neighborhood between bouts of gunfire and melees. I’ll introduce you to those neighbors who are functioning despite life’s difficulties, and I’ll point out the troublemakers from a safe distance so you can observe them for yourself.

2. The Macro-Problem: I’m no theologian, but the Pope is right about one thing. Money is an illusion. It has value only as a medium of exchange. So why is everybody so desperate to rekindle the fiscal addictions of the past 40 years? The stock market goes up, the stock market goes down, but the planet still rotates, people still need to eat, to protect themselves from the elements with clothing and housing, to educate their children to function in some economy (be it here or abroad if they need to emigrate). An educated populace with some inkling of ethics also serves to protect the republic over the long haul.

It seems to me that subsidizing the bankers who made off with the till without consequences is akin to codependent relatives who keep bailing out the family addict without leveraging that addict into rehab. Do you seriously believe that any of those bankers and speculators much less the politicians who benefit from their campaign contributions are going to mend their ways as long as we keep paying to promote their worst behaviors?

Does anybody else here recall the Banco Ambrosiano scandal some years ago? The fugitive accused of a major part in the mess was found dangling from a bridge in London. One can only hope that this current batch of thieves did something to tick off the Mob. Their methods are gruesome but to the point, and they don’t waste decades on the appeals process.

3. For decades after the Second World War, we told ourselves that it was acceptable to tolerate negative trade balances and negative balances of payment. We were the engine destined to stimulate the world economy, and the world would love us and thank us for our largesse. Well we’ve gone on for too long, and now the bill is due. But like Uncle Vanya, we’re standing around wondering whatever happened to our capital when we sold that industrial and manufacturing capital to strangers long ago. Just don’t blame the strangers. They saw an opportunity to help themselves, and they took it.

4. Now that my retirement savings are shot to hell, and I know that I will be working until I die, I’m going back to school — even if I can only afford one class a semester. It will be something practical that I enjoy doing, and a skill that I can take with me around the globe if I must. I’ll save poetry and literature for my private enjoyment on winter evenigs.

It’s my private stimulus package.

No workee, no eatee.
Charlotte M., I know whereof you speak. America’s trust-fund babies, convinced this nation is limitless in its capacity, blind to the debts, only considering the deep pockets of some who are obviously tax-paying citizens, such as Bill Gates. And this is a convenient self-deception since the United States is, as you said, bound to land on you like a hammer as soon as you get a legal job for $7.00 an hour.
But people with this perspective exist, and their children have to be either removed from them or supported in situ, which means taking care of the parent or parents regardless. Reproducing is one thing our morals will not let us control, and further, offspring can vindicate the parents in many ways. They can live out our better selves, and their love and dependency provide us with a sense of power and validation. What else do the poor have, handed down for 4.4 million years, except a tradition of continuation?
The sense of being sat upon by the capitalist culture and sort of semi-legitimized autocracy/plutocracy is entrenched. People laugh at those who try to make a legitimate go of it in such an environment.
I do like the idea of the Federal Reconstruction fund, with bonds on offer for those with money market certificates that are currently just “safely” treading water among the very institutions that are sort of the problem.
Mobilize the money that Americans have. Get us invested in a real future. Do this now.

Hey BUR not sure how often you guys read these, but your link to the show is not working. The player opens but there is no sound.

twenty-niner said:

“Everyone keeps squawking about green technologies as if they’re coming right around the corner. The truth is the ramp-up started in 2000 and the big players have already been established!”

Twenty-niner,
while I agree completely with most of your points, you’re wrong if you think it’s too late for the U.S. to become a heavy hitter in green tech.

Regardless of the supply side circumstances, the vast potential of the Green Tech market, in terms of demand, has barely begun to grow.

The handful of existing wind farms and solar collectors, and the switch to CF lightbulbs hardly represent the eventual demand that Green Tech companies will need to fulfill.

