Despite "improving economy"why Americans are screwed and Europeans are not.

[kairos12]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/robert-reich-why-americans-are-screwed-and-europeans-are-not/

snip:

The U.S. economy is picking up steam but most Americans aren’t feeling it. By contrast, most European economies are still in bad shape, but most Europeans are doing relatively well.

What’s behind this? Two big facts

First, American corporations exert far more political influence in the United States than their counterparts exert in their own countries.

In fact, most Americans have no influence at all. That’s the conclusion of Professors Martin Gilens of Princeton and Benjamin Page of Northwestern University, who analyzed 1,799 policy issues — and found that “the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”

Instead, American lawmakers respond to the demands of wealthy individuals (typically corporate executives and Wall Street moguls) and of big corporations – those with the most lobbying prowess and deepest pockets to bankroll campaigns.

The second fact is most big American corporations have no particular allegiance to America. They don’t want Americans to have better wages. Their only allegiance and responsibility to their shareholders — which often requires lower wages to fuel larger profits and higher share prices.

Let's see, average Americans have no influence on elections and corporations have no allegiance to America. That, my fellow DUers, is the truth of American exceptionalism.

[elleng]

1. Right.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/111665624

[blkmusclmachine]

2. ,

,

[Thespian2]

3. Gosh, I would have never thought

O, yes. I moved to Canada after George W. stole another election. Now I remember.

[ND-Dem]

4. except for citizens of greece, spain, and portugal. and some others. but the core

of the eu, maybe.

capital is after everyone; you're not safe in the US, nor in Europe, nor in cuba nor china nor the rest of the former communist bloc.

Seriously, they want it all. They might leave you enough to live on; some of you, anyway.

[JDPriestly]

5. Our Constitution and laws protect property and those who own it.

It also protects basic human rights. No problem with the fact that it protects property. No problem with the protection of basic human rights.

But here is the catch. Most Americans don't really own, that is have title without any debts or liens on it, to any property of greater value than maybe a used car. We owe money on everything we call "ours."

The multinational corporations are the real owners of most of what we call our own.

The protection of property ownership that is key in our Constitution does not protect most of us much at all.

And our government has defined our human rights to limit some of them in important ways. We have the right to free speech, but your city government can make you pay for a permit if you want to meet or demonstrate on city streets. And so it goes with every right we have. The government infringes inch by inch. The NSA collection of our electronic communications is a good example.

[StarzGuy]

6. This country is so...

...F**ked up. I have no choices what so ever. Being 100% disabled I have trouble keeping enough food on my table to eat. All I can say is that when the reckoning comes due to big business destroying our environment they won't be able to take their profits with them or do any good with them. Maybe it's time for the Earth to do its reckoning. As I understand from a previous post with a great one and half hour power point presentation, the day of reckoning is indeed closer than once thought.

You can forget about missions to Mars, expanding humanity into space to become a space faring species. It's already too late. Global warming and a sixth mass extinction (including the human species) triggers are already in place and their is nothing any amount of money is going to do to correct it. I feel fortunate that I have no offspring to suffer these consequences.

I don't like to say this but I accept what the climate models and data are telling us.

[Jaredzen]

7. You read my mind

Admittedly, i am just a soc/sci student and would defer to the knowledge of others on this board, but this post made a lot of sense to me. I think you found possibly the perfect summery of American exceptionalism in the modern world economy. I made a short movie along these lines that I would love to hear your thoughts on... and if any of you like, share with others.

?list=PL228F0CF857E05C06

[kairos12]

8. Your movie

Your movie is an excellent depiction of how the media has used social psychology to mislead people. Especially, when it comes to income disparity and tax issues. I would just add that Republican masterminds have come to this strategy over many decades. They can read the demographic trends as well as the Democrats. As a result the Republicans have come to rely on 3 strategies to win elections: gerrymandering, unlimited dark money, and voter suppression. If you wonder why it was critical for Shrub to get elected in 2000 it was because they needed the Supreme Court votes to implement the 3 elements of their strategy. Keep up the good work.

[Cal33]

9. The bribery and corruption of the big corporations have rarely mushroomed to

such heights as they have today -- not only in the US, but in most of our planet.

Bribery and corruption, without exception, have always brought about the degeneration
of the societies involved, and when continued further, those societies invariably have
ended in total collapse.

This time the collapse will be worldwide. In the meantime the corporation execs. who
disbelieve and ignore such ideas, will blithely continue with their dance of death and
not even realize what they have been doing - until it's too late. Their lust for wealth
and power blinds them from seeing the disaster that they are causing to our planet.