WHO STOLE THE AMERICAN DREAM
Frank Stashio's guest today was Pulitzer prize winner Hedrick Smith. Smith has a new book; "Who Stole The American Dream" in which he describes the middle class as the backbone of any economy.
Throughout history a vibrant middle class has been the economic engine. Our greatest periods of prosperity were when the middle class thrived. Further, the gaps between lesser, middle and upper class were narrow which made dreams acchievable.
In 1914 Henry Ford announced the $5 work day. He wanted his employees to be paid very well. He said that he wanted people to earn enough to be able to affor the Model T Ford that his employees produced. He knew that his own prosperity hinged on that of those below him. This attitude brought about the American Dream where people could work hard and be compensated in a manner that progressively improved their living standards.
The period from the mid 1940s through the mid 1970s were the heyday of the middle class. Productivity was very high as were wages and benefits. Smith describes this as "the virtuous circle" whereby companies pay high wages creating a highly productive workforce with money to spend. This in turn allow the company to invest in more plants and technology, hiring more people which fuels the "virtuous circle of growth" to another round of expansion and higher living standards.
This all worked very well until the mid 1970s. It was during that time that, in my opinion (not Smith's) the corporations become greedy. In spite of record profits they began to squeeze the very people that created the demand for their products.
In the period from the mid 1970s until now middle class productivity has risen a huge 85% while the middle class income has risen only 10%!!! That in itself is enough to evaporate the working class' enthusiasm but it goes much deeper. Income taxes for upper class dropped from 70% to 28% while capital gains taxes dropped from 28% to 20% and now 14%. All the while corporate taxes are at record lows.
These factors has spread the gap, creating huge distances between the classes making one's hopes of moving up less and less likely. Further, the middle class has carried the burden and is shrinking fast. The day is approaching fast where we will only have two classes. Whichever you are born into is where you will remain. Dreams become mere fantasy.
Today's corporate America has no regard for Henry Ford's desire to make the lives of it's employees better. Henry Ford knew that economic prosperity began at the bottom and worked its way up. Without a vibrant working class there will be no upper class. Henry Ford understood that. Today's corporate America doesn't get it. Through arogance and greed, they think that they actually create properity.
Our middle class is all but gone. We must turn it around quickly. When there is no middle class there will be no American Dream. Without such dreams we will meet our demise.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Sunday, September 23, 2012
THREE BROTHERS HAVING FUN
An earlier post got me to thinking about my oldest brother, Horace.
Horace was mentally challenged due to a birth defect. He used a Cushman golf cart to commute the neighborhood. My brother, Donnie and I would often steal it and take it joy riding, sometimes wrecking it and almost always running the battery down. It would really piss Horace off.
In his last days a local dealer sent a brand new
An earlier post got me to thinking about my oldest brother, Horace.
Horace was mentally challenged due to a birth defect. He used a Cushman golf cart to commute the neighborhood. My brother, Donnie and I would often steal it and take it joy riding, sometimes wrecking it and almost always running the battery down. It would really piss Horace off.
In his last days a local dealer sent a brand new
Harley
Davidson golf cart to park outside his bedroom window. He didn't know
he was dying and would say "I'll be glad when I get well so I can ride
my new golf cart."
One Sunday, Donnie and I went to Moms for lunch. It was a chilly March day. We got Horace dressed and took him for the ride of his life on that brand new Harley Davidson golf cart. That thing would fly. We took him throuh the woods and down the same paths that we joy rode his other one. We had an absolute great time.
That was the last time my brother left the house and it may have been the last time he got out of bed. We had a lot of fun that day and I wouldn't trade the experience for a million dollars
One Sunday, Donnie and I went to Moms for lunch. It was a chilly March day. We got Horace dressed and took him for the ride of his life on that brand new Harley Davidson golf cart. That thing would fly. We took him throuh the woods and down the same paths that we joy rode his other one. We had an absolute great time.
That was the last time my brother left the house and it may have been the last time he got out of bed. We had a lot of fun that day and I wouldn't trade the experience for a million dollars
STICK IT TO THE MAN
HUGE SALE NOW GOING ON: Hurry, Hurry, Hurry!!! The Big 6% off Sale is now in progress. The lines are worth standing in because you will get a whopping 6% (7% on selected items) and get the chance to stick it to the man (tax man). Never mind that the merchants are offering little or no discounts and that an unscrupulous merchant can steal taxes collected by shifting last weeks sales revenue to this weekends big sale event. We could've gotten a 30-40% off sale and felt thrifty but the Stick It To The Tax Man Sale feels almost orgasmic.
HUGE SALE NOW GOING ON: Hurry, Hurry, Hurry!!! The Big 6% off Sale is now in progress. The lines are worth standing in because you will get a whopping 6% (7% on selected items) and get the chance to stick it to the man (tax man). Never mind that the merchants are offering little or no discounts and that an unscrupulous merchant can steal taxes collected by shifting last weeks sales revenue to this weekends big sale event. We could've gotten a 30-40% off sale and felt thrifty but the Stick It To The Tax Man Sale feels almost orgasmic.
