Economists Think That Wages Are Going to Rise This Year. They should think again.

[Shandris]

15. I couldn't possibly agree more about national healthcare.

The ACA, while a step, just isn't anywhere close to the same (and nearly half our states rejected furthering what little help they do give to cover the huge gap in it, including mine). Nor could I agree more about the JW fallacy. In fact, IMO, just killing that alone -could- (although I fear it may fall into, as my dad used to say, "Coulda woulda shoulda&quot give our burger flippers and shelf-stockers enough momentum to organize some collectives of our own -- not that anything is directly stopping us (and I use 'us' because my shared household includes one such individual and myself, 'forcibly' retired via disability), but that too many have in the past believed so strongly in that myth as to preclude the idea of charity or long-term collective thinking. And that's the real tragedy. At least in my area, although we scrape by pretty closely, two people on our low incomes can get by and still cover the essentials without hitting negative numbers every month (ie, some months we do, but not so often that we're drowning in debt like so many others). That's better than our coastal counterparts by a long shot! But so few people of my generation have the mindset to allow them to do that for a long period of time, especially once marriage or children (one problem I don't have, and likely never will) enter the mix.

I do notice that fewer of our younger generation seem to have so much of a mindset, and that gives me some hope. It's hard to speak intelligently about the prevailing attitudes of a generation from outside of it, though, and I see (also anecdotally) that the ones who -do- believe in it often appear to believe in it more than anyone I've ever seen. An odd kind of polarization, one that I can't help but feel my generation and the one preceding it gave to them while raising them. But like I said...maybe my view of that is off.

I guess at this point I'm just sort of rambling, and I do apologize for that. Haven't had enough caffeine yet. A lot to do, as you say...and what seems like so little time to do it in. It will be an 'interesting' decade. Of course, as I recall, that's the basis of an old curse.