Bob Herbert hammers the right...

[misanthrope]

...with this plain-spoken and open critique. How people can't see this for themselves is beyond me.

snip:
Working people were not just abandoned by big business and their ideological henchmen in government, they were exploited and humiliated. They were denied the productivity gains that should have rightfully accrued to them. They were treated ruthlessly whenever they tried to organize. They were never reasonably protected against the savage dislocations caused by revolutions in technology and global trade.

Working people were told that all of this was good for them, and whether out of ignorance or fear or prejudice or, as my grandfather might have said, damned foolishness, many bought into it. They signed onto tax policies that worked like a three-card monte game. And they were sold a snake oil concoction called “trickle down” that so addled their brains that they thought it was a wonderful idea to hand over their share of the nation’s wealth to those who were already fabulously rich.

America used to be better than this.


snip:
As hard as it may be to believe, the peak income year for the bottom 90 percent of Americans was way back in 1973, when the average income per taxpayer, adjusted for inflation, was $33,000. That was nearly $4,000 higher, Mr. Johnston pointed out, than in 2005.

Men have done particularly poorly. Men who are now in their 30s — the prime age for raising families — earn less money than members of their fathers’ generation did at the same age.

It may seem like ancient history, but in the first few decades following World War II, the United States, despite many serious flaws, established the model of a highly productive society that shared its prosperity widely and made investments that were geared toward a more prosperous, more fulfilling future.

The American dream was alive and well and seemingly unassailable. But somehow, following the oil shocks, the hyperinflation and other traumas of the 1970s, Americans allowed the right-wingers to get a toehold — and they began the serious work of smothering the dream.

The rest of the column can be found here.

[BuyingThyme]

1. But corporations provide good, reliable jobs.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. ...in China.

Good, reliable, slave labor jobs.

[BuyingThyme]

3. I wonder how all this is affecting them.

Are they better off, or worse?

[Jackpine Radical]

4. Rapidly rising unemployment, I think.

Not much of a safety net, "Communists" or no.

[BuyingThyme]

6. But if you're a slave, maybe unemployment is a good thing.

[Belial]

9. umm don't think so.. if you are a slave.. and unemployed..

is there really a reason to keep you around?

[Jackpine Radical]

10. I don't think it's exactly slavery.

More like just very low wages, when you get wages at all. If they were slaves, there would be some point in taking care of them between jobs, but if they aren't slaves, then they're on their own between jobs. And one thing that's not scarce in China is people.

[Yavin4]

7. China Is Worse Off

Both China and India are seeing massive slowdowns in their GDP, and because of the respective sizes of their nations they need over 8% GDP growth in order to avoid recession.

This is why China passed a huge stimulus bill to spur consumption in their own country.

[T Wolf]

5. Yeah - we can forget about that "doing better than our parents" dream. It now is - can I survive to

die in my own home and not in poverty.

[Yavin4]

8. Here's What Bob Missed In His Analysis

The American dream was alive and well and seemingly unassailable. But somehow, following the oil shocks, the hyperinflation and other traumas of the 1970s, Americans allowed the right-wingers to get a toehold — and they began the serious work of smothering the dream.

In the 1970s, African Americans and women won the legal right to share in the prosperity that came out of WWII. Right wingers used White male resentment of the Civil Rights and Feminist movements to gain that political "toehold".