THAT WAS SOME GOOD S***
According to Bizarre News a Vermont farmer was first arrested for marijuana charges which upset him so much he retaliated against the sheriff's department. Driving his big tractor, he totally destroyed eight sherriff's deputy cars in the parking lot of the sheriff's office, totally crushing some of them. When he finished the deputies didn't have a vehicle to pursue him.
Now, when I was young I observed lots of incredibly in depth experiments with marijuana and none of the experiments resulted into this type of behavior.
According to Bizarre News a Vermont farmer was first arrested for marijuana charges which upset him so much he retaliated against the sheriff's department. Driving his big tractor, he totally destroyed eight sherriff's deputy cars in the parking lot of the sheriff's office, totally crushing some of them. When he finished the deputies didn't have a vehicle to pursue him.
Now, when I was young I observed lots of incredibly in depth experiments with marijuana and none of the experiments resulted into this type of behavior.
MURDERER OF 70 GETS 21 YEARS?
Today, the man who murdered seventy people in Norway was deemed competent to understand what he did last year. He was given the maximum sentence of 21 years, which apparently doesn't mean that he will be released in 21 years.
Apparently in Norway a criminal serves his sentence but if it is deemed that he is a threat to society at that time, he will not be released.
Today, the man who murdered seventy people in Norway was deemed competent to understand what he did last year. He was given the maximum sentence of 21 years, which apparently doesn't mean that he will be released in 21 years.
Apparently in Norway a criminal serves his sentence but if it is deemed that he is a threat to society at that time, he will not be released.
I was surprised at
the seemingly short sentence. This prompted me to wonder if our system
orders sentences which are too long simply to satisfy our own emotions.
There are certainly people that my emotions want incarcerated forever
and a day but I would not be wise to pretend that our system is working.
It is failing tremendously.
In the U.S. we have more prisons that any other industrialized nation and more people in them yet crime continues to grow. What are we doing wrong? Emotional responses do not work.
Perhaps our system is similar to that of illiterate and irrational parents who yell at their children and beat them only to rear children who grow up to abuse their spouses and children. Yet when we watch those that talk to and express love to their children those same children typically are kinder to everyone they encounter and become better parents and spouses.
Maybe our society is criticizing our at risk population too much instead of finding ways to develop character which law abiding and responsible. If we fill a child's ears and heart with positive affirmations they are likely to live up to those high expectations. Are we instead, setting very low expectations? If so, when they end up in jail or court there is no sense of shame or remorse because they may very well be living above the low expectations we have.
Perhaps we should take a good look at other cultures and integrate some of their solutions with our own. What we've been doing isn't working.
In the U.S. we have more prisons that any other industrialized nation and more people in them yet crime continues to grow. What are we doing wrong? Emotional responses do not work.
Perhaps our system is similar to that of illiterate and irrational parents who yell at their children and beat them only to rear children who grow up to abuse their spouses and children. Yet when we watch those that talk to and express love to their children those same children typically are kinder to everyone they encounter and become better parents and spouses.
Maybe our society is criticizing our at risk population too much instead of finding ways to develop character which law abiding and responsible. If we fill a child's ears and heart with positive affirmations they are likely to live up to those high expectations. Are we instead, setting very low expectations? If so, when they end up in jail or court there is no sense of shame or remorse because they may very well be living above the low expectations we have.
Perhaps we should take a good look at other cultures and integrate some of their solutions with our own. What we've been doing isn't working.
SHOVE YOUR TOUR DE FRANCE TITLES
Lance Armstrong has had his titles taken away and banned from competition for life. Maybe he was a doper. Maybe he wasn't. I will take him at his word since the very organization that questions him is the same organization that qualified him to compete. They qualified him over and over again. If he was doping their own integrity should be in question.
How does BS
Lance Armstrong has had his titles taken away and banned from competition for life. Maybe he was a doper. Maybe he wasn't. I will take him at his word since the very organization that questions him is the same organization that qualified him to compete. They qualified him over and over again. If he was doping their own integrity should be in question.
How does BS
like
this come up so long after the competition? When a man has built his
livelihood around the celebrity he earned has the very organization that
awarded him question his validity, he becomes a victim.
He submitted to drug tests over and over and passed. He can't take one now to prove that he wasn't doping years ago. Sure, they can have someone come forward and claim to have seen him doping, sold him dope, helped him dope, etc, etc. Where the hell were they when it mattered?
Will they recall Super Bowl trophies, heavyweight belts or Winston Cup titles? Was Mark Spitz doping in 1972? Was Bobby Fisher doping when he beat Boris Spasky in chess? Who knows? Who Cares?
Lance Armstrong has been done wrong. He was given the Rope-A-Dope and it wasn't by Mohamed Ali.
He submitted to drug tests over and over and passed. He can't take one now to prove that he wasn't doping years ago. Sure, they can have someone come forward and claim to have seen him doping, sold him dope, helped him dope, etc, etc. Where the hell were they when it mattered?
Will they recall Super Bowl trophies, heavyweight belts or Winston Cup titles? Was Mark Spitz doping in 1972? Was Bobby Fisher doping when he beat Boris Spasky in chess? Who knows? Who Cares?
Lance Armstrong has been done wrong. He was given the Rope-A-Dope and it wasn't by Mohamed Ali.
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