(07-30-2016 11:37 AM)Rick Gerlach Wrote:  

(07-30-2016 11:14 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Good Owl agrees with my analysis, but he comes from the right. I'd be interested in hearing from those who lean left, where do you see us?

Right now, I think things may look okay on the surface, but not far below are lurking any number of severe perils. And nobody on either side is talking about any of the real problems. I just don't know how long we can keep kidding ourselves. I guess one clock that is ticking is that social security runs out of money in about 20 years, and we are seriously deep doo doo then, if nothing else craters before. But again, nobody wants to address that issue, either.

I think we are living on smoke and mirrors and at some point that inevitably fails. And I don't see Trump or Hillary proposing anything that will turn things around. In fact, most of what I see from either of them will make it worse.

The people at the tops of the food chain have continued to see their income and wealth increase, because they have capitalized on the globalization (our widening gap between the top 1% and the rest of the country), but because middle class production has moved to developing countries, our middle class has stagnated (edit - and shrunk - - see Venezuela for an example of what happens to democracy without a large middle class - they had a majority middle class in 40 to 50 years ago, not now).

Frankly, I have begun to assume that the people at the top of our political institutions have recognized this for some time, and because, (while we can still capitalize on increases in efficiency and technological advancement where we still are a key player), there are only minor adjustments that government can make to slow the impacts, the last 25 years have been devoted (politically) to kicking the can down the road, and taking advantage of whatever distractions they can to divert attention from what may be an inexorable problem.

On that note - I see on Yahoo that the Powerball jackpot is approaching an all-time high. Should we pool our money?

Rick, I'll respond by quoting two other posters:

(07-18-2016 07:20 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(07-18-2016 07:10 AM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  The problem they all hide from is that that the welfare state and a multi-generational culture of public assistance ripped the family structure to shreds within the urban black community and Appalachian white communities. Single parent and grandparent households. Children viewed as sources of income. Lack of involved fathers in the household. Crime, drug dependency, suicide, teen pregnancy, incarceration, mental health disorders....all of the statistics are off the charts within the communities that are most affected and it can all be traced to the single parent culture that permeates and is now just accepted as fact. When the involved father figure is the federal government, Houston, we have a problem.

The war against poverty was really a war against the poor enslaving them to the federal check writers and the political masters who bought and paid for their votes generations ago.

Precisely.

It was more about securing votes from a dependent class than about doing anything to reduce or eliminate poverty.

There are really two groups of victims who have been duped: First, the poor themselves, and second, idealistic and well-meaning people who want to help the poor and have been convinced that our current system is the proper way to do so.

I agree with both of these. Family not government. Two parents, not one. That would be a very big start to making things vastly better and incomes more equal.