Unfortunately a lot of Americans have no concept of how miserable things were pre-FDR. They see movies and TV shows of a romanticized and sanitized America--national myths--that has little to do with the actual circumstances of how people lived. This leaves an opening for those who want to recreate a "great America again". It is not quite on the scale of, say, the stories of "pure Aryans" living in the woods of Germany but it is recognizably along the same track. (Mussolini's vision of turning modern Italy into a new Roman Empire is another recent example.)
In any case the result is that not enough citizens fight against such actions because they don't understand the implications or can't believe they will go that far. My father (1900-1990) who grew up in a New York City tenement slum and started with nothing appreciated how things had changed, and there are many people with more recent experiences--immigrants from poor countries or those who have left miserable areas in the US also know this. But again, that is not what most citizens understand. My dad once put it well in another context. Seeing how banks were being deregulated, the national debt was increasing, and legal games with the stock market were becoming common he said, "It's just like the 1920s, doesn't anybody remember the Depression." To which my mother answered, "No, they're all dead."
This morning Heather Cox Richardson reports Michael Strain, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, said that Trump’s tariff policy “would be bad for workers and bad for consumers.” Chief Economist of Moody’s Analytics Mark Zandi said: “Biden’s policies are better for the economy.”
In the New York Times today, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, the president of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute at the Yale School of Management, debunked the notion that corporate leaders support Trump. Sonnenfeld notes that he works with about 1,000 chief executives a year and speaks with business leaders almost every day. Although 60 to 70 percent of them are registered Republicans, he wrote, Trump “continues to suffer from the lowest level of corporate support in the history of the Republican Party.”
Among Fortune 100 chief executives, who lead the top 100 public and private U.S. companies ranked by revenue, Sonnenfeld notes, not one has donated to Trump this year.
Yes Mr. Solomon a tariff is in fact a tax on everyone in the country. The immediate result of a sudden increase in tariffs would result in a massive spike in inflation. Tariffs would require businesses to pay more for their inputs, consumers must pay more for their products. Everybody would take a financial hit. I am sure people in Trump's entourage have tried to explain simple economic principles to him. Have you ever tried to hammer a three penny nail into a rock?
It is no surprise that business people do not support his luny policies.
Tariff's have worked in the past, it depends on the stage of development of the society and nation.
When Henry VII, killed Richard III and crowned himself King, he found a kingdom what was impoverished, a joke, the poor man of Europe, it's armpit. Look no further than the painting of Henry VII, and compare to his son the 8th
England's exports were processed bulk and dyed wool, and wood, both went to the Low countries for processing into textiles and ships.
H7, levied an export tariff on raw wool, and in import tariff on china, glass ware, silverware, textiles and clothing.
This forced the English to develop their own industries, for technical stuff like silver ware, they allowed the likes of the Huguenots to escape to London.
By the time H7 son H8 took the throne, the mule swallowing potholes had been filled, and the nobility was so wealthy that H8, had Parliament pass a law that forbade commoners to dress like and in the material of nobility, no jewels, no silks, no furs, no fine linen. - Sumptuary Laws.
Because of tariff's England became a world power, and eventually an empire, and H8 could build the biggest and most expensive warship of the age, the Mary Rose.
Bu that was then, America is now a consumer juggernaut, our economic well being depends on consumption, not production.
And I might add, that in the 19th Century tuberculosis was called consumption.
What matters Daniel, who corporate "leaders"(CEO', CFO', COO's, or upper management?) support there are 756 billionaires in America, and all but 5 of them are plowing money into the Republican party. Jamie Dimon said that he can work with Trump, they all feel that way..
Just fealty. Insurance. Jamie Dimon made a bundle under Democrats. Markets at an all time high. They hedge.
I'd take the ex-wives club, Taylor Swift, Buffet et al.
Many of the Trump donors never worked a day in their lives, have virtually no info beyond the echo chamber. Tim Mellon is a good example. Trust fund baby. Spent $50 MM on Trump, $25 MM on JFK Jr so far.
What is now called the middle class is teetering on edge of collapse. Medical bankruptcy, excessive credit card rates, the cost of higher education are all causing the middle class to decline. We need a better social safety net much like the Nordic countries. I also do not understand the end game of the morbidly rich. How could you possibly spend a trillion dollars? Where is the morality?
People who feel supremely entitled, and are also driven by greed, believe that everything they acquire - no matter how it is acquired - is deserved, and is therefore right. Further moral reckoning is obviously unnecessary!
If we define the middle class as those having a third of their income for discretionary spending (over necessities like food, shelter and transportation), I am guessing there are far fewer of us than 49 percent. That definition comes from the Economist, 2009 according to Wiki.
