UN Report on US poverty

"WiscoProud" (wiscoproud) 06/22/2018 at 10:14 • Filed to: None

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The UN released its report on US poverty today. This is the report Nikki Haley is freaking out about. Basically it goes into detail on how the US has criminalized being poor and has the worst income inequality in the world.

Its only 20 pages, so i recommend everyone read it.

http://undocs.org/a/hrc/38/33/add.1

fintail > WiscoProud 06/22/2018 at 10:24

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I can’t view it here, this must be the one that finds the worst poverty in the developed world in the southeast US - big news there, color me flabbergasted.

The drones in the base will call it fake news, while it is no shock for thinking people. Socio-economic mobility has also faltered , funny how that coincides with the embrace of Randian ideals.

facw > WiscoProud 06/22/2018 at 10:28

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Definitely plan on looking around for it at some point today though.

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > facw 06/22/2018 at 10:39

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Delete the ?OpenElement and it’ll work.

Textured Soy Protein > WiscoProud 06/22/2018 at 10:42

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Here’s a link that should work.

https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22533&LangID=E

facw > winterlegacy, here 'till the end 06/22/2018 at 10:44

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Didn’t for me. Possibly they are just getting hammered right now.

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > facw 06/22/2018 at 10:49

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Strange, maybe they are.

WiscoProud > facw 06/22/2018 at 10:55

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I redid the link. Does it work now?

WiscoProud > Textured Soy Protein 06/22/2018 at 10:56

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That looks like a summary or something. Same subject, but a different report. I redid the link. Does it work for you?

facw > WiscoProud 06/22/2018 at 11:02

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Yeah, that loaded. Thanks!

My bird IS the word > fintail 06/22/2018 at 11:02

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Maybe not. In this case, he can probably blame obama, bush, clinton, and bush again. This shit doesn't happen overnight. 

fintail > My bird IS the word 06/22/2018 at 11:09

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I wasn’t referring to a specific person, rather, the group who clings to these romantic naive ideals of bootstrapping and supposed independence . Indeed , this is one area where the current regime is not directly at fault, the ship set sail 35 or more years ago, even before daddy Bush.

My bird IS the word > fintail 06/22/2018 at 11:22

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Theres got to be a fall guy, or a law or somewhat. God forbid we blame ourselves and our complacency. I’d have to read the full report before I pass judgement though. The U.N is just as shady as everyone else.

fintail > My bird IS the word 06/22/2018 at 11:30

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Some of it does appear to coincide with the introduction of trickle down fantasy. In the end, the US has fallen behind in a host of HDIs, that part is hard to refute.

Definitely shady, but less shady than the current gang of grifters and cons in DC , although maybe not by a huge margin .

CaptDale - is secretly British > WiscoProud 06/22/2018 at 11:47

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Can I have the Jag without reading the report?

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > WiscoProud 06/22/2018 at 11:48

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Thanks for sharing, link worked fine for me. Depressing read yet an important one for all. It’s easy to turn a blind eye or point fingers - but this is reality, so what are we going to do about it?

More tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy paid for by increased deficits and cuts to social programs maybe, just maybe, aren’t the answer. 

WiscoProud > CaptDale - is secretly British 06/22/2018 at 11:52

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No. 

WiscoProud > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 06/22/2018 at 11:55

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Thats the big push right now. The GOP is crying bloody murder about the massive deficit and how we have to cut entitlement spending to balance it, while ignoring that they were the cause of the deficit in the first place.

My biggest hope is that the mid-terms result in a massive blue wave that will get the corrupt A-holes out of office. If the GOP is able to maintain control of congress, i genuinely fear for our country. 

CaptDale - is secretly British > WiscoProud 06/22/2018 at 12:00

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Damn

WiscoProud > CaptDale - is secretly British 06/22/2018 at 12:03

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That being said. I would love an X150 XKR. Even the convertibles are growing on me. 

