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Posts Tagged ‘Living Standards’

The end of social mobility in America

by Phantom Ace ( 156 Comments › )
Filed under Bailouts, Business, Economy, Misery Index at June 28th, 2013 - 12:00 pm

The United States was once known for its social mobility where a hard working poor person could through innovation and determination rise up the economic ladder. Since the bursting of the Tech bubble in 2000, social mobility has come to a halt. This has created anemic economic growth the last 13 years and has reduced the standard of living for most Americans. This is creating a stratified society that is rapidly resembling Feudal Europe where elites benefit and the lower classes do not.

What has  caused this anemic growth are the Progressive spending policies of the Bush Administration and then the 3rd World crony policies of Obama Regime. This spending has been enabled by the lax monetary policies of Allan Greenspan in the early to mid 2000’s and the QE to infinity done by Ben Bernanke. By inflating asset prices, this has only economically benefited the elites and increase their strangle hold on the economy. The lax monetary policies has increased the cost of living, thus making it next to impossible that the average American can save money or move up the economic ladder.

But the real problem may be more insidious than the figures about income and wealth distribution imply. Even more disturbing is the growing evidence that social mobility is also declining in America.

The distinction is an important one. For many years, surveys have revealed a fundamental difference between Americans and Europeans. Americans have a much higher toleration for inequality. But that toleration is implicitly conditional on there being more social mobility in the United States than in Europe.

But what if that tradeoff no longer exists? What if the United States now offers the worst of both worlds: high inequality with low social mobility? And what if this is one of the hidden structural obstacles to economic recovery? Indeed, what if current monetary policy is making the problem of social immobility even worse?

This ought to be grist for the mill for American conservatives. But Republicans have flunked the challenge. By failing to distinguish between inequality and mobility, they have allowed Democrats, in effect, to equate the two, leaving the GOP looking like the party of the 1 percent—hardly an election-winning strategy.

To their cost, American conservatives have forgotten Winston Churchill’s famous distinction between left and right—that the left favors the line, the right the ladder. Democrats do indeed support policies that encourage voters to line up for entitlements—policies that often have the unintended consequence of trapping recipients in dependency on the state. Republicans need to start reminding people that conservatism is about more than just cutting benefits. It’s supposed to be about getting people to climb the ladder of opportunity.

Inequality and social immobility are, of course, related. But they’re not the same, as liberals often claim.

As this article points out, neither political party in America has a solution to this growing problem of social immobility. The Democrats actually like this situation since it makes people more dependent on government. Republicans don’t care and are just concerned with other issues and rather just engage in red meat rhetoric that solves nothing. This crisis of social immobility is not effecting our ruling class, hence why they do not address them.

The American dream is dead and the only advise I can give people is to look after yourselves. There is no political salvation coming and all the red meat rhetoric thrown your way will not solve anything. Enjoy life as much as you can and strengthen you faith in God. This world is temporary and the after life is eternity. The wheels of history move and there is nothing one can do.

American living standards decline

by Phantom Ace ( 10 Comments › )
Filed under Economy, Misery Index, Special Report, unemployment at October 20th, 2011 - 9:50 am

The last 11 years have been a nightmare for Americans. After the Internet bubble burst in 2000, economic growth did resumed, but at an anemic pace. Good paying jobs were outsourced and this led to stagnant wages. Some people made money during the Housing bubble of the mid 2000’s, but most Americans didn’t. In 2008 the economy collapsed and thanks to Obama’s debt led economic policies, the deterioration has accelerated the last 2 years. Now we are seeing downward mobility as American living standards decline.

Think life is not as good as it used to be, at least in terms of your wallet? You’d be right about that. The standard of living for Americans has fallen longer and more steeply over the past three years than at any time since the US government began recording it five decades ago.

Bottom line: The average individual now has $1,315 less in disposable income than he or she did three years ago at the onset of the Great Recession – even though the recession ended, technically speaking, in mid-2009. That means less money to spend at the spa or the movies, less for vacations, new carpeting for the house, or dinner at a restaurant.

In short, it means a less vibrant economy, with more Americans spending primarily on necessities. The diminished standard of living, moreover, is squeezing the middle class, whose restlessness and discontent are evident in grass-roots movements such as the tea party and “Occupy Wall Street” and who may take out their frustrations on incumbent politicians in next year’s election.

This should be unacceptable.