Hartmann again sums it all up neatly and concisely. I’ll be sharing this. I’ll even print up a copy for my deluded trumper neighbor, who is normally a nice guy.
Without regulation, capitalism ends like the board game Monopoly! One winner and everyone else goes bankrupt. Unlimited greed is a very flawed concept. The robber barons need to be rewarded but not over rewarded. The poor want to protect the rich, but the rich could care less if the poor live or die or suffer!
Most of the magas have never gone hungry a day in their life, thanks to FDR. I see a day when artificial intelligence, convinces the right wingers that they should die, so others may live. Die of starvation, die of a toothache, die because you didn't believe in vaccines, die in an extermination camp, die of homelessness, die giving birth, guy in order to get to heaven, but mostly die of being sent to war to do battle with the fascists or socialist or communists...
With modern technology, the dark ages will look like a picnic. That is about all the robber barons have learned.
Thom, I am being censored by Facebook and X for posting your articles and the other members of this sub stack. Facebook suspends me two days for each post and X has suspended my account entirely. Just a heads up!
I'd like to say I'm shocked by that, but Facebook in particular has gone to the darkside. The place has run amok for too long. That's how today's billionaires are -- don't care & think they're above all else. Can you imagine the entire nation being run by & for only the billionaires? Selfish greed kills everything it touches!
The Constitution wasn't a fixed document even at its inception---the Bill of Rights were added during the Washington Administration. It was a gift to the future and they wanted us to make it our own.
And speaking of what will happen, that is what is at stake from here on out, not just this election. We are trying to pull Conservatives into a future where the Earth is viewed as one big connected area we need to preserve, so the United States can survive. That means fossil fuel use has to change NOW. The Republicans and their allies want to push us back to the point in the past where it all started. Insanity is......well you know the rest.
Nope, not going back to 1900 or 1787 when the Constitution was born. We've come a long way; our country is almost 250 years old. Time to use the knowledge and wisdom we have inherited.
The middle and lower income classes are doing all the work. A home, transportation, and a vacation is not too much to ask for. To be able to afford a family and health care just makes sense for a nation to survive. Good Report Thom.
Simon sayz we got more good news on the polling front this weekend with A CBS News/YouGov breakout of 18-29 year olds coming in at 61%-38% (+23) for Biden, similar to his +24 Exit Poll showing in 2020 and the Harvard/IOP’s spring +19.
Thanks for sharing, Paul. I'd say that is a developing brain talking.
Bless you for teaching and trying. I don't think those who teach in classrooms or other settings always see what "sticks" and what they have accomplished in the long term as the student grows.
A vivid conversation I remember from HS is whether the end justifies the means.
Sad that they don't understand what those of us who are much older, do. I see the poison has already sickened the next generation. To not think beyond oneself...to the nation & world as being part of the whole... That's sad! They will get 1st-hand knowledge of just how wrong they are if the GOP gets what it wants. By then tho, is too late to prevent the disaster & the demise of freedom in America.
Ms. Bradshaw, I assume you are responding to Prof. Olmsted's comment. Please do not slide into a funk over the young. I recall when I was a youth my parent's and their friends said the same about my generation. They said: "Your generation does not know what is going on in the world today." I called this the "Old Man's Syndrome" when I was young. There was undoubtedly an element of truth to their complaint. Yet, we were the generation that brought America the 1960s and all that came with it. We were not inactive. Some of us obediently, foolishly, immorally and cruelly fought against the Vietnamese while some of us objected, refused and suffered jail, police brutality, emigration, and career-ruining attacks.
Today's young are different. But so were we. Do not despair. I love your given name: Sunny!
And now that makes me think of J K Rowling's , 500 ft yacht bought with proceeds from her Harry Potter books. I doubt she sails on her 13 bed room water mansion. Despite the fact that the heroes of her books are a young male (Harry) and gay male (Dumbledorf), her villain is a male, and she is the most adamant and vociferous of TERFs. Methinks she has been wounded by men when young. A TERF is a Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist, and while she hates Transwomen she welcomes Transmen.
Prof. Olmsted, I presented similar ideas to my students at a small university for almost 4 decades with different results from yours. Without intending to do it; I polarized students. Some thought I walked on water and seemed willing to swallow anything I said. Others rejected my ideas whole heartedly and thought I was the Devil. There seemed to be no in-between-ground., no middle, no luke-warm likes or dislikes.
I know this because of both student evaluations administered in the classroom; plus student opinions expressed on line by an outfit that "rated" professors. Not surprisingly, the online "ratings" seemed to be the more polarized. Comments on the NET seem to contain that kind of extreme language from people. I have noticed this here on Mr. Hartmann's blog.
