Middle class has shrunk drastically over last decade

[hal2kilo]

That doesn't prove causation. In fact, you could just as easily argue that women started entering the workplace not because they were pressured by "liberals" but because their families needed the money...


Except we're not just talking about supply and demand for labor, you also have to factor in the increasing value of that labor (as seen by the productivity numbers). Even with a larger labor force, productivity per worker went up. That should have resulted in increased wages, extra workers or no, based on the way economics "should" work.

Well, it makes more sense in the "what matches my preconceived political ideas" category at any rate. Really I don't know what the cause is, but it's definitely an issue. And it's certainly not helped by people who think those at the top need even MORE help.

Gee, that must be one of those things that's so obvious it can't be true.

 

[Tweak155]

How on earth is $118k the upper limit on middle class? Seems nowhere near realistic. You're not hitting it large until much higher than that.

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

That's typical for them, although usually it ends with them denouncing your intelligence when they are presented with facts they don't like.

Here's one floating around Facebook.

Not only is it not pointing to the right spot, the tax cuts didn't get signed into law till almost Aug 1981 but the decoupling in this one starts in the mid 70's.

Carter was president when trickle down ecomonics began in 1979...that bastard!

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

Yep, putting Matt and Nehalem onto the ignore list along with cybrsage was one of the better moves I've made. Makes reading threads so much easier on the eyes when you don't have to look at their constant moronic robotic right wing echo chamber responses.

They are not intelligent people, like most of their GOP brethren.

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

Yep, putting Matt and Nehalem onto the ignore list along with cybrsage was one of the better moves I've made. Makes reading threads so much easier on the eyes when you don't have to look at their constant moronic robotic right wing echo chamber responses.

They are not intelligent people, like most of their GOP brethren.

Why do you think the income disparity started occuring in the mid-to-late 70's?

 

[Matt1970]

Yep, putting Matt and Nehalem onto the ignore list along with cybrsage was one of the better moves I've made. Makes reading threads so much easier on the eyes when you don't have to look at their constant moronic robotic right wing echo chamber responses.

They are not intelligent people, like most of their GOP brethren.

LOL, classic. That big bad scary Matt posts stuff I don’t like.

I guess the whole world agrees with you when you block all opposing facts & opinions. Just keep shoving your head under the sand. Like I keep saying, when they are presented with facts they don’t like, denounce intelligence. Now they block you so they only see the info they want to see.

 

[Vdubchaos]

Can't really disagree with anything posted in the original post

sucks but its the reality

 

[nehalem256]

Yep, putting Matt and Nehalem onto the ignore list along with cybrsage was one of the better moves I've made. Makes reading threads so much easier on the eyes when you don't have to look at their constant moronic robotic right wing echo chamber responses.

They are not intelligent people, like most of their GOP brethren.

Yeah because believing that Ronald Reagan lacks the ability to time travel makes us "not intelligent"

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Yep, putting Matt and Nehalem onto the ignore list along with cybrsage was one of the better moves I've made. Makes reading threads so much easier on the eyes when you don't have to look at their constant moronic robotic right wing echo chamber responses.

They are not intelligent people, like most of their GOP brethren.

That's pretty much a mirror of my ignore list as well. There's no point in reading their posts. It's like reading the rantings of a 70 year old billionaire, except they're nowhere close to that point as evidenced by their constant daily posting in these threads....lol

To this day I cannot figure how people collecting disability, unemployment, etc etc etc can go around espousing right wing ideaology as if it is the holy grail.

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

lol Huh? I can't see you anymore. Thank you AT!

How old are you? I'm hoping you're as young as you sound.

 

[Matt1970]

That's pretty much a mirror of my ignore list as well. There's no point in reading their posts. It's like reading the rantings of a 70 year old billionaire, except they're nowhere close to that point as evidenced by their constant daily posting in these threads....lol

To this day I cannot figure how people collecting disability, unemployment, etc etc etc can go around espousing right wing ideaology as if it is the holy grail.

Facts can be a scary thing. I can understand your need to block them.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

How old are you? I'm hoping you're as young as you sound.

And I'm hoping you're as lonely as you sound.

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

And I'm hoping you're as lonely as you sound.

Why? Do you want to hook up at the rest stop or something?

Seriously, how old are you?

EDIT:
Also, why do you think the income disparity started occuring in the mid-to-late 70's?

 

[Matt1970]

Why? Do you want to hook up at the rest stop or something?

Seriously, how old are you?

EDIT:
Also, why do you think the income disparity started occuring in the mid-to-late 70's?

You probably just made his ban list too.

 

[Moonbeam]

Facts can be a scary thing. I can understand your need to block them.

Yup, there are some facts of grammar that could make you look frighteningly uneducated leading to suspicions as to where else that might apply.

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

Yup, there are some facts of grammar that could make you look frighteningly uneducated leading to suspicions as to where else that might apply.

Damn Moonie...you think that's bad? BOTH my grammer AND punctuation look frighteningly uneducated! For the record...I blame it all on e.e. cummings. :biggrin:

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Yup, there are some facts of grammar that could make you look frighteningly uneducated leading to suspicions as to where else that might apply.

I know, right? *shakes head and walk away*

 

[Matt1970]

Grammer Huh? I guess you guys got me. I will tuck my tail and run.

 

[Rainsford]

Why do you think the income disparity started occuring in the mid-to-late 70's?

I think that's honestly a good question (and unlikely to be answered in THIS thread ). It's pretty clearly when the middle class started taking it on the chin in terms of their overall share of the economy. If we can figure out WHY, maybe we can figure out how to restore the middle class.

I'm not betting on it being a simple explanation though, to be honest.

 

[Jhhnn]

You just don't give up do you. I have persented the evidence yet you are still in denial. The ending of the Veitnam war and the energy crisis are hardly factors in the decoupling of the lower and upper classes incomes. I guess you are going to believe what you want to believe no matter what evidence is presented to you.

Of course they're factors in the decoupling. The end of Vietnam brought home an enormous number of troops & ended production of lots of war materiel. Energy providers just rode on top of the wave of increasing prices.

There were other factors, too, like increasing japanese penetration into american markets, and the first wave of serious automation. Companies who switched to importing japanese goods made more money than they had producing goods domestically, and it's not like workers got a piece of that, other than losing a piece of their ass in the process. Companies also switched their investment efforts offshore, buying in to Japanese companies.

Containerized shipping & handling made importing hugely less expensive & more efficient, killing lots of american jobs in the process. The investor class derived great benefit nonetheless.

Deregulation of the Bell system & the airlines served similar ends.

The imposition of extremely high interest rates by the FRB was great for investors, Hell for everybody else.

All of this favored wealth over labor, so Reaganomics just put more fuel on the fire. When we should have been raising taxes at the top, instituting greater socialism, we went the opposite way. The only thing that made it saleable at all was massive deficit spending. Trickledown w/o deficits is a ticket to depression.

 

[dmcowen674]

I can't even take Matt or Nehalem seriously anymore.

They seem like right wing spambots at this point.

It's laughable at best.

The GOP paid shills rise to the top like sour milk in coffee every election cycle.

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

Any day now, it'll trickle down.

It's not like they are keeping their wealth out of the economy, nah, the extemely wealthy spend tree fiddy and that should be enough to fund anyones funeral.

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

The GOP paid shills rise to the top like sour milk in coffee every election cycle.

I REALLY hate CT'rs, they are the scum of the earth.

Don't be one, just go to bed.