Posted on 10/29/2013 11:55:40 AM PDT by Hojczyk
Cowen says it will be tougher to get ahead in the future, for three reasons familiar to anybody who’s been paying attention to the shifting fortunes of U.S. workers. First, companies are much more careful these days about taking on workers and committing to the cost of labor, benefits, and the problems sometimes caused by humans on the payroll. Second, globalization means there’s more international competition for jobs at all levels. Third, automation allows many companies to replace people with technology.
“The old America we knew, where everyone’s living standard doubled each generation, will probably be a thing of the past for a lot of people,” Cowen says. As uncomfortable as it may sound, there are plenty of ways for Americans to adjust to the Darwinian economy Cowen envisions. They can move to cheaper, more affordable areas and use Skype or other Internet innovations to telecommute and keep in touch with family. More Americans will become freelancers and “petty entrepreneurs” with jobs akin to those considered desirable in many developing countries. More ”threshold earners” will content themselves with earnings just high enough to get by. Americans will also find new ways to eliminate a lot of waste, becoming thriftier in the process.
There will be new winners, too, as the soaring fortunes of Facebook (FB), Twitter and many new web companies demonstrates.
Americans will adapt. “Many of society’s lower earners will reshape their tastes...toward cheaper desires,” Cowen writes in America Is Over. That’s where the beans come in, since they provide all the nutrition of fancier food at a fraction of the cost. “Don’t scoff at the beans,” Cowen encourages readers who might feel unsettled by his dystopian view of America’s future. Cooked with freshly ground cumin and pureed chili peppers, he insists, they can be quite tasty.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
What is more of an outrage is how rich those Politicians have become. They should all drop dead.
“shared scarcity” as Reagan called it. A return to the gas lines, inflation and sweaters of the ‘70’s. The glory days for liberals, when democrats had overwhelming majorities in the Congress and all was well with the world (in their sick eyes).
Sounds familiar...Welcome back Carter!
From his legacy depicted on the PBS site:
“Was America in a Crisis of Confidence?
At the heart of the internal debate over the administration’s future was a memo by Caddell, Carter’s pollster and resident “deep thinker.” “What was really disturbing to me,” he remembered, “was for the first time, we actually got numbers where people no longer believed that the future of America was going to be as good as it was now. And that really shook me, because it was so at odds with the American character.” Caddell argued that after fifteen years filled with assassinations, Vietnam, Watergate, and a declining economy, Americans were suffering from a general “crisis of confidence.” Address this fundamental problem, he told the president, inspire the country to overcome it, and you will turn your presidency around.
The Speech
On the evening of July 15, 1979, millions of Americans tuned in to hear Jimmy Carter give the most important speech of his presidency. After sharing some of the criticism he had heard at Camp David — including an unattributed quote from the young governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton — Carter put his own spin on Caddell’s argument. “The solution of our energy crisis can also help us to conquer the crisis of the spirit in our country,” the president said, asking Americans to join him in adapting to a new age of limits.
But he also admonished them, “In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does but by what one owns.” Hendrik Hertzberg, who worked on the speech, admits that it “was more like a sermon than a political speech. It had the themes of confession, redemption, and sacrifice. He was bringing the American people into this spiritual process that he had been through, and presenting them with an opportunity for redemption as well as redeeming himself.” Though he never used the word — Caddell had in his memo — it became known as Carter’s “malaise” speech.”
Want to get ahead? Create a product or service and then go for it.
Food trucks are a great example of new restaurants popping up for little up front investment. The menu and/or location isn't working...change it.
Long story short...quit yer complaining and get to work.
I was thinking the same thing. The middle class will (and already is)cut back but the entitlement crowd will NOT settle for lesser phones, beans and rice, and no purple drank. We might see it happen this weekend. Look for the race whores to come out in full force.
I hope you are right, but I have doubts
When one reads this they should remember that government, not a natural shift, is the biggest detriment to prosperity.
In my starving student days, back in the late 70’s, I lived on the store-brand boxes of macaroni and cheese. They were 4 boxes for a dollar then. All you had to do was throw in a can of tuna or some weenies or some spam to have a “casserole”.
This is why I moved from my suburban home in rural KY. And I expanded my initial 12 acres to 32 connected. If no doom and gloom happens, I couldn’t ask for a more beautiful place to live. If the SHTF, it can be a spectacular “compound” for the extended family.
Either way, what it comes down to is that I traded a high standard of living for a high quality of life.
I’m thinking they’re more the Nomenklatura’s “muscle”, or mascot/weapons.
Kind of the “Morlocks” of the left.
It will.
Soon they will be in bread lines for hours a day. Probably praising Obama.
Solution: Clear the communists out of government, and the education system. America will be restored in short order.
We need more like Joe McCarthy, and we need them fast!
Selling rice and beans to the impoverished masses from a truck?
and the media?
Perhaps the two or three car, two or three television sets per family, etc. are falling by the way side.....if the US government will stop printing what amounts to 'fake' money, maybe what is earned will go further.....and perhaps the print parroting clever propaganda, talking people down should be investigated....the standard of living isn't about how much you have but how you use what you have. Yes, government could learn from us on how to live within our means.
yep. Chairman obummer did exactly as he promised when he said he'd fundamentally change America.
Revolt is coming.
Easier for some than for others, I suppose.
We have a 40 ft sailboat that everytime I am there I think.....darn I could live on this. Would love to get rid of all our stuff that is currently in our 2000 sq ft house and downsize. I also really like the idea of being able to fire up the motor to get out of the harbor, raise the sails and leave.
Still trying to talk Hubby into it. I just really don’t care much about ‘stuff’ anymore.
***since they provide all the nutrition of fancier food at a fraction of the cost. “Don’t scoff at the beans,” ***
I still remember what mom cooked for supper back in the 1960s New Mexico.
Breakfast was bacon and eggs or chocolate gravy.
Saturday Payday!
Saturday night: out for hamburgers and grocery shopping.
Sunday: Fried Chicken
Monday: hamburger and beans.
Tuesday: Beans and fried potatoes
Wednesday: chicken and dumplings.
Thursday: Beans and fried potatoes
Friday:Beans and fried potatoes.
Variations came in canned corn or spinach, and a cake, but not much.
Then we were dragged kicking and screaming to the Ozarks, where were ate lots of home grown chicken, more beans and potatoes.
Then were picked beans in 80% humidity and 98 degrees.
My brother refuses to eat a bean to this day.
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