Posted on 01/01/2016 6:59:47 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Why is Middle America killing itself? The fact itself is probably the most important social science finding in years. It is already reshaping American politics. The Post's Jeff Guo notes that the people who make up this cohort are "largely responsible for Donald Trump's lead in the race for the Republican nomination for president." The key question is why, and exploring it provides answers that suggest that the rage dominating U.S. politics will only get worse.
For decades, people in rich countries have lived longer. But in a well-known paper, economists Angus Deaton and Anne Case found that over the past 15 years, one group -- middle-age whites in the United States -- constitutes an alarming trend. They are dying in increasing numbers. And things look much worse for those with just a high school diploma or less. There are concerns about the calculations, but even a leading critic of the paper has acknowledged that, however measured, "the change compared to other countries and groups is huge."(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
... And the camel he rode in on!
The beginning of the end of America as a middle class nation started in the early 1980s. In 1983 there was a bipartisan agreement to tax Social Security benefits for the first time. SS payments were to be made at the 90% wage cap. My understanding is that you calculate this by adding up all wages earned in a year. Take 90% of that figure and divide by the number of workers. Any amount earned above that figure does not have SS deducted. Unfortunately, rather than calculate that actual figure each year, the wage cap has been increased by inflation each year, roughly 2 to 4% each year. However, starting around that time upper earner wages were increasing 10 to 20% a year, so that after a while the wage cap became down to around 82%. This is one reason that SS is in trouble financially. Return to the true 90% cap would help a lot.
Secondly, in 1983 a complicated work sheet was developed to enable the retired to calculate if or how much they owed in taxes on their SS. A deduction for singles of $25,000 was allowed. For a couple $32,000 could be deducted. These two amounts have not been changed for 32 years while inflation has MORE THAN DOUBLED. Thus middle class retirees are almost all paying a lot of taxes on their SS. Some elderly singles (widowed, divorced) are living together in sin because as two singles they can deduct $5,000 from that calculation, but as a couple they can only deduct $32,000. For an unmarried pair at the 15% tax rate that is a $2295 savings per year. At the 25% tax level that is a savings of $3,825. Our government should not be promoting living in sin by a totally unfair tax calculation. Let’s urge our representatives to increase those figures by the cost of living since 1983, and then increase it each year like they do the Deductions and Exemptions.
Another concern is how the whole view of what is a reasonable rate of pay for executives has changed. Up until the 1980s the ratio of CEO to worker pay was about 40 to 1. In recent years this ratio has been as much as 400 or even 1,000 to 1. McCain was right about the GREED. If you haven’t seen The Big Short, go see it. It tracks the destruction of the economy in 2007 and 2008 caused by years of big business funny business. A number of housing and financial institutions went belly up or had big problems. Worldwide is a company that failed. In 2007 to CEO was paid $140 million. In 2008 he was paid a mere $100 million. The CEO of Leyman Brothers which also failed had a salary increase from around $40 million to over $70 million. No wonder the London banks did not want to bail them out. Goldman Sacks CEO had a similar pay increase. They survived, but they had friends in high places. However, in 2008 their stockholders were furious that the top 3 officers were all earning over $60 million. A voted provision to have stockholder advice on executive compensation had a 43% vote. Not enough to win, but enough to scare the bejesus out of management. The next year the CEO was only paid $25 million and since then I have had a hard time finding that pay information. With top level pay increasing so dramatically, there has been less money to increase worker pay. Forbes Executive (or CEO) Compensation at Google used to have good information on CEO pay by industry. Now they have made this information much harder to use.
Two related factors are the wholesale shipping of manufacturing and other work overseas. Again so that top wages can be paid to the upper echelon by taking advantage of cheap foreign labor. Secondly, the increase in cheap labor inmigration has competed heavily with local workers. Since such cheap labor here and overseas has been available, what used to be a useful educational program in our schools for non college bound youth has slipped through the cracks, with no push from the powers that be to maintain the skill level of our native work force. And there you have many of the causes of the loss of our middle class, which has been going on for the past 30 or 40 years. I have been observing these changes for around 60 years. The chickens are finally coming home to roost. And as The Big Short points out, even as the big boys destroy the economy, it is the little guys that pay and seem to be able to convince the public that they don’t deserve the prison time they have so richly earned.
Willem Dafoe’s sinister love child?
Yet more gaseous bloviating from among the ranks of progressivism’s smug, self-righteous hypocrites who daily look down to the devil, and giving thanks to him say, ‘thank-you father’ that we are not like those evil conservatives .
Thanks .gleeaikin
Another leftist racial theorist, strange how that anti-racism which is now worshipped by the conservatives is being jettisoned for racism by the left.
Interesting. Same result for Bing.
But....
Happy Couple:........Yields almost only white couples.
What's going on with Google Images? Huh?
Yep!
What is SES.
SES = socio-economic status.
It is usually measured by social scientists as some sort of amalgam of household income and mother’s educational level. The point is even is one holds this (or these, a bivariate model with both household income and mother’s educational level is even better) constant, being raised in a single parent home is predictive of future poverty, criminal behavior, poor school performance, being labeled as “learning disabled”,...
Thanks.
I see the FR SJWs are already active on this thread—gutless creeps.
Bing search does the same.
Maybe the search engine is picking up on the keywords “African-American couple” and including them in the results.
What is an SJW?
Wishful thinking by the bed-wetting, wimpy leftists.
Let’s throw this out there: According to British researchers, vegans have an IQ 20 points below the median and die 25 years earlier than people who eat meat.
Glad blacks aren’t also self-destructive...
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-deadliest-year-20160101-story.html
“Deaton speculated to me that perhaps Europe’s more generous welfare state might ease some of the fears associated with the rapid change.”
So if we would simply DRUG OUR PEOPLE as Europe, evidently (based on the above), is doing, then the masses will be more passive as the hordes of foreigners continue their migration and setting up for civil war.
Sorry, but I’m against that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.