Often during my office hours, students would tell me that they had participated in a heated argument in the Student Union at lunch-time over some idea I had recently presented in class. Also, out of the entire faculty, I received the greatest number of comments, good or bad, in those on-line NET rating comments. Nobody came even close. The faculty member with the second greatest number of comments was way behind me in total number of comments. He also did not seem to polarize the students as I did. The most memorable comment from a student on line was: " If you take a course from Dr. Dobbertin be afraid, be very afraid!" A comment lodged deeply in my memory.
I retired sixteen years ago and some of those students are good friends still today even though I am now living 2400 miles distant from that university.
I consider myself to have been extremely fortunate for those decades of teaching. Every day I went to work with a smile on my face and a light heart in my breast. My only complaint was over the bad behavior of the college administrators, never about the actual work with students. I was not surprised by those students who hated me. But often surprised by the ones who loved me.
It is not possible for me to objectively evaluate what this means. But there it is. I thought you might be interested.
Because of a faux country constantly created by MSM and Hollywood, people were presented with an alternate reality. Look how good it is. Sing along! Even when real opportunities were disappearing by cause of high finance manipulations, people were lured into believing that things can't be all that bad. Not that they weren't already suffering, but having given all the scripts provided, they were led to believe that they needed to just try harder, pay more attention to misappropriated proverbs, keep hoping hoping hoping for a levelling out for a more propitious opportunity. In short, they were led away from the actual reasons for a crunching financial reality day by day by being led to believe it was their own fault. The MSM, the entertainment providers, the manipulators of the existing reality, owned and controlled by the financial giants, have played the long game. How else do you explain such a blind eye to such a methodical change with no apparent energy to concurrently resist, to contest, to react with meaningful accountability, to see reality in real light?
Capitalism without regulations & without competition (due to endless mergers & buy-outs) that kept it in check, is simply GREED. "Every man for himself." The GOP's focus on deregulation for decades now, is something they are quite proud of. And here we are. Let no one ever forget that!
Who mostly should read an article like this will not. The MAGA type indoctrinated ones who do, will call it fake news. The MAGA politicians and billionaires who read this and understand it may well be like Trump in that they have no mature moral compass, and may well have at least tendencies toward being sociopaths, having little of no conscience regarding the results of their actions and words on others, an addiction to power, and with power and those attributes they are a danger to the whole society.
Mudsill goals of cheap labor of essential slavery for over half of American's to enable the economies automatic generation of unearned millionaires & billionaires is the goal. This is why the GOP wants poverty to be the majority condition of America. Reaganism has achieved that goal as only 44% of American's live in the middle class. In 1980 before Reaganism 2/3 of American's were in the middle class. The Dems must campaign not only about abortion but mudsill besides the necessary 3 or 4 economic issues for Dem base voters. A base vote campaign is necessary to win the election. The goal of the GOP is needed to be known in order to push back this unAmerican 2025 plan for a failed future.
There are not enough Progressives in the Congress and Senate to really run on this. Too many of the Dems in office are funded by the millionaires and billionaires, many who do not want the system since Reaganism to fundamentally change. Throw in the fundamentalist, White Nationalist Christian supporters of the MAGAs and it is like a religious cold war.
I'm getting dem campaign doner requests for Medicare for All that I have been contributing to for over 20 years, but I haven't heard Biden say a word about it. I'm no longer contributing for an unreachable pie in the sky. Put up or shut up.
The middle class was not created by the government but by the labor movement which needed the support of government. Without the organizing of unions and related organizations like the unemployed movement none of the changes due to higher wages and social safety net could have occurred. The current labor movement, finally getting free from the grip of the old bureaucrats, is very aware that they are fighting for the right to a decent life that is supported by work, not a life of constant work.
Until Reagan, each generation of Americans was doing a little better than their parents before them. It was a controlled rise in quality of life & it worked beautifully. Until the wealthiest few & Corporate America got greedy & jealous, not wanting others to have better lives, wanting all the pleasures they enjoy to remain theirs alone. Great wealth has always desired to see great poverty (Gilded Age anyone?!) for the masses, as contrast. Makes them feel superior to the rest of us, rather than just fortunate. That's also why people prefer to think that the homeless are to blame for their own homelessness. Never mind the fact that homelessness has grown at same time as decades of wages being pushed down, while cost of everything (esp housing), went up exponentially. "Record high" profits are now expected, but there's no investments made to justify it - just jacked-up prices for everything, even food & other basics. Millions of people working from home, getting same pay as when they actually went to workplace, w/o the costs of that, have provided a $$ band-aid for some, but that is no solution to problems we face. The "record profits" bubble WILL burst ~ it has to, since no basis for it. Then what? Yet another 'crash'? There's much poverty amongst the elderly now & programs for our fellow humans constantly being cut (aiming for ZERO). Pensions are only for the few (same ones who get nice bonuses). Used to be able to set aside a little extra $$ for retirement -- not now! What's that, "extra money?" Rent is $$$ thrown away, no return on it. Gone are affordable starter homes in many parts of U.S., so no way for homes to be investments for later in life.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that we've been on a downslide for 4 decades now & no sign that it's stopping, let alone turning around! The very rich get richer, everyone else loses. How many middle-class would fall fast into poverty if all their debt they maintain with, was cut-off? That doesn't happen cuz' economy would totally crash & cuz' they get out & VOTE! Rest of us must do the same - NOW - while we still have that right!