CaptDale - is secretly British > WiscoProud 06/22/2018 at 12:21

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Same, but I really want the XKR 100 coupe of the previous generation

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > WiscoProud 06/22/2018 at 13:26

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Gee... government complaining about the effects of previous government, and proposing government to fix government’s government.

In other words... taking money from the people who earn it,

- to simultaneously over-spend that money in the most wasteful ways that people spending ‘other-people’s money’ can think of spending money that isn’t theirs, that they didn’t earn ...  

-the spenders give a lot of it to people who don’t earn any, and who don ’t get free money if they already earn some...

-t hen the spenders also print more money, and borrow more of the printed money, which devalues what money the earners are left with ...

-the spenders have racked up more debt than can be paid back, because that amount of money can’t be earned on top of the cost of living and production required to produce something that adds value.

-if the spenders tax much more than they already are, the earners will have less buying power to buy anything of value for themselves, and reduce economic activity, and the ability to generate additional value, marked by money, that the spenders want to tax and de-value away again.

And then people wonder why that doesn’t work... and propose raising the debt ceiling, and raising taxes again.

Government spending should have proven itself a fiscal black hole of epic proportions long ago... an event horizon into which money and value go, and cannot escape.

Let earners earn. Encourage and ENABLE more people to earn, it will foster self-respect and personal independence.

Leave charity toward those actually * unable* to earn, to charitable organizations, and the good will of the earners with discretionary spending capabilities,  who are proven to be more generous and responsible than government spenders trying to keep a dependent underclass tied to voting themselves other people’s money.

WiscoProud > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 06/22/2018 at 13:53

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Yeah, its pretty obvious you didn’t read it. Income inequality is a problem in most developed nations, but nowhere near as bad as it is here. You’ve been brainwashed into believing the poor are the enemy, when its ultra rich that dictate everything we do.

When was the last time you heard about a “welfare queen” PAC or an illegal immigrant lobbyist group. You don’t. Only the ultra rich have the money to throw around to influence politicians.

Trickle down economics has been proven time and time again not to work. Trickle up economics however, has been proven to work. Not to mention education and health care are human rights that the US has ratified. 

fintail > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 06/22/2018 at 14:08

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Fintail shrugged

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > WiscoProud 06/22/2018 at 14:20

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I have been reading this stuff for decades... the trends are long established.

The poor are NOT the enemy, which shows that you didn’t read what I wrote, and didn’t understand it if you did.

The GOVERNMENT is the enemy, when it comes to siphoning value out of the economy, and de-valuing the marker of value, aka: Money.

Get the government out of the way, let people earn and keep what they earn, and the problem of income inequality solves itself in the marketplace, not on the tax rolls nor the welfare rolls, where inequality is perpetuated.

Someone who is deprived of self-respect by being held to a dependent condition, is going to get demoralized and stay in that condition, and think themselves unable to escape it. It is basic psychology, and frankly, the economic variant of emotional abuse.

Someone allowed to earn, benefit, and make themselves independent, with a stake in their own quality of life and advancement will become more productive, and add more value, and their own creativity and humanity to the equation, rather than being just considered “the poor” by people like you, who seem to think they can be spent out of their dependency...

The reality is, I am more a proponent for the poor, by giving them the opportunities they need, rather than just giving them enough money to live on.

Giving men fish has fed them day after day, and they keep expecting their daily fish. It is time to TEACH them to fish, expect it, and start to buy some fish from them.

You seem to have no concept of value. Only a concept of money.

Money is just a poker chip.

Value is the result and effect of someone’s time, talent, effort and capability in serving mutual self-interest of becoming and then being an independent adult and family member, while serving the self-interest of those around them by providing a product or service that they value in turn. Otherwise known as cooperation, and free market economics.

And before you go to vilifying the “wealthy”, I agree that more of the operational burden being shifted upward, rather than excused... they still want to be wealthy, and get wealthier, which means producing value... and on that scale... they require labor, processed materials, and other value-added items to do so... which is where employment and earning come back into the equation for those of less wealth.

