America is Regressing into a Developing Nation for Most People

I agree with some of the problems, but not the conclusions, as the writer is a socialist.

Yup, there is an income gap. That will happen in a free enterprise based society. It will happen more in a society like ours where you have a large and powerful government working with big business to farm the non elites.

You should keep in mind that our "poor" live better than any poor class in history. Their biggest financial burden is ridiculous health care costs which need to be fixed.

However, I disagree that there is little social mobility. For those with some mix of willpower, drive, discipline and talent there is more opportunity in America than any other country in the world, even today. Look at immigrants from SE Asia for proof. They came here with nothing a generation ago and are more successful on average than the so called privileged white class.

We could have more mobility and less of a gap if we removed much of the fee and license structure around small businesses. The over regulation of small business and complex taxation is a large barrier to entry and prevents most working poor from this method of wealth creation.

The taxation of investment is another barrier. I work and get taxed. Then I invest what's left over and get taxed on that again. If I am successful and want to pass that on to my kids, I get taxed again. It's clear that the government is farming me.

The biggest gap between the elites and the structurally poor is expectations and mentality. The quote attributed to Henry Ford is "Whether you believe you can do a thing or do not, you are correct". This applies to people on welfare, people working three jobs to get their family to the next level, a small business person, or someone in a very large company like myself.

Progressive policies are soft hearted but tend to treat people like children and create more child like people dependent on society. Classic liberal policies and conservative policies look harsh but do the opposite.

 

The author also paints an inaccurate picture where education is the only path to success, but it is too expensive. That's a strawman as most wealth and class growth is created by small businesses. We need more life, economic, and skill training as our current education model doesn't have a great ROI and doesn't serve the interests of much of the population.

 

Source? I'd rather be poor in Denmark, Sweden, Canada, and a bunch of other countries.

 

http://inequality.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/Pathways-SOTU-2016-Economic-Mobility-3.pdf

https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/02_economic_mobility_sawhill_ch3.pdf

 

Too many Americans have the "We are the best" American exceptionalism mentality, just like the British a century ago.

 

UN Human development index 2016

 

I guess this guy didn't get the memo about coal making a comeback.

 

Not sure where you are getting your assertions from. There are plenty of 1st world countries where it's not only more comfortable to be poor but also has more mobility. It's hard to take your post seriously when you make incorrect statements like this.

 

I have long thought of America as the richest country of the third world. And I am not talking about the skin color or ethnicity of our population. We have many more beggars at the corners than the other advance countries. The gap between rich and poor is approaching third world standards. If the whole conservative/"libertarian" onslaught (lol supply side trickle down) continues we will have jugglers and fire eaters or maybe even child beggars as you see in India or Mexico etc. More and more of the wealthy live in gated communities with private security guards. The difference in health statistics and education of the lower 20% vs the upper 20% are in the range typically seen in the third world.

 

We are undergoing another industrial revolution and we have too many people not prepared, being prepared, or don't want to be prepared.

 

Seems different this time. Seems likely and if it is the case that human enhancing technology is expensive and only accessible to a few (upper class), the traditional hard-work and human smart is no longer enough. You would then truly have an artificial caste system.

 

This isn't true.

Also not true. Sounds like you have no actual knowledge about other countries.

Again, not true. You don't appear to understand how taxes work either. If you're paying taxes again for the money already were taxed on and then invest, you are screwing up your taxes.

You seem to have the same issue as Guttersnipe, just on the flipside.

 

USA is a developing nation?

Wrong!!!

USA is an exceptional developing nation. And don't you forget it!!!

 

America has a thirty year head start on the rest of the world after WWII

The economy roared cause our factories were up and running and everyone else had to rebuild

Now Chinese workers are smarter and Mexican workers are cheaper

We have to compete

There are no more countries, just corporations

Think about it
What are you loyal to?

 

Football

 

It's fascinating that when people warned that this is exactly what would happen with voodoo economics they didn't believe it then, and they still can't accept it now.