So long as the U.S. creates a friendly entrepreneurial environment for Green Tech companies, our country can still garner a decent piece of the Green Tech pie.

You obviously believe, like me, that we should have some degree of manufacturing capacity in our country, so let’s not miss this last opportunity to get back into the game… to the greatest extent that we can.

Boom-and-Bust, Boom-and-Bust! Elizabeth Warren correctly talked about the relative stability in the US economy from the mid-’30’s to 1980. Our current mess, I feel, started with Reaganomics and industry deregulation. The airline industry after his deregulation is a perfect example of the “boom-and-bust” phenomenon. Many companies sprouted up, creating a lot of “choice” and competition. Then the skyways became increasingly crowded, accidents began to disproportionately occur because of lax regulation of maintenance, loosening of pilot flight-time restrictions, etc. Airlines began to price themselves out of existence because they lowered fares to the point that they could only make a profit by high volume. They also leveraged their companies based on unrealistic long-term expansion. The result: many, many airlines went belly up, and the rest cut costs by lowering service standards. Reagan continued to wield the deregulation sword. He also changed the tax code to favor the top 1%, i.e., the beloved “trickle down” economic wonder. Bush senior carried on. Even Clinton had many opportunities to pull back on the reins and didn’t, even participating in further actions toward deregulatory patterns in the auto and financial industries. Even something as ostensibly positive and growth-promoting as Clinton’s removal of the capital-gains tax for homeowners selling their homes if they live in them longer than two years, something that could be waved only once in a home seller’s life prior, contributed to the housing bubble (although I personally benefitted from it). And W…well…I am long-winded as it is…It would be, shall we say, a much shorter list to state what that man did right! There is plenty of blame to go around; even the consumer should accept a finger point or two.

In as much as I’ve enjoyed the discourse between Ellen Dibble and dan weintraub (I have much respect for her thoughtful comments, and Mr. weintraub seems earnest enough)–and I know we are in a dire situation and are in desperate need of a paradigm shift–Mr. weintraub, are our only choices either follow a bad paradigm or embrace DEPRESSION? Probably not a good stance for stumping, and even worse for working with folks in Congress. The prognosis is dismal enough. Couldn’t we at least start with putting the tax laws back to where they were before Reagan, impose some much needed regulation on the financial industry, make it easier for small businesses to get traction, remove health insurance from being attached to employment and make it more affordable by imposing some regulation on that industry, etc.? Does this only happen with the kind of “contraction” you propose? Besides, you’ve taught economics; as much as our national debt (as well as individual’s private debt) has become a giant monstrous mess, banks do have to lend money to promote enough growth to get us away from the danger zone. Small businesses operate on loans, as well as people buying homes, cars and education, all of which seem more important than what you call ‘useless stuff!’ In your economics classes, haven’t you taught that reducing debt and spending during a DEPRESSION is a mistake? Didn’t Hoover try that? If you do get to Congress, maybe you could look into why “stimulus” money, money that was meant in part for banks to start lending again, has only been used to strengthen the bottom line for them.

I would like to ask James how low taxes would have to be for us to compete with the hordes of global poor? I don’t think we can compete with China, Africa, and India if the rate were 0%. Our standing of living is too high, and is in the process of being leveled out in the tide of globalization. By the way, our corporate tax rate is actually quite low.

The best solution is probably not possible. Seal our economic borders with tariffs and build what we need here. Corporations and the 5% plutocracy will NEVER let this happen. The American Dream is over. It has been for 20-30 years, but we fought it off with credit cards. The bill is due now.

I realize that I am commenting on a program that was already aired.
Here’s an idea about the jobless recovery. I was laid off almost one year ago and have not found work in spite of an extensive job search. Unemployment is over 10% in my state. I keep hearing about non-profit organizations who help people in need with declining contributions needing to lay people off. I would rather be working than collecting unemployment. Could the federal government provide non-profit organizations with the funds to hire some of us unhappily unemployed people? Even if its a limited time program, surely those of us who got those jobs would learn skills we did not use in the for-profit sector.

Make labor hours available to the unemployed by reducing hours that the employed work

To the gentleman running for office in Vermont needs to understand that his concern addressed “debt” consumption and that isn’t what Robert reich was talking abot. We just need consumption and with out funds from the government that’s just not going to happen fast if at all.

Yes “dc”, if you will, is what got us here…but that
should not be an excuse to eliminate consumption althogether.

Also I didn’t here his solution to the issue…just
complaints(based on an apparent misconception of reichs solution)
had he said “lower taxes” he would have revealed himself to be a republican in dens
clothing by his:
1) slamming the solution based on his “misconception” of reichs observaion of the solution.
2) continuing the attack without offering his own solution…when some one states forcefully their position(he was “appalled” that Reich didn’t see that his plan was “wrong) most people expect that u have a solution or a way to proceed obtaining it. This is a hallmark of the Republican party.
3) lowering taxes as a solution to everything( which the candidate didn’t do from what I heard)

if I were a citizen in Vermont I’d study this demcratic candidate a little further than his statements on policy. The rest of the country would do well to watch this and all elections for this type of “wolf in sheeps clothing”. We already have enough ignorant and careless blue dog democrats. If he’s got a plan let’s here it…if it passes the smell test more power to him.

But considering the absolutely DISGUSTING party the Repugnicans have become their only chances for survival is an ignorant electorate or embedding with Democrats to trojan horse
sensible progressive policies no matter what.

As with all issues facing America and Americans today, it’s requires an educated electorate to navigate these tough times.

The corporate media knows the issues and spins it for their masters…only knowledge can counter the type of ignorance displayed by Americans “protesting” healthcare reform.

JP,

I agree 100%, let’s try. I’m in manufacturing myself.

But we also need policies that better support domestic manufacturing. Some call it protectionism; I don’t. I don’t think Americans have any problem with being out-invented. If we’re making horse carriages and another country invents the car, yes, by all means, let our horse-carriage industry die.

Americans do, however, have a problem with being out-slaved and out-polluted. We shouldn’t let our workers pay the price because cheap labor in a competing country is at such a high supply that prevailing wages get pushed down to pennies an hour. Our manufacturers also have to RIGHTLY follow environmental laws (so that we don’t wind up living in a toxic waste dump), which also adds costs to production that some competitors don’t bare.

Out-invented, yes. Out-slaved and out-polluted, no.

DAN WEINTRAUB,

If you were running down here in Virginia, you’d have my vote. I’ve long felt that we need a third party in this country that stands for social liberalism, fiscal conservatism, and a vastly trimmed-down military that doesn’t try to police the world. While that’s close to Libertarianism, I also support strong government oversight of financial markets and the environment, which Libertarians seem opposed to.

If you do get elected, please look into why 20000 people a month are being added to the U.S. government’s terrorist list. Scary times…

Great job to onpoint and there guest both Robert Reich Elizabeth Warren both made some pretty good points, and i hope the repel of the Glass-Steagall Act gets more attention. Both seem pretty realistic about our state but i disagree on going back to a economy with 70% spending is supporting it and reason for reducing any taxes would be for people to spend that extra money and not addressing personal debt.

I’m also hearten by the fact the consumer protect agency be coming out as well. Sad it does not apply to car dealerships as well.

Great job as well from the caller running for congress and wish him luck since it will be a tough sell to people many who are inpatient, selfish, and forgetful. Wanting to solve or baidaid short term issues instead of thinking and solving long-term problems.

But sad to say these people will realize that constant unsustainable growth in the U.S. is no more and just maybe shifting from 70% consumer spending to a more reasonable(whatever that is) level is better in the long run for all.

What both guest have forgot to mention, as well as anyone else, is that even though FDR’s programs put a lot of people back to work in the 30’s WW2 really put a whole generation of young men to work so to speak, it was the military.