Wealth inequality is also why I am a proponent of a flat tax structure on spending, not earning. Most wealthy people don’t earn, they accrue capital gain, so they don’t pay income tax anyway, only the middle pays income tax.

Wealthy people spending their wealth, is also not usually taxed very much.

Any activity that is taxed is effectively dis-incentivized... but some activities can bear some elasticity and dis-incentive before coming to a halt. Earning is that activity now... it shouldn’t be disincentivized, nor should saving for tomorrow, or 50 years from now. Tax-deferred investments shouldn’t even be a consideration, because it shouldn’t be taxed.

SPENDING is what should be taxed, at the point of sale, and displayed right up front on the receipt, at a flat percentage. Plan on it. Verify it. Whether it is 10$, 100$, 1,000$, or 10,000,000$. X% added on or included in the purchase price goes to the necessity of running this country.

But running this country would necessarily have to be on a balanced budget, and the 16th amendment would have to be repealed to remove the income tax in favor of the flat sales tax.

No 1040, no tax day, minimal exemptions for basic food staples,  perhaps. Sellers would have the tax ID and the tax burden to pay as part of their revenue.

Plus, paying a bit more at the cash register comes off the top, on everyone having kept 100% of what they’ve earned, not double-taxation.

That is the most pro-income, least-regressive option possible... and countries in other parts of the world that have tried it, have MASSIVELY succeeded with it, compared to highly-regressive taxation schemes that kept their populations poor.

WiscoProud > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 06/22/2018 at 14:31

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Social safety nets have only been in place since the 60s. We have a great deal of American history to look back on where there was no safety net. What was the outcome? Even worse poverty than we have now, which you would know if you read the report.

Everyone deserves a chance. Everyone deserves an education. Everyone deserves health care.

A flat tax on spending might help, but then again if you simply hoard your cash, you also won’t be incurring spending based taxes. Apple for one has cash reserves of $250 billion. Under a sales tax only based system, that cash would never be taxed. A system relying on both would probably be most effective.

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > fintail 06/22/2018 at 14:43

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Everyone is going to shrug at some point when 20 Trillion gets called, and the ball gets dropped.

And by the ball, I mean the global economy. That is when “Trickle-up” economics will finally come due... and all that free stuff will show it’s true cost.

WiscoProud is wrong.

There is no such thing as trickle up, and there is no such thing as free. People aren’t entitled to the value of other people’s time, talent, effort and capability without compensation . That used to be called slavery.

Now, it is just wage slavery and artificial redistribution of tax dollars borrowed with interest against your grand children and great grandchildren. Wages have been stagnant in the face of inflation and rising prices for decades.... where do you think that added value g oes , not being paid as wage increases?

THAT is the core of income inequality, and yes it is a corrupt game between powerful people inside and outside of government, and people propping up the government with bought-and-paid-for votes of the perpetuated “poor” who in return don’t have to, and are regulated against working for their own betterment... and KEPT dependent as part of that perpetual voting block for government spenders to stay in power, and stay wealthy.

The highest average  income and wealth area in the country... around Washington DC. The wealthiest people in politics in Washington DC and various states... DEMOCRATS who are proponents of tax and spend welfare-state policies, and who scream the loudest about anything that might actually touch that policy to allow the poor to get out from under it, and discover a sense of self other than as a dependent.

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > WiscoProud 06/22/2018 at 14:58

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I shouldn’t even try to correct you, if you think that social safety nets started in the 1960s.

Social safety nets have been in place in empires for thousands of years. In modern history, the Fabian Socialists have been doing it since the 1800s, and some of the BIGGEST pushes were done as part of the Russian Communist revolution in 1917, the *National Socialist* movement in Germany in the 1920s and 30s, (communism and socialism are flavors of the same thing... just differing on nation-state political scope and the illusion of ownership, but both defer to state control.)

In US history, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt both pushed HARD on social safety net policies, and even Herbert Hoover was no fiscal conservative, and promised a “Chicken in every Pot..” entitlement non-sense. They preached equality of outcome, rather than equality of opportunity.

Who works an opportunity into a result, if the outcome is equally guaranteed to be mediocre at best? The motivated get un-motivated. The un-motivated stay firmly planted as such... and so it stays.

That is why Marxism fails every time it is tried. From Each according according to his talent, to each according to his need takes no responsibility into account, and accepts lack of talent to the point of accepting lack of motivation and responsibility as lack of talent... and dehumanizes people in the process.

Calvin Coolidge was fiscally conservative by comparison, and his limitation of taxation and cutting government spending in half, turned a huge market crash in 1921 into a minor recession of less than 2 years, followed by “the Roaring Twenties” with one of the bigger economic expansions in the 20th century, which led to rather than Hoover and FDR’s later response to the crash of ‘29, which they exacerbated into “The Great Depression.” which wasn’t a great depression anywhere else.

Germany recovered from the worse restrictions of the Weimar Republic faster than the US recovered from the Great Depression. The tragic part is that a maniac used income inequality and despair to create an evil regime.

fintail > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 06/22/2018 at 14:59

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It was a play on Ayn Rand’s ridiculous fantasy. Trickle down economics exist even less than trickle up, a virtual failure in every iteration in history. The poorest parts of the developed world are in Murka inhabited by those  who blindly fall for the bootstrap tale. That 20BN will just keep getting kicked down the road.

I can see you buy into the tales though (any credentials in economics? nope )   , and are making it political, when the socio-economic disaster goes beyond political parties, both of which are guilty of this mess . N o point in debating it when one party is suspiciously capitalized in a Breitbart-esque manner , good day, and good luck .

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > fintail 06/22/2018 at 15:28

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I never disputed that both sides of the aisle are complicit, which is why I am not a member of either major party.

And your post right here... is more political than ALL of what I have written so far, which has had tones of politics, but underpinnings of proven economics that pre-date this country.

Notice that I haven’t used sound-bytes to explain my platform, I have explained it, at length.

I don’t use the word trickle-down... it is merely a sound-byte that most people mis-use, and beat free-market economics with, falsely.

BTW... what I have written is easily within grasp of anyone who has taken even a single economics course... which I have taken more than one , and have ACED, and I do have a Bachelor of Science in Business, as well as being a productive member of the economy for decades . But that isn’t going to change your PC mind, anyway.

Keep spouting your politi- culture soundbites and reciting what you’ve heard somewhere, and kicking your false narrative down the road, asking for the government to take someone else’s hard earned money in order to waste it... It means you can “virtue signal” your agreement, and not actually have to participate in or understand what is actually going on... which might not be what the government spenders are telling you.

Good day, and good luck to you, you’re going to need it.

BTW... 20 TRILLION is a whole different number than 20 BILLION, when the Gross Domestic Product of the whole US in 2017 was 19.39 TRILLION dollars. Our debt is higher than our combined earning, and ~20% of the world’s combined GDP.

Incidentally, if you spent a MILLION dollars a day, since the birth of Christ, you wouldn’t have YET spent a TRILLION  dollars, let alone 20 Trillion.

http://demonocracy.info/infographics/usa/us_debt/us_debt.html

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > WiscoProud 06/22/2018 at 15:30

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Yup, seriously. Read about the H ouse GOP working on this as we speak just this morning. It’s mind boggling how they can pull these stunts with a straight face AND have their supporters cheer them on the whole way through (many of whom are direct recipients of these benefits).

Bizzaro world, man.

fintail > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 06/22/2018 at 15:38

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But you capitalize one party like a rambling incoherent deplorable. Funny, like how you jump on an obvious typo .

Yep, that’s what I thought. You “aced” economics? Give me credible data that Randian trickle down (the movement behind recent devolution) horsecrap works. Put up or shut up, you aren’t being asked. What you have puked up is supported by no actual data.

You have a BS degree in business? Bully for you. So do I, in fact, two of em. What is it you “understand” that others don’t grasp? You probably don’t even hold a passport.

There’s no such thing as a free market. Human nature prevents it.

Demonocracy lol, what’s next, infowars? Debt gets kicked down the road, it has and it will.

Unbelievable, Ayn lured in another one.

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > fintail 06/22/2018 at 16:24

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I understand that it is just talking points and bullshit from both sides, and that more government has never solved a damn thing, and usually caused more of the problems it tries to solve, than anything.

I understand that you don’t pay people for nothing, and expect them to rise out of poverty that way... welfare does not make people self sufficient, it keeps them FROM being self sufficient, and if anyone other than the government were doing it, it would be racketeering, fraud, extortion, bribery, and all sorts of other illegal activity... but government makes the rules, that doesn’t make the rules actually just or right.

Keeping people dependent to keep them voting your way is immoral.

People do the best when they are empowered to do for themselves , not entitled to what they want from everyone else .

Value is not the same thing as money, and money doesn’t always represent value... and there are many kinds of value, including self-worth, self-respect, and self-reliance in being a participating member in society, not just a political token of socio-economic status, or identity tribal groups.

I understand that economics, society, culture, and everything else is built on the social building blocks of the nuclear family, and the people interacting in mutual self-interest with other people in other nuclear families, by offering the results of their time, talent, effort, and capability. Money is just a marker for that transaction, not the actual value being exchanged. That is why Livelihood is based on the root word of L ife.

Examples.

Let’s see here... The US before the passage of the 16th amendment.

The US in the 1920s.

The US in the mid-1980s, and into the 1990s.

Currently:

Hong Kong has the highest index of economic freedom, at 89.8% free, with Singapore second at 88.6% . They tax things like cars due to congestion and population density, but their business economics are low-taxation, low-tariff, and free-trade oriented policies.

Australia is also pro business, although their domestic policies do tend toward the european socialist model, and they tax their citizenry a bit more. 81% for low tariffs, and strong private property rights.

New Zealand and Switzerland are also in the top 5, and have above 80% freedom indexes.

The US is at 75% and on a decreasing freedom trend.

https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/040915/what-are-some-examples-free-market-economies.asp

BTW... if you looked at that infographic page, at the bottom, where it shows 20 Trillion dollars DWARFING the Statue of Liberty... it says that it is incapable of being repaid, which was my earlier point.

You may think it will get kicked down the road... you try not paying your mortgage, your credit cards, your bills, your car payments, or anything else... and once your credit rating catches up with you... see what that means for you when nobody trusts you anymore.

It won’t be repaid... it will crash, it is just a matter of when and how fundamental of a global shift that will be. Like the fall of decadent and irresponsible, over-confident, over-indulgent Rome leading into the dark ages... or somehow worse.

Th e retreat of civilizations , mass casualties due to illness and widespread war, and centuries of feudalism and abject poverty and misery have come from smaller crashes than what could be at stake here.

fintail > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 06/22/2018 at 16:40

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And if you pay people nothing, like in craphole (to paraphrase 45) parts of Murka, those which lead the developed world in poverty per any measure of HDI, people also don’t rise from their current point in life.

I’d rather not have a Dickensian socio-economic structure, nor a Gatsby-era one.

Singapore and HK are also money laundering hubs, with small populations and low expenses. They produce little in terms of industry or natural resources, and offer services which require little infrastructure. Same for Switzerland (definitely in terms of illicit financial movements, it has much higher taxes on working people, not to mention high living costs, ideals which would have the so-called right up in arms). Hard to make any kind of apples to apples or ceteris paribus analysis between those and the US, or any country with more than 7 figures of population. Oz has a minimum wage and controls on boomsticks that would have the ‘real’ Murkans ready to revolt. I am not sure how any of them, nor NZ, can be directly applied to a place with the population, geography, lack of single payer medical, and geopolitical aims of the US.

Amusing on that map (from the Heritage Foundation, but we can let that go) that Canada, with a thick social safety net and protections galore, even scores above the US. I wonder why. Western E uropean countries with highly progressive tax schemes and hugely socialized public goods and benefits barely score lower. Amusing and weird.

The US has decreasing economic freedom as “pity the rich” policies become more frequent, enacted by the supposed right and never rescinded by the pretend-left. Coincidence? The government, especially in this country, indeed has a terrible record in terms of solving problems, maybe tied with corporations for the same.

In the end, even if dire predictions are true, what can you or I or anyone truly do about it? There’s no viable model or movement to support. Debt is the new reality, it has been before we were born. Mutually assured economic destruction keeps the game in play.

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > fintail 06/22/2018 at 17:48

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I do not pity the rich, but nor do I vilify them for merely having wealth, unless they are actually villains, such as bankrupting currencies like Soros.

I abide by a simple precept... do unto others as you’d have done unto you.

If I were truly poor, how would I want to be treated?

If I were truly wealthy, how would I want to be treated as you say, ceteris paribus... me as I am, but with no money at all , or with more money than I could reasonably spend .

Either way, I would want to be free enough to do as I deem necessary and in a positive manner within reasonable common law. I would be grateful for help in making that work... not grateful for “help” to keep it from working, in order to serve someone else’s goals.

If poor, I would not want to be kept there, but I would not want to be treated as if I were only capable of being there, either... I would want freedom of opportunity to better myself, and I would not expect the necessity to do so to be removed.

It is tempting to want to say that paying poor people is the right thing to do... paying poor people to do what they can do, and paying them what the market will bear for that value, and giving everyone the opportunity to advance is the point. Paying people not to work, paying people to be idle by assuming that they can’t be otherwise, is elitist, and wrong, and destructive.

If rich, I would not want to be vilified for success, or targeted for legalized extortion into the treasury by the government at the behest of someone else voting themselves money from that treasury . The founders knew that was a death-knell... people voting themselves other peoples money through the nation’s treasury by simply gathering a majority.

I would also want the opportunity to participate economically, and provide opportunity for jobs, and buy services, products, and materials that also employ others, and stimulates economic activity . I would also expect a successful position to be a mark of responsibility and earned respect enough to let me hold my own council on generosity above or beyond market value, and charity toward those in truly disadvantaged circumstances.

People are not perfect, and expecting it will be a constant disappointment. But people CAN be good, if allowed, encouraged, and shown by example how to be good , regardless of socio-economics or social group. It can’t be forced, without being perverted into coercion. Allowing people to be good , also includes allowing them to be under less economic and social pressure. Pressure shuts people down more often than it engages them. Usually the happiest and good-acting people are the ones who are thankful to have plenty and the ability to participate and give, not the ones who are held up or demanded from.

There isn’t much of that encouragement going on. Social infighting between socio-economic groups, blanket generalizations, hatreds, and vilifications are keeping people from wanting to be their better selves, in addition to the usual pressures of life.

Vilifying people who aren’t actual villains give real villains anonymity in a crowd, and hurts non-villains and makes them resign themselves to being marginalized, or abandoning moral positions, and becoming the villains they are accused of being, or that they are accusing others of being.

Simple empathy... putting ones-self in another’s shoes, even as a thought before speaking, is the defense against that, and it shows people to be people, not just a tribal category ready for adversarial conflict.

Empathy gets people with economic resources to be more generous with them . Empathy gets people without resources to consider changing their circumstances to improve them and gain some resources and better sense of worth in the process . Empathy, theoretically could possibly get government officials to consider the effects of their decisions and what it might be like to be subjected to those regulations... or other regulations that they might not agree with.

Villification, especially with blanket generalizations, does not inspire empathy, it inspires adversity, and adversarial conflict, and that pretty much encompasses political correctness.

No matter your economic views, or social ideals... without dealing with softening human nature, rather than trying to prod it or beat it into submission, and letting people be themselves, even if you don’t agree with them, or they don’t agree with you,   none of it will work, it will tear itself to shreds, as it currently and continually is.

GLiddy > WiscoProud 06/22/2018 at 21:15

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Where does it say that the US has the worst income inequality in the world? I didn’t find that anywhere. Did you read it?

fintail > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 06/22/2018 at 22:19

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I don’t think anyone here is vilifying or pitying the rich - I don’t hate the rich, you don’t hate the rich - but tax policy of the past few decades pities them. At this same time, American socio-economic mobility has faltered, and is now exceeded by numerous countries that the deceptive dramatic so-called right would decry as “socialist”. I don’t believe this is a coincidence. This is TEM syndrome in action - temporarily embarrassed millionaire, and it prevents any official castigation of the rich. Class warfare is real, and I think it is obvious who declared war on who, and who is winning.  Too many policy hacks have bought into the wacky writings of a Russian woman who had her inheritance taken by the bolshies, and was bitter about it until her last day.  We are living with it now.

Much of what you state in your tome is very nice and optimistic. I am not sure it is entirely realistic given historical precedent, but I suppose hope springs eternal.

Variance > WiscoProud 06/23/2018 at 00:53

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The current deficit isn’t something that occurred overnight; saying that it is the fault of only one party strikes me as the height of ignorance. Both are at fault, and both are corrupt. If, as you said, a “massive blue wave” sweeps through the mid-terms, all we will be doing is exc hanging one set of corrupt officials with another.

This is the issue with most “career politicians”; as upper-class individuals themselves, acting in the best interest of those of us in the middle and lower classes is actually NOT in their best interest. I can only hope that the call for term limitations on elected officials contains to gain public support.

duurtlang > WiscoProud 06/23/2018 at 02:44

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The US seems to be in a race to the bottom. On a cour se to implosion. I really hope voters will wis en up. I’m not suggesting in any way the US Democrats are great in any way, in fact they’re at least somewhat complicit. But what’s happening under Republicans, at least starting with Reagan, is rather detrimental to all but a few.

It’s not like you need to reinvent the wheel. There are countless of other western countries. Countries with good economies which do not have the extreme inequality, the lack of realistic opportunity, the lack of accessible healthcare and all the other issues facing the poor and middle class.  You can’t just copy paste whatever those countries do , but they do work as an example. An inspiration.

Additionally, I’d work very hard on fixing that democracy. For one, campaign spending. Remove the power of big money on elections. Secondly, the 2-party binary politics with little place for nuance and no need to form coalitions. Again, no need to invent something, there are loads of examples around the world that work much better. Not perfect, but much better.

WiscoProud > GLiddy 06/25/2018 at 10:30

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Page 4, paragraph 5 - I was incorrect in that is says we have the worst income inequality among Western countries, not the world. 

WiscoProud > Variance 06/25/2018 at 10:36

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The deficit is an ongoing issue. However, the Tax Reform Act will increase deficits $1 trillion by 2020. This act was a giveaway to big business and the wealthy. The GOP didn’t care at all about the deficit when they were pushing this through, despite their own reports showing it wouldn’t do what they wanted.

Now that its passed, they can return to being deficit hawks screaming that we have to cut entitlement spending to balance the budget. It would be a lot easier to balance had they not just given $1 trillion away.

As a result, even though both parties have increased deficits, the current “crisis” is completely the fault of the GOP in power presently. 

WiscoProud > duurtlang 06/25/2018 at 10:40

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I would agree with you. I think a third or even four parties would be good for the country. I also believe more regulation and a stronger social safety net is needed. We have problems with health care and poverty that are simply embarrassing for a country of our size.