The downhill slide preceded Reagan, he only greased the slide, it started under Nixon, ith the Powell Memo, written by future Supreme Court Justice.Lewis F Powell wrote a memo to the Chamber of commerce, that was an attack on Education and Free Enterprise, and Nixon rewarded him months later.
Google Powell memo and you will see what I am talking about,Thom has mentioned it hundreds of times.
They argued that transferring even part of the wealth of rich people to help build a middle class is the first step in a socialist agenda that must ultimately end with torches, pitchforks, and rich people facing the guillotine.
Sorry, but I'm ok with that... If they make that necessary, then so be it. The alternative they're pursuing ~ "of the wealthy, by the wealthy & for the wealthy" ~ is NOT acceptable!!
The greedy uber-wealthy who want to live in such an oligarchy are free to leave America (please do) & go live in such a nation. They do NOT have the right to destroy this Country of ours & turn it into the oligarchy that they want!!
Torches & pitchforks & guillotines...it will be then. We far outnumber them, by many millions of people! We need to use our power to VOTE IN people like us (they'll be the ones w/o all the $$$). Then, the real work begins, cleaning up the filth ~ but B4 you can clean, have to take out the trash!
Let's not ahve any illusions that this vote somehow is going to restore the middle-class in America as both parties have had a hand in destroying it. Biden himself was a part of NAFTA and pushed for "welfare reform" in the Clinton years. He practically invented the carceral state with his Crime Bill of 1994, further dminishing the prospects of a black middle-class. He also made certain that Clarence Thomas was appointed to the Supreme Court (by humiliating a black woman publicly no less) and he is doing his best to make certain that the system is rigged against middle America. The progressives Democrats who might do something substantial are constantly sabotaged by their own party, the latest example being Jamaal Bowman's ambush by AIPAC and the neoliberal nightmare Hillary Clinton.
And what of Biden's highly touted tax increases for millionaires and bilionaires? He's been threatening it for years, and of course now during the campaign, as did Obama. But it will never happen and he knows it. Please recall he promised a roomful of billionaires in 2020 that "nothing will substantially change" for them after he is elected and thus far it has not.
Yeh Boris, lets just give up and vote for Putin, I mean Trump, by not voting at all.
You are doing yeoman's work for Putin.
We may criticize Biden and the Democrats but only to stiffen their spine, you on the other hand,do nothing but spout Russian propaganda to demoralize us.
Unfortunately a lot of Americans have no concept of how miserable things were pre-FDR. They see movies and TV shows of a romanticized and sanitized America--national myths--that has little to do with the actual circumstances of how people lived. This leaves an opening for those who want to recreate a "great America again". It is not quite on the scale of, say, the stories of "pure Aryans" living in the woods of Germany but it is recognizably along the same track. (Mussolini's vision of turning modern Italy into a new Roman Empire is another recent example.)
In any case the result is that not enough citizens fight against such actions because they don't understand the implications or can't believe they will go that far. My father (1900-1990) who grew up in a New York City tenement slum and started with nothing appreciated how things had changed, and there are many people with more recent experiences--immigrants from poor countries or those who have left miserable areas in the US also know this. But again, that is not what most citizens understand. My dad once put it well in another context. Seeing how banks were being deregulated, the national debt was increasing, and legal games with the stock market were becoming common he said, "It's just like the 1920s, doesn't anybody remember the Depression." To which my mother answered, "No, they're all dead."
Brother can you spare a dime? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I8-CbJYGMA
This morning Heather Cox Richardson reports Michael Strain, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, said that Trump’s tariff policy “would be bad for workers and bad for consumers.” Chief Economist of Moody’s Analytics Mark Zandi said: “Biden’s policies are better for the economy.”
In the New York Times today, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, the president of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute at the Yale School of Management, debunked the notion that corporate leaders support Trump. Sonnenfeld notes that he works with about 1,000 chief executives a year and speaks with business leaders almost every day. Although 60 to 70 percent of them are registered Republicans, he wrote, Trump “continues to suffer from the lowest level of corporate support in the history of the Republican Party.”
Among Fortune 100 chief executives, who lead the top 100 public and private U.S. companies ranked by revenue, Sonnenfeld notes, not one has donated to Trump this year.
