Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Alberta's Child; central_va

I recognize the fact that a lot of “free money” help fuel a wild consumer economy. People might see that as a good thing. Like cheap goods from China. Wheeeeeeeeeeee!

But once upon a time, people could live a middle class lifestyle on one income. Healthcare was not ruinously costly. College was actually affordable. Our economy has changed. We’re all wage slaves now. Health care is killing people. College debt ruins young people’s future. Mom has to work and the kids are raised in daycare. It’s a pretty crazy system and a lot of the problem is the debt.

People may like some aspects of “free money” from the Fed but I think they’ve turned us into junkies who need another fix. That’s no way to live.


11 posted on 05/28/2020 5:23:27 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (If White Privilege is real, why did Elizabeth Warren lie about being an Indian?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies ]


To: ClearCase_guy

All I have done for my entire adult life is PAY taxes. What free money did I ever get? NONE!! Have you lost it today or what?


13 posted on 05/28/2020 5:25:55 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies ]

To: ClearCase_guy
But once upon a time, people could live a middle class lifestyle on one income.

Maybe that was true, but I'll point out two things:

1. What has changed over the years hasn't been the COST of a "middle class lifestyle," but the DEFINITION of this lifestyle. You can still afford to live a middle-class lifestyle on one income today -- but only if your lifestyle involves things that were part of a middle class lifestyle 40+ years ago. How much do you think health care (to cite one example) would cost today if none of the treatments and medications developed in the last 50 years existed -- and anything more complicated than a broken bone was likely to be fatal? It wouldn't cost much at all.

2. Most of the things people today associate with a "middle class lifestyle" from prior generations only existed because they were facilitated by outright big-government socialism. I'll cite Social Security, Medicare, the GI Bill, the Interstate Highway System, and even the Homestead Act of the 19th century as prime examples of this.

20 posted on 05/28/2020 6:20:51 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("And somewhere in the darkness ... the gambler, he broke even.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies ]

To: ClearCase_guy
"But once upon a time, people could live a middle class lifestyle on one income. Healthcare was not ruinously costly. College was actually affordable. Our economy has changed. We’re all wage slaves now. Health care is killing people. College debt ruins young people’s future. Mom has to work and the kids are raised in daycare. It’s a pretty crazy system and a lot of the problem is the debt."
It used to be if a household wanted a new washer & dryer, they saved enough cash to buy or entered into a lay-away plan to pay up front. Then came the banks pushing out credit via plastic cards so that same household could just go and "buy" the washer & dryer. No waiting!
We know how that worked out. The couple eventually paid the cost of the washer & dryer plus several times more the purchase price in interest fees to the lending bank.
Saving money became outmoded and was in any event nearly impossible because what used to be extra money at the end of the month went straight to the banks as interest paid on debt. Dad's salary soon was insufficient to carry the debt load, so Mom had to work, too.
America's economy all too soon was transferred into an almost 100% debt based system. Instead of going to a bank for a home & auto loan - the big-ticket items - most Americans went to them for every purchase, via credit cards.
The banks pushed the cards as hard as possible. Example: Sending college students card applications. The nation has never been the same since.
Add in external shocks such as the US/OPEC petro-dollar scheme and ever increasing billions shoveled out in entitlements and our middle class, once the foundation of a solid America, hopelessly sank into the morass of debt payments and tax bills.
22 posted on 05/28/2020 7:47:01 AM PDT by citizen (Women are from Venus and Men are from Mars. All the other genders you make up are from Uranus.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson