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Most Americans Can't Maintain Their Standard of Living
alternet.org — Most Americans can no longer maintain their standard of living. And the core problem isn't the housing crisis or rising oil and food prices.
msaleem- 174 diggs
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- gibson850, on 08/04/2008, -2/+5Best thing I've came across in a while. Couldn't agree more.
- decafmatan, on 08/04/2008, -1/+3"In other words, we must rebuild the American economy from the bottom up. It cannot be rebuilt from the top down."
Excellent, excellent article. This just plain makes sense, and any candidate, left or right, to adopt such a policy would have my approval. - solboldi, on 08/04/2008, -2/+5Silly article. A gross overgeneralization based on no credible scientific data.
- ordig, on 08/05/2008, -0/+1The data is out there
- sportsstar67, on 08/04/2008, -2/+2Exactly who decided "most Americans" can't ?? This is inaccurate !!
- dreicher, on 08/04/2008, -0/+4Wow, this guy is so spot on somebody should make him Secretary of Labor so he can fix everything for us. Oh, wait, you mean he was Secretary of Labor for 5 years?
- chaserm, on 08/05/2008, -0/+2Keeping the flood gates from Mexico open is going to help this how????? Which both the dums and the repukes will never do anything about because the corps need the cheap labor.
- edstate, on 08/05/2008, -0/+1This kind of data was out there well before the housing bubble... real wages weren't appreciating with home prices, and so people who had homes were using them as ATM machines. Although this article makes some pretty gross generalizations, it's basic economics, really: certain fundamentals need to be in certain places for ***** to be working right, yo.
- fearlessfx, on 08/05/2008, -0/+1Good article, but highly ambiguous. Nothing in his writing is revolutionary, its all just a rehash of what everyone has already been saying. Its easy enough to say that America is reaping the whirlwind of its own economic policies, and to suggest that those economic policies need to be rebuilt from the ground up, but suggesting that these problems can be solved via a more progressive tax system and investing in productivity is a poor answer. I would have liked to have see the author address the American government's huge deficit, inefficient spending, cheap outsourced labour and minimum wage.
I did, however, find his ideas on how americans have progressed through several stages, ultimately ending up in this cycle of borrowing and spending very insightful. - failedpimp, on 08/05/2008, -0/+2Then those Americans should live within their means.
- kaeves, on 08/05/2008, -0/+1There are some good points here, but there's a easy fix that everybody can do: Don't buy stuff you can't afford.
http://consumerist.com/consumer/clips/snl-skit-don ... - hazzardtrak, on 08/05/2008, -0/+1I don't think that this refers to "most" Americans, but this is definitely an apparent issues for many Americans. At any rate, a very well written article.
- docrings, on 08/05/2008, -0/+3He makes a lot of sense right up until you hit his last paragraph... then it's just political drivel:
1) Affordable health insurance? Even cashier's at Lowe's have health insurance... get a job that requires a 9th grade education and you have health insurance. If you aren't getting it, pick a different job. Federal health insurance just means more taxes, and more pressure on our paychecks... tough to tax your way out of a depression/recession.
2) Access to good schools and education: Is he serious? How about parents ensuring their kids take advantage of what they have by doing their homework and studying, and not playing XBOX all the way through high school. Oh yeah, they *do* have access to good schools and an education. The problem is losers who don't want to work (earnestly study) for their education that is already handed to them free on a silver platter in the public schools. It's called "delayed gratification" folks, and many Americans are forgetting what that means anymore. They want it NOW, and their willing to sacrifice their future retirement investments and their current mortgage for something they can't afford (3/4 ton trucks, boats, HDTV, McMansions, etc.).
3) Clean energy technologies are a great idea, but are not the *only* savior for our economy. The economy doesn't give a rip whether that electric plant is spewing carbon dioxide or daisy fragrance. Now, investing in technologies that would allow us to wean off the Arab teat would be great...but that would involve nuclear power and plug-in hybrids, non-food ethanol, algae biofuels, super-capacitor vehicles capable of dual-fuels, etc. No short-term fixes here.... which is good (aren't we all tired of short-sighted fixes from 2year term congressmen?)
The market will tumble, the jobless rate will climb, banks will fail, but we'll survive... our grandparents survived the 30's, we'll survive the teens. And a LOT of "potential wealth" will evaporate over the next 5 years. You *do* pay off your credit card every month don't you? You better start.
I guess it was deadline time for Mr. Reich, and that last paragraph was constructed with 30 seconds to submission time.
I'm no expert, but he does claim to be, so I expect more "expert" commentary than just one paragraph. I also expect a diatribe backed with case history of prior success stories from history, data, statistics and at least a couple Nobel laureates on his side.... Sheesh!
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