If only they would speak up. At long last. To save Democracy.
Yes, if they would speak up loudly and often!
Yes Mr. Solomon a tariff is in fact a tax on everyone in the country. The immediate result of a sudden increase in tariffs would result in a massive spike in inflation. Tariffs would require businesses to pay more for their inputs, consumers must pay more for their products. Everybody would take a financial hit. I am sure people in Trump's entourage have tried to explain simple economic principles to him. Have you ever tried to hammer a three penny nail into a rock?
It is no surprise that business people do not support his luny policies.
Tariff's have worked in the past, it depends on the stage of development of the society and nation.
When Henry VII, killed Richard III and crowned himself King, he found a kingdom what was impoverished, a joke, the poor man of Europe, it's armpit. Look no further than the painting of Henry VII, and compare to his son the 8th
England's exports were processed bulk and dyed wool, and wood, both went to the Low countries for processing into textiles and ships.
H7, levied an export tariff on raw wool, and in import tariff on china, glass ware, silverware, textiles and clothing.
This forced the English to develop their own industries, for technical stuff like silver ware, they allowed the likes of the Huguenots to escape to London.
By the time H7 son H8 took the throne, the mule swallowing potholes had been filled, and the nobility was so wealthy that H8, had Parliament pass a law that forbade commoners to dress like and in the material of nobility, no jewels, no silks, no furs, no fine linen. - Sumptuary Laws.
Because of tariff's England became a world power, and eventually an empire, and H8 could build the biggest and most expensive warship of the age, the Mary Rose.
Bu that was then, America is now a consumer juggernaut, our economic well being depends on consumption, not production.
And I might add, that in the 19th Century tuberculosis was called consumption.
This definitely adds a bit to the meager shreds of good political news.
What matters Daniel, who corporate "leaders"(CEO', CFO', COO's, or upper management?) support there are 756 billionaires in America, and all but 5 of them are plowing money into the Republican party. Jamie Dimon said that he can work with Trump, they all feel that way..
Just fealty. Insurance. Jamie Dimon made a bundle under Democrats. Markets at an all time high. They hedge.
I'd take the ex-wives club, Taylor Swift, Buffet et al.
Many of the Trump donors never worked a day in their lives, have virtually no info beyond the echo chamber. Tim Mellon is a good example. Trust fund baby. Spent $50 MM on Trump, $25 MM on JFK Jr so far.
Yes Mr. Solomon they hedge. Sounds to me a bit like Daimler Benz, VW, Miele, et. al. und der Junkers in 1930s Deutschland.
What is now called the middle class is teetering on edge of collapse. Medical bankruptcy, excessive credit card rates, the cost of higher education are all causing the middle class to decline. We need a better social safety net much like the Nordic countries. I also do not understand the end game of the morbidly rich. How could you possibly spend a trillion dollars? Where is the morality?
People who feel supremely entitled, and are also driven by greed, believe that everything they acquire - no matter how it is acquired - is deserved, and is therefore right. Further moral reckoning is obviously unnecessary!
Morality? They lost that when greed took its place in their hearts.
There'd be almost NO middle-class left already if not for all the debt they've taken on, just to keep their heads above water... To "keep up".
Much wants more....and, much will never have enough!
If we define the middle class as those having a third of their income for discretionary spending (over necessities like food, shelter and transportation), I am guessing there are far fewer of us than 49 percent. That definition comes from the Economist, 2009 according to Wiki.
Hartmann again sums it all up neatly and concisely. I’ll be sharing this. I’ll even print up a copy for my deluded trumper neighbor, who is normally a nice guy.
Remind the nice guy that Trump hates dogs.
... & Children. Especially ours.
It’s time the middle class fight with their money. Support companies that don’t fund MAGA. See Demcast’s Substack for a list of companies.
Register more Democrats to save the middle class.
https://voterizer.org/
Where do I find Demcast's Substack?
In search type their name and you will see it.
https://social.demcast.com/toolkit/570918b1-e691-4369-89a9-5e9b461c7a9c
Without regulation, capitalism ends like the board game Monopoly! One winner and everyone else goes bankrupt. Unlimited greed is a very flawed concept. The robber barons need to be rewarded but not over rewarded. The poor want to protect the rich, but the rich could care less if the poor live or die or suffer!
Most of the magas have never gone hungry a day in their life, thanks to FDR. I see a day when artificial intelligence, convinces the right wingers that they should die, so others may live. Die of starvation, die of a toothache, die because you didn't believe in vaccines, die in an extermination camp, die of homelessness, die giving birth, guy in order to get to heaven, but mostly die of being sent to war to do battle with the fascists or socialist or communists...
With modern technology, the dark ages will look like a picnic. That is about all the robber barons have learned.
I agree!
Thom, I am being censored by Facebook and X for posting your articles and the other members of this sub stack. Facebook suspends me two days for each post and X has suspended my account entirely. Just a heads up!
Both companies are run by rightwing billionaires; I'm sorry to hear about your experience...
I'm banned also.
If Democrats win this election and take both houses, they have to do everything in their power to defeat this MAGGA movement.
I'd like to say I'm shocked by that, but Facebook in particular has gone to the darkside. The place has run amok for too long. That's how today's billionaires are -- don't care & think they're above all else. Can you imagine the entire nation being run by & for only the billionaires? Selfish greed kills everything it touches!
What do you think is happening?
IDK... haven't been on FB that long
How awful! What is the rationale?
They are in MAGGA's back pocket, trying to elect Trump. their vile post concerning Bidden are allowed.
The Constitution wasn't a fixed document even at its inception---the Bill of Rights were added during the Washington Administration. It was a gift to the future and they wanted us to make it our own.
And speaking of what will happen, that is what is at stake from here on out, not just this election. We are trying to pull Conservatives into a future where the Earth is viewed as one big connected area we need to preserve, so the United States can survive. That means fossil fuel use has to change NOW. The Republicans and their allies want to push us back to the point in the past where it all started. Insanity is......well you know the rest.
Nope, not going back to 1900 or 1787 when the Constitution was born. We've come a long way; our country is almost 250 years old. Time to use the knowledge and wisdom we have inherited.
The middle and lower income classes are doing all the work. A home, transportation, and a vacation is not too much to ask for. To be able to afford a family and health care just makes sense for a nation to survive. Good Report Thom.
When I asked my students if they would prefer to live in nation
1 . As extremely rich people but with the vast majority of other people living in poverty or
2. Middle class people living among
others similarly well off
I was shocked at how many chose
the first choice. I went on to explain
how a strong middle class achieves
a generally higher standard of living
with cleaner streets , a consistent electrical grid, better education -
essentially things most of them took
for granted in their own lives.
I failed to get through to them .
Simon sayz we got more good news on the polling front this weekend with A CBS News/YouGov breakout of 18-29 year olds coming in at 61%-38% (+23) for Biden, similar to his +24 Exit Poll showing in 2020 and the Harvard/IOP’s spring +19.
Thanks for sharing, Paul. I'd say that is a developing brain talking.
Bless you for teaching and trying. I don't think those who teach in classrooms or other settings always see what "sticks" and what they have accomplished in the long term as the student grows.
A vivid conversation I remember from HS is whether the end justifies the means.
How old are your students?
Sad that they don't understand what those of us who are much older, do. I see the poison has already sickened the next generation. To not think beyond oneself...to the nation & world as being part of the whole... That's sad! They will get 1st-hand knowledge of just how wrong they are if the GOP gets what it wants. By then tho, is too late to prevent the disaster & the demise of freedom in America.
Ms. Bradshaw, I assume you are responding to Prof. Olmsted's comment. Please do not slide into a funk over the young. I recall when I was a youth my parent's and their friends said the same about my generation. They said: "Your generation does not know what is going on in the world today." I called this the "Old Man's Syndrome" when I was young. There was undoubtedly an element of truth to their complaint. Yet, we were the generation that brought America the 1960s and all that came with it. We were not inactive. Some of us obediently, foolishly, immorally and cruelly fought against the Vietnamese while some of us objected, refused and suffered jail, police brutality, emigration, and career-ruining attacks.
Today's young are different. But so were we. Do not despair. I love your given name: Sunny!
Fortunately it was not the view of all the students.
I don’t think they could grasp what poverty was like in
America before the New
Deal - but I tried to paint the
picture of how investment in
infrastructure and education
paid off many times over .
They seem to be more interested in private wealth
as opposed to public needs .
I would attempt to show students some of the contempt the ultra wealthy
had for society at large with
an article from the Wall Street
Journal - no less . The article quoted the builder of luxury
yachts as saying that his customers hate staying in
a hotel suite- ( basically having to mingle with people that pay 20 times less for a room ) . A yacht offers the
truly beautiful people a way
to separate themselves from the merely well off .
Obviously this sentiment doesn’t apply to ALL of the
very wealthy- but you get the point . Problem is - when
the yacht sinks metaphorically - the steerage
passengers drown - not
those with a first class ticket.
And now that makes me think of J K Rowling's , 500 ft yacht bought with proceeds from her Harry Potter books. I doubt she sails on her 13 bed room water mansion. Despite the fact that the heroes of her books are a young male (Harry) and gay male (Dumbledorf), her villain is a male, and she is the most adamant and vociferous of TERFs. Methinks she has been wounded by men when young. A TERF is a Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist, and while she hates Transwomen she welcomes Transmen.
