Are we regressing toward being a developing nation?

[sheshe2]

It’s always advisable to ignore hyperbole and avoid clickbait headlines, but this one from The Independent was eye-catching, to say the least: "US has regressed to developing nation status, MIT economist warns.” The key point of the article is that without a robust middle class, the United States ...

... is not only reverting to developing-country status, it is increasingly ripe for serious social turmoil that has not been seen in generations.”

Peter Temin authored the book that The Independent is reporting on—and he’s not too far off the mark with this idea.

We are certainly at a tipping point in our society, and the roots of this trace back to the election of Ronald Reagan, when we saw some of the first shots fired on the middle class: the firing of 11,000 air traffic controllers; cutting taxes on the rich; raising the retirement age to 67 on those who did not even have a voice in the matter; and the advent of the media friendly-named "trickle down economics" (for the record, I’ve been waiting since the ‘80s for my pile of cash to trickle down).

This was not unique to the Reagan years. After George H.W. Bush, President Clinton raised taxes and we had a budget surplus at the end of his second term. When President George W. Bush came into office he cut taxes, and by the end of his term we were in the worst economic times since the Great Depression. President Obama came into office, raised taxes, and signed into law a much-too-small stimulus plan to dig us out of the hole the GOP put us in.


Read More: http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/4/30/1656301/-Are-we-regressing-toward-being-a-developing-nation

Yes we are. Rapidly. GOP wants us to fail. We Dems keep digging us back out of the hole and the GOP sinks us further down the hole.

[dchill]

1. Wrong direction for "developing."

[RKP5637]

2. IMO YES!!! n/t

[angstlessk]

3. Do you have ANY idea of how much money can be made turning a first world

country into a third world country....billions upon billions...

Have you seen the charts of how the top 10% has flourished...and then the top 10% of the top 10%, then there is the top 1% of the top 10% of the top 10%.

And our country is devolving into poverty!

[Cal Carpenter]

4. It isn't regression. It is progression to

the end stages of capitalism.

Our economy has been predicated on growth being infinite, which it isn't. Our type of economy inherently causes increasing inequality. Reform or regulation can dampen these things in fits and spurts (see the New Deal - oh wait, most of that is gone now, case in point...), but the problems are inherent, predictable and inevitable.

[duncang]

5. I think it the hope of repub's

All you hear from the repub's is we need to be more like "X" country. We need to be competitive in wages and laws. We want to have a country that people just scrape by. Other wise the lower wages and less benefits overseas will drag away jobs. But they don't think having a decent living wage and work conditions is what brought us to this point.

The epa rules are so terrible the repub's want to make us like what happened in China with the pollution. Save the companies money at the cost of our lives.

[trixie2]

6. YES

[marybourg]

7. An unraveling nation. nt

[kerry-is-my-prez]

8. We are the only "developed nation" that doesn't have universal health care. Our health care and

educational systems are no longer near the top of the list. Same with freedom of the press (at least when Bush was in office.) We have a president who is further threatening to weaken it.

[hack89]

9. No.

Go visit a real developing country. We are no where close. We are better than many developed countries.

[democratisphere]

10. There is only one direction for our "bananas republic" to go without

regime change.