My rant for the day (probably nothing new for any of you)

[MissMillie]

The middle class is gone...

It's gone because for too many decades now our governmental bodies have decided that we need to live in an investment economy.

So we've been giving out tax cuts to people who have boat-loads of money. And those tax cuts come w/ no responsibility whatsoever.

I guess you'd call me a Keynesian when it comes to economic policy. The very wealthy will only spend so much. Then they invest, but they only invest in projects that put more money in their pockets.

The rest of us SPEND money. I think WE drive the economy.

Most of us shop at Wal-Mart and buy Chinese-made goods because we don't have enough money to do anything else.

I read somewhere that the American economy is driven by consumerism--like 70%

Which, if it's right, would mean that there needs to be a strong middle class. They shouldn't have to worry about health care... they should just have it. It would mean when they work 40 hrs/week, they can feed and clothe their families.

PAY PEOPLE!!! GIVE THEM HEALTH CARE!!! They will opt for cheap products from overseas if they do not have money in their pockets.

[Warpy]

1. You and John Maynard are both right, the economy is a pump

and it works from the bottom up. The well (demand) goes dry, nothing comes up through the pump.

Oh, they managed to keep it going far longer than they should have with the credit bender during the late 90s and early 00s, people using HELOC loans and credit cards to compensate for wages that fell in purchasing power year after year. However, the game is largely over now and you can see it in most cities, empty storefronts all over the place with an ever increasing population of homeless people, 60% of whom have jobs that just don't pay them enough to afford rent.

The question is how long we're going to tolerate this while accountants and tax lawyers give the 0.1% soaring net worth every year. Those old boys are just shuffling money around and trying to figure out how to take it away from each other. We no longer exist to them and the stock dividends that used to provide their increasing wealth are so low compared to the tax breaks they think they're getting (and might) and stock market inflation that they barely bother keeping track.

It's time to dust off Keynes and bring him back and raze the Chicago School to the ground and sow the land with plutonium as a warning to anyone else who decides to trot out evil monetarist economics again with a new coat of paint to sell it to a new bunch of right wing suckers. The U of C could be a lot prouder of such a monument to stupidity than it should be of the stupidity, itself.

[MissMillie]

6. Well, I was thinking

about how to shape the message. I don't want to raze anything to the ground or sow any land w/ plutonium.

I was wondering how to get the electorate to come to the conclusion that they have been screwed.

[PatrickforO]

2. Well...Kicked and recommended X 1,000

You've got it in a nutshell.

[Martin Eden]

3. That's not a rant.

It's basic economics and common friggin sense.

There's nothing radical left about it whatsoever, except in a political climate in which the goalposts keep moving further to the right.

[peacebuzzard]

4. Agree on all points made.

And the sad truth within. Thanks for your opinion!

[smirkymonkey]

5. +1000