Prof. Olmsted, I presented similar ideas to my students at a small university for almost 4 decades with different results from yours. Without intending to do it; I polarized students. Some thought I walked on water and seemed willing to swallow anything I said. Others rejected my ideas whole heartedly and thought I was the Devil. There seemed to be no in-between-ground., no middle, no luke-warm likes or dislikes.
I know this because of both student evaluations administered in the classroom; plus student opinions expressed on line by an outfit that "rated" professors. Not surprisingly, the online "ratings" seemed to be the more polarized. Comments on the NET seem to contain that kind of extreme language from people. I have noticed this here on Mr. Hartmann's blog.
Often during my office hours, students would tell me that they had participated in a heated argument in the Student Union at lunch-time over some idea I had recently presented in class. Also, out of the entire faculty, I received the greatest number of comments, good or bad, in those on-line NET rating comments. Nobody came even close. The faculty member with the second greatest number of comments was way behind me in total number of comments. He also did not seem to polarize the students as I did. The most memorable comment from a student on line was: " If you take a course from Dr. Dobbertin be afraid, be very afraid!" A comment lodged deeply in my memory.
I retired sixteen years ago and some of those students are good friends still today even though I am now living 2400 miles distant from that university.
I consider myself to have been extremely fortunate for those decades of teaching. Every day I went to work with a smile on my face and a light heart in my breast. My only complaint was over the bad behavior of the college administrators, never about the actual work with students. I was not surprised by those students who hated me. But often surprised by the ones who loved me.
It is not possible for me to objectively evaluate what this means. But there it is. I thought you might be interested.
You are 100% correct!
Oh yes - as an economics professor-
I spent a lot of time developing the model for
them to see that the engine of prosperity
was s strong middle class .
Money spent is money earned - but not
so much when the rich deposit $ galore
in off shore accounts
Exactly! And we ARE the proof about prosperity with a strong middle-class. We are now also proving that the opposite is true.
Paul are you typing from a cell phone, if so what app are you using. change it up.
Your comments are broken up sentences, with a line space in between, makes them hard to read.
Because of a faux country constantly created by MSM and Hollywood, people were presented with an alternate reality. Look how good it is. Sing along! Even when real opportunities were disappearing by cause of high finance manipulations, people were lured into believing that things can't be all that bad. Not that they weren't already suffering, but having given all the scripts provided, they were led to believe that they needed to just try harder, pay more attention to misappropriated proverbs, keep hoping hoping hoping for a levelling out for a more propitious opportunity. In short, they were led away from the actual reasons for a crunching financial reality day by day by being led to believe it was their own fault. The MSM, the entertainment providers, the manipulators of the existing reality, owned and controlled by the financial giants, have played the long game. How else do you explain such a blind eye to such a methodical change with no apparent energy to concurrently resist, to contest, to react with meaningful accountability, to see reality in real light?
Well said!
Capitalism without regulations & without competition (due to endless mergers & buy-outs) that kept it in check, is simply GREED. "Every man for himself." The GOP's focus on deregulation for decades now, is something they are quite proud of. And here we are. Let no one ever forget that!
And the regulated control the regulators. I saw that close up in nursing homes and the EEOC.
Victim blaming keeps Capitalism rolling along.
Trump scapegoats immigrants the same way Hitler blamed Jews.
True. Btw. Your book is good. I didn't realize the culture where you are is so different from where we live,
Who mostly should read an article like this will not. The MAGA type indoctrinated ones who do, will call it fake news. The MAGA politicians and billionaires who read this and understand it may well be like Trump in that they have no mature moral compass, and may well have at least tendencies toward being sociopaths, having little of no conscience regarding the results of their actions and words on others, an addiction to power, and with power and those attributes they are a danger to the whole society.
Amen to that!
Mudsill goals of cheap labor of essential slavery for over half of American's to enable the economies automatic generation of unearned millionaires & billionaires is the goal. This is why the GOP wants poverty to be the majority condition of America. Reaganism has achieved that goal as only 44% of American's live in the middle class. In 1980 before Reaganism 2/3 of American's were in the middle class. The Dems must campaign not only about abortion but mudsill besides the necessary 3 or 4 economic issues for Dem base voters. A base vote campaign is necessary to win the election. The goal of the GOP is needed to be known in order to push back this unAmerican 2025 plan for a failed future.
There are not enough Progressives in the Congress and Senate to really run on this. Too many of the Dems in office are funded by the millionaires and billionaires, many who do not want the system since Reaganism to fundamentally change. Throw in the fundamentalist, White Nationalist Christian supporters of the MAGAs and it is like a religious cold war.
Threatening the loss of democracy if Trump wins may not be scary to people who already don't feel like they have a say, anyway.
I'm getting dem campaign doner requests for Medicare for All that I have been contributing to for over 20 years, but I haven't heard Biden say a word about it. I'm no longer contributing for an unreachable pie in the sky. Put up or shut up.
The middle class was not created by the government but by the labor movement which needed the support of government. Without the organizing of unions and related organizations like the unemployed movement none of the changes due to higher wages and social safety net could have occurred. The current labor movement, finally getting free from the grip of the old bureaucrats, is very aware that they are fighting for the right to a decent life that is supported by work, not a life of constant work.
Until Reagan, each generation of Americans was doing a little better than their parents before them. It was a controlled rise in quality of life & it worked beautifully. Until the wealthiest few & Corporate America got greedy & jealous, not wanting others to have better lives, wanting all the pleasures they enjoy to remain theirs alone. Great wealth has always desired to see great poverty (Gilded Age anyone?!) for the masses, as contrast. Makes them feel superior to the rest of us, rather than just fortunate. That's also why people prefer to think that the homeless are to blame for their own homelessness. Never mind the fact that homelessness has grown at same time as decades of wages being pushed down, while cost of everything (esp housing), went up exponentially. "Record high" profits are now expected, but there's no investments made to justify it - just jacked-up prices for everything, even food & other basics. Millions of people working from home, getting same pay as when they actually went to workplace, w/o the costs of that, have provided a $$ band-aid for some, but that is no solution to problems we face. The "record profits" bubble WILL burst ~ it has to, since no basis for it. Then what? Yet another 'crash'? There's much poverty amongst the elderly now & programs for our fellow humans constantly being cut (aiming for ZERO). Pensions are only for the few (same ones who get nice bonuses). Used to be able to set aside a little extra $$ for retirement -- not now! What's that, "extra money?" Rent is $$$ thrown away, no return on it. Gone are affordable starter homes in many parts of U.S., so no way for homes to be investments for later in life.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that we've been on a downslide for 4 decades now & no sign that it's stopping, let alone turning around! The very rich get richer, everyone else loses. How many middle-class would fall fast into poverty if all their debt they maintain with, was cut-off? That doesn't happen cuz' economy would totally crash & cuz' they get out & VOTE! Rest of us must do the same - NOW - while we still have that right!
The downhill slide preceded Reagan, he only greased the slide, it started under Nixon, ith the Powell Memo, written by future Supreme Court Justice.Lewis F Powell wrote a memo to the Chamber of commerce, that was an attack on Education and Free Enterprise, and Nixon rewarded him months later.
Google Powell memo and you will see what I am talking about,Thom has mentioned it hundreds of times.
Yes, Jessica.
Exactly correct. That was Keynes’ brilliant insight.
They argued that transferring even part of the wealth of rich people to help build a middle class is the first step in a socialist agenda that must ultimately end with torches, pitchforks, and rich people facing the guillotine.
Sorry, but I'm ok with that... If they make that necessary, then so be it. The alternative they're pursuing ~ "of the wealthy, by the wealthy & for the wealthy" ~ is NOT acceptable!!
The greedy uber-wealthy who want to live in such an oligarchy are free to leave America (please do) & go live in such a nation. They do NOT have the right to destroy this Country of ours & turn it into the oligarchy that they want!!
Torches & pitchforks & guillotines...it will be then. We far outnumber them, by many millions of people! We need to use our power to VOTE IN people like us (they'll be the ones w/o all the $$$). Then, the real work begins, cleaning up the filth ~ but B4 you can clean, have to take out the trash!
@Sunny. You are so right.
Let's not ahve any illusions that this vote somehow is going to restore the middle-class in America as both parties have had a hand in destroying it. Biden himself was a part of NAFTA and pushed for "welfare reform" in the Clinton years. He practically invented the carceral state with his Crime Bill of 1994, further dminishing the prospects of a black middle-class. He also made certain that Clarence Thomas was appointed to the Supreme Court (by humiliating a black woman publicly no less) and he is doing his best to make certain that the system is rigged against middle America. The progressives Democrats who might do something substantial are constantly sabotaged by their own party, the latest example being Jamaal Bowman's ambush by AIPAC and the neoliberal nightmare Hillary Clinton.
And what of Biden's highly touted tax increases for millionaires and bilionaires? He's been threatening it for years, and of course now during the campaign, as did Obama. But it will never happen and he knows it. Please recall he promised a roomful of billionaires in 2020 that "nothing will substantially change" for them after he is elected and thus far it has not.
Yeh Boris, lets just give up and vote for Putin, I mean Trump, by not voting at all.
You are doing yeoman's work for Putin.
We may criticize Biden and the Democrats but only to stiffen their spine, you on the other hand,do nothing but spout Russian propaganda to demoralize us.