Personally I think this country is headed towards the kind of economic downturn that Argentina had in the 90’s.

before WW2 in the 30’s there was a lot of violence and unrest in this country. FDR saw this and his cabinet prompted him to put huge amounts of money into WPA projects. Like them or not, it put enough people back to work to cools things off. Then the war came.

Thats seemed like a very proactive session. Hopefully our government (congress) grows some balls and learns to “Say no to those firms that aren’t a perfect competition”. So lets stop playing capitalism and start playing economics. I got you back OBAMA. BE STRONG!!!

Why not reduce the workweek from 40 hours to something less–35 perhaps. This would put persons to work immediately. Use some of the stimulus money to offset some of the lost productivity

Twenty-niner,

I like your politics!

I have the exact same list, though I’d add one other Libertarian policy: legalize victimless crime.

Tax the hell out of vice, and use the money for first-class anti-vice ad campaigns, rehab programs, and primary education.

We’d get the fringe benefits of less vice overall, 75% less prison population and expense, less money spent on policing, violent criminals kept behind bars and/or kept to fuller terms, a more productive citizenry due to a better educated populace, and importantly, less of a threat from Terrorists.

Vice money fundamentally funds all organized crime, and much of terrorism. Eliminate drug money and you eliminate most crime directly, even most violent crime, since most crime is committed as part of operating vice, or supporting drug habits. The police would be able to devote all of their time to violent crime (except for traffic monitoring and public nuisance. We’d also no longer have to fund international anti-vice efforts, directly or indirectly. Young people would see drugs more for what they destroy, rather than being drawn to the taboo and alternative.

As for pollution in manufacturing, I think strong incentives not to pollute should be enough to keep companies competitive, since money would be saved on the back-side by not having to pay for clean-up and disposal, and in health savings for the general populace… all expenses less conscientious countries will have to pay.

Keep up the good comments! I haven’t seen you post here before.

One thing I never hear commented on or analyzed, is ownership of the largest shareholders of the financial institutions — who are they? are they even U.S. citizens? And if they aren’t, why should they care about American workers or the American society? We are no longer the no.1 industrial powerhouse in the world, nor are we anywhere close to being the richest nation in the world anymore. Who really owns and governs our economy?

Thank God for Profs. Warren & Reich !!! We also have to repeal the Commodities Future Modernization Act & the last “reform” of bankruptcy law!!!!!

We must reinstate Glass-Steagall et al.

I was RIFfed from my gov’t job of 16 years as a Mental Health case manager back in 2002. It was frightening. I had just bought a second house, had very little savings after the down payment, began paying a monthly COBRA bill of over $500, two mortgages…I managed to realign my perception of life, to say the least. I kept the second house and rented it out (sold it in 2004), and I reconfigured my work to four “part-time” endeavors. I went to work in an MH group home as a part-time counselor, started a small landscape business, started giving music lessons and began to play gigs as a musician. This is what I’ve done since. I actually work much more than 40 hrs a week, although it doesn’t feel like it. That’s good news…RIGHT?

I am at the, shall I say, threshold of being elderly, and I have asthma and currently do not have health insurance beyond catastrophic because of cost. My asthma medications cost about $275 a month. I also recognize I am always staying just ahead of disaster. I use the MH job to keep things up when the music and landscaping are thin. I actually feel that I am lucky! I live in an area that enables me to have those jobs. I am in very good health, and I have managed to practice a very conservative approach to finances my whole life, and so on. I will have to probably work for the rest of my life and hope I don’t out live my money, though.

I have noticed that most organizations in the MH field are not hiring ANY full time staff to save money on benefits, etc. At the clinical end, they are utilizing more and more emergency/relief/outside staff and are reducing quality of service. I suspect this is not much different from other businesses, profit-making or non-profit. Companies are just not investing in their employees and are only looking at small dollars and cents, relying on less-experienced, poorly trained employees because they’re cheaper for the bottom line.

