Day: November 8, 2013

Let’s Talk Middle Class

I have written enough about Syria, Cruz, scandals, NSA, and shootings…..so let me change subjects for awhile…..change to economics.   Okay this is where I turn my back on the class and some give me the finger, others act out choking and still others just roll their eyes and drift off…….yeah, economics is not a subject that many willing write about or talk about……and that is why I am here!

Let us begin with a look at some economic data…….

As Congress prepares for yet another fiscal showdown, new data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau should be a wake-up call that it is time to move away from a wrong-headed austerity agenda and pivot to a focus on creating jobs, boosting wages, and investing in family economic security.

The new data on poverty and income show that despite economic growth, there was no statistically significant improvement in the poverty rate or median household income in 2012.

Behind these topline numbers are data that contain real warning signs for American families and the overall economy if Congress continues down its current path.

Here are three things you need to know about the new data and how they affect the budget and policy choices before us:

  1. Income inequality has widened since the end of the Great Recession.
  2. Our safety net is working overtime to compensate for rising income inequality and the proliferation of low-wage work.
  3. High poverty rates among young children of color have long-term implications for our economic competitiveness.

And all that data is pointing to the Middle Class slowly disappearing….even if one does not want to admit it…..just look at any income data you like…..you can chart what is happening to the Middle Class.

The Middle Class?  We could make a case that the Middle Class was an accident….that it was never intended to be a characteristic of capitalism……….

It’s a sign of Edward McClelland’s age that he remembers the middle class. He grew up in an automaking town in the 1970s, where even high school dropouts could get jobs that would support a family and a mortgage payment. Everyone assumed this was capitalism’s triumphant endpoint, that it “had produced the worker’s paradise to which Communism unsuccessfully aspired,” McClelland writes at Salon. Now, that prosperity looks like a “historical fluke,” a brief denial of normal economic trends made possible because the US emerged from World War II with its manufacturing base unharmed. “For the majority of human history … there have been two classes; aristocracy and peasantry,” McClelland observes. Left unfettered, capitalism will tend to reinforce that trend, “concentrating wealth in the ownership class.” This drift “can only be arrested by an activist government that chooses to step in as a referee.” But the US has been on a 40-year deregulation kick, running through Democratic and Republican administrations alike. The result: “The greatest disparity between the top earners and the middle earners in nearly a century.” Click for McClelland’s full column.

The US is starting to look a lot like the UK…….that is if you start in a certain strata of the economy you and your will never leave that strata…….in other words there will be two classes……the aristocracy and the peasantry……….once you are in one you will forever remain there with little chance of mobility…….

Is Israel Doomed? – By Aaron David Miller | Foreign Policy

I apologize to my readers…..I was hoping that Foreign Policy would do the right thing….they did not!  One needs to subscribe to read this piece….the pricks!

An excellent question that needs to be addressed…..I personally believe that the world has paid their debt to Israel for wrongs done in the past…..and it is paid in full….time for them to step up and act like a civilized country….after all it is the 21st century….not the days of Abraham and Joshua…..

Is Israel Doomed? – By Aaron David Miller | Foreign Policy.

Syria Is Still Syria

Bet you thought that with all the press around the failed rollout of the ACA that the rest of the world has gone into hibernation until the rest of us realize that life is still going on beyond the shores of the US…….well you would be mistaken……..Syria is still not anywhere near a solved problem.  And that is why I am here…….

For instance, there has been great progress in locating the CWs that Assad has stashed around the country……everyone is very pleased that the plan has been so successful…..all I can say is that we should not pat ourselves on the back just yet…..why?

(Newser) – Here’s something you may not know about the effort to rid Syria of its chemical weapons: The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons isn’t just tasked with making that happen —it also has to raise the money needed to do the job. And the roughly $13.5 million it has amassed so far will only fund its operations through November, meaning it will have to drum up more cash in order to actually ship Syria’s chemical arsenal out of the country for destruction, reports Reuters.

The US has been the leading donor to the fund (Reuters puts the figure at $6 million, but says some of that went to the UN, and some represents equipment and training, not cash), and has been joined by countries like Britain, Canada, and Germany. What will the total tab end up being? If Bashar al-Assad is to be believed, $1 billion; experts are much more conservative in their estimations, giving a range that runs from tens of millions to hundreds of millions.

Money?  The answer to everything!  Who or where will the cash come from to eliminate these horrendous weapons?  Care to venture a guess?

With that said….there has been a movement to get all sides to sit down and see if there is an equitable solution to all the fighting and violence…..it is a hopeful sign that progress could be made……but unfortunately another snag has arisen…after all it is the Middle East and snags are a daily occurrence….

From a report in AJE……

Adding to the long list of complications that could undermine a long-awaited peace conference for Syria, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi on Wednesday that peace talks could only succeed if foreign powers — namely the U.S. and Saudi Arabia — end their material support of Syria’s rebels who are fighting to overthrow him.

Syrian state television quoted Assad as saying “the success of any political solution is tied to stopping support for terrorist groups and pressuring their patron states,” during the meeting in Damascus. Assad has repeatedly condemned foreign aid, especially from the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Qatar, for armed rebel factions, who he calls “terrorists.”

As war continues to batter Syria’s weary citizens, tentative optimism about a renewed push for peace in Syria has fallen by the wayside since the Arab League announced last week that the Geneva 2 peace conference had been slated for Nov. 23-24.

Unnamed Arab and Western officials told Reuters on Wednesday that the November target date was beginning to look unrealistic as international powers wrangling behind closed doors butt heads and the Syrian National Coalition, the most widely recognized opposition group, refuses to sign on.

It appears that a possible peace will have to wait on all the players willing to play nice……and in the meanwhile…..people die, people are maimed and refugees flee….

Someone needs to grow a set and make these warring morons come together for the good of the country of Syria.  We do not need another Lebanon or another Iraq…….