Social Immobility - the truth about the American economy

[Dover]

This is an excellent article.

Where does the Democratic Party REALLY stand on the current structuring of our economy and the issues outlined in this article?
Ask yourself where YOUR candidate stands on these issues....or better yet, ask THEM.

I also think the lowest income GOPers as well as Dems need to get educated about this...afterall they are the biggest victims, though it permeates our entire "hollow" economy.


The American Prosperity Myth

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030901&c=3&s=hutton


....Philosophically, culturally and practically, the social contract has been attacked head-on and undermined at every turn; its destruction has been one of the great objectives of the renaissance of American conservatism. As a result, its supports have been increasingly eroded. If there is to be what political philosopher John Rawls calls an infrastructure of justice--one insuring that everyone, despite any accident of birth, gets a chance to develop his or her talents, participate in the life of society, exercise liberties and enjoy basic living standards--then a system must be in place to maintain it. And that system is of necessity the state, with its ability to tax and spend. In this conception, the state is not a coercive interloper but a trustee of social fairness, providing the foundation for any society's long-term social health and wealth.

Yet since the mid-1970s taxation has been depicted by the right as a coercive intrusion upon individual liberty imposed by an oppressive government. Grants to poor students, for example, are seen as wasteful subsidies that undercut self-reliance and the robust qualities of independence that the early settlers possessed and upon which America was built. Yet America's social contract, hewn out of searing experiences like the Depression and bolstered by respect for the Constitution's claim that citizens should have equal opportunity, requires that the state act as its trustee--with the tax revenue to pay for it. To attack taxation as a moral evil and economic drag, and the state as oppressive and inefficient, is to knock away the key underpinnings of the social contract....MORE >

[lcordero]

1. I've yet to see somebody that works hard and that's gotten ahead because

of working hard. Everybody that I have seen that has decent work ethic have not gone anywhere near as far as I would suspect. They have had to change jobs in order to get a raise or to get a promotion most of the time.

The "American Way" is lying, cheating and stealing.

[Interrobang]

2. I've seen it happen...once...

The other possible candidate is my boss, who, while he doesn't exactly lie, cheat, and steal, does definitely prevaricate, finagle, and push the limits. He really likes dancing in the grey areas between what's technically legal and what's definitely a tad unethical. The one person I know of who made it because of hard work also had a hell of a lot of random chance working in his favour...not to mention a fairly priveleged background. These folks are nowhere near rags-to-riches stories; they're more like suburbia-to-splendour stories.

That said, one of the most important things we class-conscious types need to educate people about is that everyone ISN'T just "hard work and five minutes" away from being a millionaire. Chances are, if you were born on the wrong side of the tracks, you're gonna die there, too.

[AP]

17. This isn't about lying to get ahead. It's about the doors being closed

to people who aren't in the in crowd. And, that in crowd closes the doors because they don't want to compete with hard workers to stay on top. Once they have money, they turn it into power to prevent other people from challenging their hegemony.

This is what Edwards is talking about when he says we have a society which rewards being wealthy, rather than a society that rewards hard work with wealth and happiness.

[JanMichael]

18. Other than his blatant call out to "Capitalism" I totally dig Edward's....

...speech a few weeks ago.

He really did hit on som eoft overlooked points.

Frankly he's one of my favorites for either Pres or VP.

[Lindacooks]

19. No kidding

You've heard the saying 'the cream rises to the top'? Well, as a food scientist, I can tell you that cream only rises to the top in a perfectly controlled, still environment. In real life, the SCUM rises to the top. Scum rises when soup is made - a boiling amalgam of many different ingredients. And that's more what corporate America is like.

[Lindacooks]

20. On edit

n/t

[revcarol]

3. As far as you title "social immobility" goes,

with this administration, it's a whole lot easier to move DOWN than it is to move UP.

[Dover]

11. Yeah, maybe it would be more accurate to call it the "Social Slide".n/t

...

