America in the age of oligarchs.

It's un-American to mention it, of course. The oligarchs have done a very good job of defining the discussion.

Comments

[RBM]

"ensuring greater educational opportunities"

Presently I am attending a community college HVAC/R program. This is a result of what's called Trade Act Benefits. My previous employer was a foreign company - Canada.

I have been permanently laid off from jobs several times before. Never any educational opportunities offered.

So I used my own dime. I have taken courses at both community colleges and the new educational model, the retail education business. in fact one community college was bought out while I was attending it. A inherent result of the new capitalistic model is a shrinking of my dime.

The net result I would argue is to keep the oligarchs in their position.

[Jon]

Things here will be really bad if that lamented "income gap" starts to close. If you increase incomes across the board, the gap will increase, too. Personally, I agree with William F. Buckley that (not his words) companies are tempting populist anger by their CEO pay, but even now it stretches credulity to portray life in the US as bordering on Depression-level privation for the low-income workers. Of course it is not nearly as nice as it is for upper-income workers, but compared both historically and to peers in other nations, the picture is far from as dire as John Edwards et al. depict it. Some perspective is needed.

[mal]

Here's something I said a few months back that sums up how I feel:

"Our government and our corporations think that happiness is tied to being able to spend money on more stuff. My happiness is not tied to material things, however. What I want is TIME, and that's not something that's for sale. When the dollar drops in value and my retirement evaporates, I don't see that as losing the ability to buy my next house, I see that as my having to work more in order to ensure that I can survive my old age. My time with my friends, my wife, and my time to learn and to create are what is valuable to me, not a new car. I don't even want to be rich, save for the opportunity it would give me to spend more time doing those things that I find rewarding, which would include finding ways to enrich the lives of others. I don't need $50 million a year to survive, and it is obscene to me that we have people who demand to accumulate that kind of wealth on an ongoing basis. To what end? Bragging rights? If I made even $1 million a year, I would only work long enough to live modestly off the interest from savings, and do something more meaningful than collect additional income."

[Commenter]

I'm not sure if commenter Jon actually read the article on TPM, but if incomes for the lowest tier of workers in America rise only 6 percent from 1979 to 2005, while they rise over 200+ percent for the top tier, I'm not sure how that is an increase "across the board."

Also, I'm not sure where he works, but I know a lot of people with college degrees who have to work two jobs to make ends meet who are about one paycheck away or one financial disaster away from living on the streets.

They have played by the rules of working hard, going to college, and saving money, but for a lot of people, it's just not enough anymore. Healthcare costs alone are going up 10% a year, assuming that you can get insurance.

I'm not sure where he gets his data, but Jon says we're better off than our "peers in other nations" but I have been to other nations and if you look at the quality of life in most European countries, they are much better off. True, you don't see a lot of McMansions there, but you don't see people starving in the streets as much there either.

The quality of life in general in the United States has diminished greatly since the 1950's, as people are forced to pay more for everything and work longer hours. Many times, both parents in the home work now because they have to in order to make ends meet, not because they are trying to buy a new BMW.

The problem here in the United States is a lot worse than people like Jon will admit and that's part of the problem.

[Joel Gillespie]

Perhaps the nation is drawing from the example of Greensboro.

[Ishmael]

Because of the way we were founded, Americans in general have held the belief that they could become one of those atmospheric 1%. And sometimes it does come true, but for some reason it is usually unpopular to knock those who have made it by their own ingenuity and sweat of their brow. The problem is that in many cases this is not true - some wealth is the result of inheritance or even crime. But a person who has money is often above reproach because it is assumed that their monetary influence is what holds up our country.
However, it is rarely perceived that shipping someone's job overseas or holding down the compensation for the average person is "redistribution of wealth" when in fact that is exactly what it is. That is one reason our economy now is so moribund - we are waiting for that upper 2% to get us out of our fix when many of them have the generational focus of increasing their wealth out of competition with their peers or because the decline of status is the worst thing that can happen to them.
I agree with W. Buffet - citizens need to examine their own circumstances and quit idolizing the rich as if they are messiahs. Only then can they demand better education and opportunities that allow them to increase their own wealth and make the country less dependent on the whims of such a small slice of the population.
By the way - happy birthday to the USA!