Tag: middle class

Are Things As Bad As They Seem? (via Info Ink)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Yes, they are every bit that bad.

James Pilant

The partisanship…..the extremism……lack of respect…….the out right lies…….the misinformation (and yes, it is different from lies)…….and it all comes down to the American voter….YOU voted for morons and now you are paying the price for that vote…..I know, what could be so bad we might get lower taxes and balanced budget and spending controls….what could be so bad? Glad you asked!  While you were bobbing and weaving through t … Read More

via Info Ink

An Economic Wake Up Call (via Here’s What Nancy Thinks)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Income inequality in the developed nations is almost exclusively an American phenomenon. As you can see from the graph, we are more equivalent to African nations with limited economic development in terms of income

Another interesting article is the graph on the origins of our budget problems. Please pay attention to the enormous role played by the Bush tax cuts in destroying revenue.

James Pilant

An Economic Wake Up Call I don't want a "share the wealth" society in the sense that Republicans like to threaten the people with… You have to admit, though, that there used to be a time when money made it to the top, the top would keep a little and spend the rest to grow their business by hiring new people and so forth. When the money trickled down, there was more money to trickle back up. Now, the mighty dollar is harder to come by because the money makes it to the t … Read More

via Here's What Nancy Thinks

Policy failures of the GOP: the debt could disappear if the rich paid taxes at 1960s levels (via Under the Mountain Bunker)

On By southwerkIn business ethics3 Comments

Well, yeah. I knew that.

James Pilant

Is anyone surprised by this? Yet discussion of increasing tax revenues from the wealthy and corporations is off the table,  no compromise, according to the teaparty Republicans. If Corporations And The Rich Paid Taxes At The Same Level As The 1960s, The Debt Would Disappear … [Institute for Policy Studies’ (IPS) Sam] Pizzigati cites an IPS paper from last spring to make the argument that if corporations and households making more than $1 millio … Read More

via Under the Mountain Bunker

Fight Against Charter Schools Moves to the Suburbs (via Btx3’s Blog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

The data on students in charter schools is mixed. Most schools do about the same or worse than the public schools they supplement or detract from. While the data strongly suggest that there is not even a wisp of a panacea here for poor schools in city districts, I’m unaware of any data at all that says these schools should be used in rich high performing school districts. When a charter school moves into that area, it would seem to be evidence of what many have claimed all along, that this is more of a privatization movement than any attempt to help students, a way of converting a public good into a private profit.

James Pilant

Fight Against Charter Schools Moves to the Suburbs Charter School advocates have expanded their desire to "corporatize" and privatize education to the suburbs, even pursuing establishing specialized Charter Schools in well to do areas with excellent school systems. Unlike in poor areas where parents have little political clout – suburban residents are pushing … Read More

via Btx3's Blog

Survival of the ‘Lowering Class’ (via NCPrism’s Blog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics2 Comments

We do need a new vocabulary to discuss what is happening economically today. Take for example, the middle class, once a vibrant part of our society, has now diminished in numbers so much that it has divided. The current definition is so loose that those earning 300,000 dollars a year consider themselves middle class. There are those with millions of dollar in property consider themselves struggling citizens. The comedic beliefs are possible when once defined terms have collapsed into gibberish.

The middle class should probably be defined into a band roughly from 30K to 60K. Below this are the lower class; above this the upper middle class which ends at around 200K. Above this are the upper class. At one million dollars and above are the wealthy.

Please read the thoughts from NCPrism’s Blog.

James Pilant

With the demise of the middle class and the blending of all income levels below the extremely small  group of wealthy people in the United States, we need new labels for our social strata. I suggest we use descriptive titles for these groups. The rich would be called the “rising wealthy,” a term that acknowledges their ever-increasing income and holdings. It isn’t limited to static social status or finite income; this group has no true growth lim … Read More

via NCPrism’s Blog

When there are no good jobs left in America, there will be no middle-class (via Under the Mountain Bunker)

On By southwerkIn business ethics2 Comments

The job situation in America is a great moral and ethical question.

Over the past three decades, jobs have been exported, eliminated or converted downward into low pay service or part time jobs. This has enriched a small number of Americans – the top one percent of the population now controls 42.7 percent of the financial wealth of the nation – the top ten percent have 93 percent of the nation’s wealth.

The result – – the bottom 90 percent of the American people own 7% of the nation’s wealth.

If globalism and free trade are inevitable. If the free market is the best method of determining economic results, then a continuation of this is all that awaits us.

