President Bill Clinton: Yes, the American Dream Is Under Assault

Yahoo Finance ^ | 9-20-2011 | Aaron Task

[repentant_pundit]

The nation's official poverty rate was 15.1% last year, that equates to a record 46.2 million Americans living in poverty. With poverty levels rising for the past three years, average median U.S. income falling back to 1996 levels and income inequality at the highest levels since the Roaring 1920s, many Americans are starting to wonder: Is the American dream dying? "The American Dream has been under assault for 30 years," says former President Bill Clinton. I spoke with President Clinton on the eve of the Clinton Global Initiative's annual meeting in New York Monday, where "jobs jobs, jobs" is one of the main topics of the conference. While the development of a global economy and the information technology revolution caused upheaval for many workers, Mister Clinton says these trends were accelerated by "the adoption of two bad ideas": Turning Stakeholders into Shareholders: About 35 years ago, the notion of what a corporation is changed, Clinton notes. Previously, corporations were "more or less" equally responsible to shareholders, employees, customers and the communities where they operated. "Now, shareholders are up here and everybody else is way down there." Government as the Enemy: Clinton cites a "30-year anti-government rant," which is a uniquely American phenomenon, as another root cause of joblessness. "Instead of figuring out how the government and the private sector can work together, saying that 'government is the source of all problems and if we just choked it off, never another regulation, never another tax, never had another program all will be well.' There is not a single, solitary example on the planet where that's worked, including in America."

[repentant_pundit]

government is the source of all problems and if we just choked it off, never another regulation, never another tax, never had another program all will be well

Couldn't agree more, bubba !

Clinton Global Initiative indeed. Biggest myth in politics is that somehow bubba was responsible for a good economy.

Al Gore didn't invent the internet, but Clintoon presided over the internet Bubble...and called it Prosperity.

.

[cuban leaf]

I saw the interview. His saying that the current anti-government position is new, unique and counter to the rest of the world. He apparently has never read anything written by the founders of the constitution of the US.

There is a reason we are not Europe, and Europeans seeking freedom fled to the US.

[ken21]

by whom?

your socialist party, comrade clinton.

[tgusa]

Go grab another cigar outta your ‘humidor’, Bubba.

[jessduntno]

“The American Dream has been under assault for 30 years...”

...I assume he’s only going back as far as the Socialistpalooza festival laughingly referred to as the “Great Society.”

[Prokopton]

The nation's official poverty rate was 15.1% last year, that equates to a record 46.2 million Americans living in poverty.

This is a false statement. Although that number might be accurate for the number of persons whose earnings are below the federal poverty line, they are not "living in poverty" because they are being virtually showered with government aid that makes their standard of living significantly above the poverty level.

[PORD]

BoyClinton says the the American Dream has been under assault for the last thirty years??? That would include Pres. Reagan, that is a bunch of Arkansas Razorback excrement!!!

[andy58-in-nh]

..."if we just choked it off, never another regulation, never another tax, never had another program all will be well.' There is not a single, solitary example on the planet where that's worked, including in America."

Perhaps the Straw Man, rather than the donkey, ought to be the Democrats' official symbol.

[RnMomof7]

And he swung the first blow when he broke his campaign promise and signed GHB’s NAFTA agreement

[Churchillspirit]

Are we prepared to have Bubba as "The First Dude"?

The left are turning against Zero...it could happen.

[Will88]

Yep, two bad ideas are the root cause of joblessness in America and Clinton shares major blame for both: high illegal and legal immigration, and globalization and the lie that the millions of jobs everyone knew would be lost, would be replaced with equal or better jobs (”the high tech, high paying jobs of the future”>)

[AmusedBystander]

The American Dream has been dead since Nov. 22, 1963. We just haven’t buried the corpse yet.

[b4its2late]

Looks like the left is starting to pull out all stops for election 2012.

[mo]

The RinoCracy is starting to feel the heat if they’re trottin’ out Bubba to defend them!!!

http://www.26nc.org/History/Rebel-Yell/Sound-Files/RebelYell_l.wav

[<1/1,000,000th%]

This retard, Clinton, is one of the reasons for our current problems.

It was his Treasury Secretary, Lloyd Bentsen, in December 1993, that announced that the left would start using urban minorities to make money from failing mortgage loans.

What else could they do, they already bankrupted the Savings & Loans.

[EyeGuy]

And how long before an elitist RINO like Newt Gingrich, instructs us unwashed rubes on the nuance and fundamental truisms in the Horny Hick’s latest lower intestinal tract verbal excretion.