2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Sanders targeted young people with promises of college debt forgiveness and free college [View all]glowing
(12,233 posts)to be competitive in a global market? It's absolutely enslaving our young people, creating a huge financial nightmare in the making, not to mention the fact that it makes it nearly impossible for them to create new entrepreneurial enterprises of their own, buy a new car, think about participating in home buying (let alone getting out of their parents basement), or thinking about marriage or children. And if they don't go to college, it's nearly impossible to get many jobs these days. There are so many that insist on a college degree and only want to pay out $25,000 sallary. Add onto the fact that our healthcare system is an absolute nightmare, which makes it really hard to "start out on your own" or remain "competitive" in regards to employees who gain some experience and move on to an established corporation for the benefit packages.
I really don't think many people understand just how exacerbating it is to be a millennial in the "gig" job market that insists that you have a college education. Or that many of the Union jobs of yore, manufacturing, etc, and allowing the employees to start new hires at $9 or $10/ hr, that they won't be allowed a pension, or a guarantee of healthcare package upon retirement.
And this is an ALL American issue. If you depress wages and spending power of your "youth", the tax monies collected by the country will decrease, state and local tax collections will decrease. Mainly, the only people who will be gaining money off the $1.3 trillion and rising in student debt is the banks that lent the money on interest and insurance companies (since now one must have insurance or be taxed for not having it). What really harms America is the baby boomer generation retiring and drawing more money from the budget via Medicare and Social Security. A population on a retirement budget isn't going to become incredibly lucrative with their fixed budgets in stimulating the country. And their replacements, if a company even bothers to replace the position, will undermine the take home pay for that job of someone younger by a lot; not just a proverbial "starting pay" in a job position before accumulated pay increases over years of services, but a huge slash in what they expect to pay anyone because everyone is screwing over Americans. And the 50+ crowd is experiencing after the massive job loss of 2008, new job openings with similar job positions are paying so much less (maybe half of what they did make), less benefits, and with an expectation that the sallary will entail 60+ hours a week to do the job of what used to take 2 or 3 people. And yet, large corporations are sitting on trillions of dollars in capital, often offshore, and those same corporations tend to have so many loopholes, that they pay $0 in tax revenue, while also enjoying perks from the state or local municipalities in tax breaks that "Mom and Pop" (true small businesses) do have to pay. And many of these "new jobs" are in the service industry, which typically pay much less and resort to using govt agencies to help subsidize paying their employees to live in an apt or home (section 8- HUD after a 2 or 3 ur waiting list period, WIC (if applicable), expanded Medicaid (if the state decided to expand), SNAP (which now the govt and state govts are decreasing monetary payments, or in some cases, disqualifying people who do qualify for the program by denying them the program). All of this is tax revenue loss. How is it these baby boomers afraid of "changing the system" they are so desperately hanging onto, going to survive their elder years when the tax revenue coming in doesn't begin to cover the needs due to the fact that the younger generations behind them are not making enough to replace that tax revenue thru their pay OR to help pay within local, county, and states due to their lack of monetary resources in purchasing homes (property taxes), buying new cars (sales tax), or even buying food that isn't ramen noodles (keeping stores in the black and people hired). It's a perpetual downward spiral without a real injection of real money into the real economy most of America operates in.
And all of this because our politicians are bought! They side with corporations, literally write trade laws that allow corporations to easily leave the country, enslave a under-developed country, and turn around and sell back to the USA that makes them more money than operating in the USA that regulates work safety, environment, etc.
AND then we hear, "we can't"!?!? Seriously! We can't guarantee a fairer system for our citizens and other countries with far less, somehow can? We all live relatively short lives in the span of the Universe, and we can't make a system on this planet that allows people to co-habitate in peace and prosperity. That we can't change our energy system and other environmental necessities in a manner like we would if aliens had invaded and were attacking every nation. That we can't try to create a world where happiness and community togetherness is the benchmark of success and a job is a passionate pursuit of life OR doesn't encompass most of our waking life. Can't seems absolutely stupid when so many can easily connect with the world and see that it can and does happen in different countries in better ways. Is it any wonder that the BoB don't think it matters one way or the other of its Clinton or Trump? Neither one is going to make a real difference in their lives OR do a damned thing about the real crisis of climate change this planet faces. And besides the Supreme Court threat, Trump is almost seen as an easier "evil" to fight than a Clinton Presidency. Anyone saying anything against a Clinton policy will be met with "sexist" and not taken seriously with validity. Plus, it's probably easier to seek impeachment OR in 4 yrs to get a progressive congress and a progressive President since Facism looked so horrific. I'm not sure I agree, but I can see some logic in their thinking. Look at what's happened in the Primary season, we have democrats actually holding up ideals that are normally frowned against because Clinton doesn't support them. It's the craziest thing I've ever seen!!!