I would like to some day quit the MH job and expand my other small businesses, but I’ll probably have to get a small business loan (you know, Mr. weintraub’s ‘useless stuff’). I should probably go back to school, for a PhD in clinical psychology, and open my own private practice, but I would again need a student loan then business loan (more of Mr. weintraub’s ‘useless stuff’).

Working for other people has become a fool’s paradise!

I would like to comment on the way job hunting has changed in the past year. I am really sick of hearing fat cats say that the unemployment are lazy, do nothing but watch TV, and are totally unmotivated. The same goes for people who have not had to look for a job in years. None of these people have any idea what the unemployed are up against.

I am 61 and lost my job as a senior analyst at a private environmental testing laboratory due to loss of work. In the last 4 years, I’ve had 7 jobs, each of which requiring expensive moves, and have been laid-off of each one for the same reason–lack of work.

If not for my unemployment benefits and the kindness of friends who are giving me a free place to stay, I would be homeless and probably dead.

Our local Sunday newspaper lists “donating plasma” as a job opportunity. All the jobs available don’t even take up one page in the paper. When I lived here 10 years ago, that situation did not exist. One could easily find a job to apply for and actually get to talk to someone about the job.

Not so now. I would say that 99% of jobs listed require on-line applications. So many people apply for jobs, and companies cannot deal with the paperwork. Many companies now use a “word search” program that looks for key words in the job history. If none are found, the application is discarded. Even a minimum wage job at the grocery requires an on-line application. At this point I will do anything to survive.

I have been to every bookstore, Home Depot, Lowes, Office Depot, etc. and all require on-line applications. I spend several hours per day looking for a job and rarely find anything I can apply for.

My unemployment counselor told me point blank that it would be a “miracle” if I found a job–age, history of good salary, and essentially zero job skills.

I am not lazy, had to sell my TV long ago, and am very motivated to find work as my survival depends on it. I have no way to move and am filing bankruptcy next month as I can longer afford my car payments and the associated high auto insurance due to bad credit. The output for the car takes over half of my unemployment benefit. The car is a simple Ford Focus Station Wagon, not a Jaguar. And I have to borrow $ from friends to pay for the bankruptcy.

I suggest that anyone who thinks the unemployed are having a great time is to look for a job themselves as an experiment. Not these fat cats, but anyone who has a job and has not had to look for a job in years. You will find out quickly that the job search is far different than just a year ago.

I’ve been forced to sell or leave behind most of my possessions over the past 4 years due to 7 moves. What I have left would fit in a 10 x 10 storage unit. There is little to show for a life of complete sacrifice to my employers, working 7 day weeks, every weekend, and every holiday for years. I gave away my life for what–so those with more greed that management skills could have it all.

Look for a job yourselves and see how much success you have.

Thanks for your time.
Very discouraged in Florida

I listened to the program this morning with some disappointment, Mr. Ashbrook. Everyone is pulling their hair out of their head trying to figure out what to do about the economy. I say let the sovereign states of the world default of their debts, let the banks that monetized the bills, notes and bonds collapse as well. Empty the Federal Reserve vaults of all those damnn IOUs. Toss the whole financial system in the dustbin of history. I say let sovereign nations monetize their own credit and eliminate the middlemen, the bankers, especially the predators that own the Federal Reserve! Their Ponzi Scheme is the problem and has got to go! Usury, speculation, and manipulation of currency markets (or any market) is immoral and must be curtailed or better yet eliminated for the common weal of all nations and peoples.

And guess what? After all that, there is still an economy! Everyone still needs to eat, to clothe himself, to have shelter, and to have transport to go do everything he wants or needs to do. If your fine guests cannot explain how the financial system should work to the benefit of the eonomcy, how are they to explain how to fix a financial system that is not working to the benefit of the eonomcy?

Great guests today, Tom. Bravo.