Americans are handicapped when it comes to having jobs in a world wide market. Americans have roads, bridges, police, fire departments, educational systems and an extensive military. These require taxes. Corporations have no desire to pay taxes and so they go to countries who have favorable tax laws or are willing to forego taxes for the jobs shipped there. Americans tend to be well educated and middle class. This means they will not work for 75 cents an hour and expect to be treated with some respect while having a high survivability on the job. This is inimical to the interests of corporations. It is easier to manipulate and use poorly educated people with no social standing. Safety costs money and killing Americans draws attention while dead foreigners are less of a problem. Americans live in a nation that has laws. Corporations do not want laws restricting their activities and they absolutely do not want to be prosecuted for their crimes.

So, if globalization and free trade are inevitable all we have to do to compete in a global economy is to give up way of life and gradually drift downward in our standard of living but only for the bottom 90%.

Is this a moral outcome?

Are the citizens of the United States similar to bacteria on a slide under a microscope? Do they deserve that level of analysis? .. the cold powerful corporate intellect realizing that a dash of penicillin could clear the way for new corporate profits?

Or do human beings have souls? Do Americans have a duty one to another? Do companies organized and financed in this nation bear a responsibility for their economic decisions?

There are things like justice, honor and duty. These are a joke in the world of the international corporation. I don’t believe these ideas draw laughter among the general population.

James Pilant

From Business Insider: 40 Facts That Prove The Working Class Is Being Systematically Wiped Out. Here are 10 of the 40 facts: #9 — Only 66.8% of American men had a job last year. That was the lowest level that has ever been recorded in all of U.S. history #10 — During this economic downturn, employee compensation in the United States has been the lowest that it has been relative to gross domestic product in over 50 years #11 — The number of “low i … Read More

via Under the Mountain Bunker

Flawed economics (via to boondoggle is human.)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

This is what I have been saying in many blog posts. We simply cannot keep doing the same economic things over and over again when they have failed over and over again. Some have said that is the very definition of insanity.

It is not ethical or moral to have corporations and the wealthy shed their tax burdens while leaving the average wage earners holding the bag. Those who control large sums of money in this country benefit like everyone else from educational systems, roads and bridges, and the work of police, firemen and our soldiers. Calling yourselves, “job creators” does not place a halo on your head or relieve you of your duty to your country, your state, your community and your fellow citizens.

We need to have a tax code that allocates the taxes paid in relation to the excess wealth accumulated and severely limits the amount paid on the base money necessary for basic needs, like food, shelter, education and medical needs.

I like this blogger’s thinking and I wish him well.

James Pilant

Flawed economics Supply-side Economics (see http://bit.ly/e8cvkl for definition and description), founded by Milton Friedman and made policy by Reagan, has been tested over the past 30 years.  It is working for the top 1%; not so much for the rest of us.  The dawned (indeed, dawned) realization is that the vast majority of ordinary consumers – the massive lower middle- and middle-class – are seeing their wages stagnate.  We are witnessing the impact of wage-stagn … Read More

via to boondoggle is human.

Outcasts: Tonight Tens Of Thousands Of Formerly Middle Class Americans Will Be Sleeping In Their Cars, In Tent Cities Or On The Streets (via Evil of indifference)

On By southwerkIn business ethics2 Comments

The Middle Class is shedding population. People leave for many reasons. But in the last few years, off shoring, foolish trade agreements, corporate financial speculation and a government little concerned with the plight of average wage earners, has parsed the Middle Class without obstacle.

I agree with the blog post below.

James Pilant

“Economic despair is beginning to spread rapidly in America. As you read this, there are millions of American families that are just barely hanging on by their fingernails. For a growing number of Americans, it has become an all-out battle just to be able to afford to sleep under a roof and put a little bit of food on the table. Sadly, there are more people than ever that are losing that battle. Tonight, tens of thousands of formerly middle class … Read More

via Evil of indifference

Dutch unease about society “understandable” (via Radio Netherlands International)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

So it is not just us.

From the article –

“Cohesion in towns and villages has disappeared with the advent of individualisation, immigrants from around the world and an increasingly complex society,” said Mr Verhagen, leader of the Christian Democrats, junior partners in the Dutch coalition government. “It is no longer taken for granted that our children will have it better than we did.”

Cohesion is disappearing. I have been noticing for some years now that things as simple as common experiences are disappearing. When I try to use a movie as an example in class, only the biggest blockbusters will have been seen and, even then, often by less than half the class. Our culture seems to be fragmenting into individual units almost all of them focused on the personal and the trivial.

James Pilant

The Non-Rich (via Cassandra’s Tears)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I get depressed about it as well.

James Pilant

… what are we to do? It's a very depressing situation.  Guy dumps something like 299 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, was in charge when 11 people in his company died and gets a $400,000 safety bonus. You and me would go to jail for decades.  He gets a bonus.  What's up with that? Bankers foreclose on military families.  They take the house of people are actively in a warzone.  They kick the wife and kids out.  Is anyone going to … Read More

via Cassandra's Tears