Posted on 12/13/2014 6:44:02 AM PST by C19fan
One day in 1967, Bob Thompson sprayed foam on a hunk of metal in a cavernous factory south of Los Angeles. And then another day, not too long after, he sat at a long wood bar with a black-and-white television hanging over it, and he watched that hunk of metal land a man on the moon.
On July 20, 1969 — the day of the landing — Thompson sipped his Budweiser and thought about all the people who had ever stared at that moon. Kings and queens and Jesus Christ himself. He marveled at how when it came time to reach it, the job started in Downey. The bartender wept.
On a warm day, almost a half-century later, Thompson curled his mouth beneath a white beard and talked about the bar that fell to make way for a freeway, the space-age factory that closed down and the town that is still waiting for its next great economic rocket, its new starship to the middle class.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
My observation is every technological/economic/societal change has hurt the middle class and redistributed income to the capital owners and overseas. For example, the so-called Robber Barons created industries that employed millions while a firm like Google I believe employs directly something on the order of 10,000 workers.
I grew up in the '50s and '60s. Each and every year my Dad moved up the chain a little bit w/o big promotions, etc. Over a few decades, he went from struggling to being comparably awash in disposable income. Over the last 10 years, I have been lucky to maintain status. The Left calls this "progress".
Destroy the Middle Class and they will effectively destroy Freedom as we once knew it.
What does Apple have- about 50,000 Chinese slaves!
Well, we have a President who is a fumblebutt. The Democrat Party is run by leaders who talk bad about the country. Why would anyone build factories in this country?
What has hurt the middle class is the entitlement class that the government has created.
The middle class is being destroyed by the leftists on purpose
Big government is the biggest drag.
Doesn’t solve any problems (in fact, has a vested interest in prolonging them) and makes everything cost more.
For at least 50 years our democrat and republican politicians have sold our industry down the tubes for financial contributions and kickbacks while lying to us, telling us how hard they are working to save our jobs and economy.
They have repeatedly passed free trade agreements like NAFTA and given tax breaks and financial aid and assistance to other countries to help them compete with us and eventually kill our own industries.
Finally, we now have squatting in the White House, the only politician who has been somewhat honest about his true objective.
Barack Obama has told us that his goal is to fundamentally transform America.
That is what he is doing and he is being aided and abetted in his efforts by democrats and republicans.
“My observation is every technological/economic/societal change has hurt the middle class”
So back to the days when we were serfs working on the nobleman’s lands for a pittance! Technological improvement is the only reason we have a middle class.
0 is doing a great job of killing the Middlle class:
Caused small businesses to fail due to Obamacare, hidden increased taxation (increase payroll taxes and takeaway deductions
Created the price of everything to skyrocket (hyperinflation with calling it hyperinflation)
Created a higher unemployment rate (much higher than is stated by manipulating figures)
Wages are down due to full-time jobs being cut to part-time due to Obamacare; more pople are out of work creating higher demand and lower wages
Bringing illegals I to the country to (yes) take your jobs
Demoralized them with continued attacks against their religious beliefs, their patriotism, their ideologies
Forced people to kneel at the altar of faggotry and socialism
I’d say he’s doing a great job...
Poor writing on my part. I was thinking of say changes starting during the 1960s.
0 is doing a great job of killing the Middlle class:
Caused small businesses to fail due to Obamacare, hidden increased taxation (increase payroll taxes and takeaway deductions, increased regulations and higher overhead costs
Created the price of everything to skyrocket (hyperinflation without calling it hyperinflation)
Created a higher unemployment rate (much higher than is stated by manipulating figures)
Wages are down due to full-time jobs being cut to part-time due to Obamacare; more pople are out of work creating higher demand and lower wages
Bringing illegals into the country to (yes) take your jobs against the will of the people
Demoralized the people with continued attacks against their religious beliefs, their patriotism, and their ideologies
Forced people to kneel at the altar of faggotry and socialism
So yes, I’d say he’s doing a great job...
Yes...and he’s doing it intentiuonally.
Yes...and he’s doing it intentionally.
People don’t understand that. The leftist social architects envision an America where everyone is uniformly poor. That’s true income equality in their eyes. The social architects will be immune of course.
The bulk of production is overseas now. There is no way to stay prosperous as a country when we don’t build goods. Instead of encouraging saving which leads to small business creation, the Fed (and lots of others) promote spending and consumption. Ironically the point to the large percentage of the economy based on consumption not realizing that it is a weakness! One likely factor in your dad’s eventual wealth was a saving and investing culture when he was starting out.
It’s a gross oversimplification to try to blame healthcare cost increases for this. When your dad and mine were working in the 50’s and 60’s, only a small percentage survived a heart attack, and breast or colon cancer was an automatic death sentence. You’d end up with a new wheelchair instead of a new knee or hip and people died or suffered from a host of diseases we don’t even hear about nowadays.
On the other hand there have been many other factors affecting paychecks. Not the least of which is the flattening of the world resulting from advances in transportation, logistics, and communications. I can sit here in American designing things in collaboration with a colleague in Europe that will be built by a factory in China and sell them anywhere in the world through a website that costs less than what people in the 50’s and 60’s spent on their landline phone bill.
The challenge for America is to apply the spirit that has made us the greatest nation on earth, using the assets and capabilities we now have to create the next growth curve of prosperity. But it’s a lot easier to sit around bitching and moaning about how things aren’t the same as they were 50 years ago.
I’ll take policies which dictate energy prices necessarily skyrocketing for $500, Alex.
The consumption culture is a definite player in the demise of many. I can tell those who are consumption advocates on garbage day. Many generate 2-4 times the trash we do. I don't fill my big trash can up even over most two-week periods; some of them have 2-4 full cans out every Monday.
On the flip side, our house is paid for, we own our cars which will probably be reliable for another 4-5 years and have no debt outside our monthly expenses/bills. We are both retired (me in the last 2 weeks) and should be able to remain comfortable in retirement. I know many who either can't retire or who, having retired, are scraping by from SS check to SS check and who have more debt than savings. Consumerism popped out of WWII and never slowed down as our Nation changed from manufacturing to providing "services", which are often conveniences rather than necessities. Lots of changes since I took my first breath in '52.
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