There is only one way to distill down into an hour the cause of America’s continuing and persistent decline. You aren’t going to get it by talking to economists, politicians, or school teachers. You need a philosopher, theologian, and historian. All in one would be good.

This person is going to remind us that the root of all evil is the love of money. America’s true religion is capitalism not christianity. I don’t think Jesus would drive a Lexus while tens of thousands or children die per day of starvation in third world countries. Thousands in our own country from inadequate healthcare. They would also remind us that all empires fell by over reaching and continually abusing those they ruled over.

The philosopher would just tell us that 95% of our culture is artificial, lacks any real value, and contributes nothing to mankind.

That’s why all the lies and phony numbers put out by politicians aren’t going to fool everyone for much longer. Even a country where the IQ test had to be adjusted down for its population to be considered average eventually the light will come on.

Charles Jarman,
I hear your frustration very clearly and poignantly. I am six years younger than you and came to the realization in 2002 that hard work and sacrifice to the company can do very little to keep us from being left out in the cold.

There seems a very real age discrimination in the job market and the poor economy only serves to exacerbate the problem. Many companies have also taken to scrutinizing prospective hires’ credit history in addition to the usual criminal background check.

I mostly work for myself, but when I was looking for a part-time job to supplement my self-employment I often felt discouraged.

I wish you well and hope your situation can turn around soon.

I really enjoyed the guests today on On Point. I agreed with most of what they’ve said. There is much fear about messing with the free markets, but I’m sure somewhere, we can be profitable and at the same time protect the common working American. Sometimes we have to just grit our teeth and make laws that WILL protect us and make things fair for us.

I’m ready to follow Mr. Reich. I’m a Republican via voting record, but I’ve had it. Reich, run for office, Dem. or not I’ll vote for you. We’re sliding into populist revolution, and that’s not going to be good for anybody.

Dear Mr Ashbrook,

I listened with interest to your questions and the answers from
Elizabeth Warren and Robert Reich, both of whom I like.
I liked the term socialist capitalism in place to benefit the rich,
but isn’t that what Milton Friedman has proclaimed as the
solution to all market ailments? He said let’s have severe shock
to the public and we, the true free marketers can take over and purify?

Sure, Milton didn’t see great success (Chile was his great
disaster), but the American capitalists and the corporate “greats”
are still riding that dead horse – Yes, I know, Milton didn’t die not
too long ago.

But somebody(s) still like his economic model. Isn’t that what
needs to be addressed: “Getting rid of the remnants of the Milton
model?”

Sincerely,
Maarten Pennink
1712 Garden Terrace
Charlotte, NC 28203

I am commenting late but I thought the show so important that I sent it to my daughter.

I still believe strongly in regulation, because after a while, more choice merely means that someone is standing around the corner offering some kind of competitive choice that lacks any substance. And I think that many times this is the manta (more choice encourages competition and lower prices) that comes prior to “hey I have an idea!”

I am surprised that these liberals on the panel never once mentioned that yes, wages are flat and are going down, because workers have increased mobility, and can leave at the drop of a dime. In the early 1900s, you worked for a company from cradle to grave, now, a company sinks money into a new hire, only to have that new hire walk for a marginal increase in pay from the competition – that’s America. Keep it that way. If you want guaranteed wages and increases, form a union.

[...] idea that has been proposed is to redirect stimulus and TARP funds to smaller regional banks where it is more likely to go to [...]

I agree with the general stance of the guests. I think capitalism and the free-market are not the problem but the particular VERSION of them that has been cooked up. It’s an economy that favors the top at the expense of those doing the work, when they can get it. If that doesn’t change then, duh, nothing changes and we can expect more of the same.

The interesting thing is the middle class is shafted, angry, but in two opposing camps about why and what to do about it. One camp knows the top has set all the rules in their favor and want to level the playing field. The other camp thinks their hard times are caused by immigrants, welfare folk (as if there are any anymore) and taxes, so they want to lower taxes which tends to benefit those at the top and doesn’t solve anything at all.