[JanMichael]

4. I've been harping about the explosion in university costs for ages.

The way the numbers are climbing your average low-middle class parent simply won't be able to fund their children's education. For example here in Florida the state has stopped matching private grants to public institutions to the tune og $300,000,000 over 3 years. Why? To pay for intangible tax cuts for the rich. What harm? Well the match was to create insintive, that's gone. Plus that $300,000,000 would have gone mostly to grants and loans to the least wealthy of students.

Top it off with an 8% increase in tuition this year at FGCU (maybe the state?) and college, a ticket to the other side of the tracks, vanishes under the weight of conservatism.

This is a serious situation.

[Yupster]

21. Very good point JanMichael

Any university people out there?

College costs have been going up at twice the rate of inflation for 20 years now. It is pricing itself out of the range of most families.

Why have costs risen so much faster than inflation for so long, and what can be done about it?

[Clete]

5. Hard work doesn't get you ahead.

Playing the system does, if you really want the money that badly. I worked for people who prided themselves on not working. One of my bosses had an empty desk and he bragged about it. He also went far in the company because he knew how to play the system and whom to smooze. Work had nothing to do with it.

This is a platitude handed down to the working class to keep them docile.

[Isome]

6. I was just involved in a discussion about this subject.

Well, actually it was specifically about the mythical free market and the necessity of taxes to fund vital government oversight functions. I finally had to abandon the exchange in disgust. The other individual involved was spouting republican-lite platitudes about government interference being the obstacle to the miracles of the free market, and ignored my contentions about life in America before taxes or the numerous laws enacted to save laborers from the tryanny of corporate profiteers. *sigh*

In any event, this is complex subject matter that the average Joe frequently believes is beyond his comprehension, when in fact it is often addressed on a daily basis by working people across the nation, despite their failure to recognize it as such. Yet again a compliant media (and dumbed-down mass media programming) can be faulted for the rampant ignorance in our culture.

I'd love to see a news show, or a newscast delve into this:

...From cars to aerospace, industrial gases to cell phones, American companies lag behind their European competitors in technology, production savvy and rate of innovation. Ford and GM are a decade behind Volkswagen in the sophistication of their production techniques. Nokia has 39 percent of the world mobile phone market, more than twice that of Motorola, its nearest rival--despite Nokia's being based in the highly taxed, highly unionized, generous welfare state of Finland.

If you ask people walking down the street if they knew about any of the above, I'm certain that nine times out of ten you'd get either a blank stare, or a hostile rejection of its accuracy.

[sandnsea]

7. And the US doesn't focus on the company anymore

"America's once proud culture of business building has given way to a culture of financial engineering, a doctrine of shareholder value maximization and a cult of the takeover. The game is to keep the share price up, and every sinew of the organization is bent to that end; shortcuts are ever tempting, and inevitably some companies resort to straight fraud."

"Rather, they see companies as living things, each one a network of human relationships organized to serve an overriding economic and social purpose. In the European perspective, a company has a defining organizational reason-to-be that serves as a jumping-off point for maximizing profits, a repudiation of the idea that anything goes in the quest for a fast buck."

This kind of thinking is exactly what gave us the tech bubble in the first place. Companies that had no business model to make a profit. Never made alot of sense to me.

This is a great article, I'm really glad you posted it and I hope alot of people read it. I'm definitely going to print it out and hand it around.

[Isome]

8. BOT

...

[Dover]

9. What does "BOT" stand for?.......n/t

.

[Isome]

10. BOT = back on top

... just like a 'kick'.

[Nikia]

12. Going to a top college is more important for poor students

Students from wealthy families often already have the connections that need when they graduate from college to get a good job. Poorer students need the name of their college and the connections they make there to get ahead. There is still financial aid out there. At good private institutes, it is often better than at public universities. I got a good package and I know some students whose families were in poverty who paid little out of pocket while in college. One student who I knew regularly even sent her work study money home to help support her mother and seven siblings. Big loans do suck and that's why it's important to be able to get a good job after college. I encourage all good students from low income families to apply to the best colleges that they can get acceptance with a bit of research that shows that these particuliar institutes do offer good aid packages because some are better than others.

[leftofthedial]

13. the one indisputable economic truth about America

is that white collar crime pays, so long as you are part of the "insider" club.

"Hard work pays" and "this is a land of opportunity for all" are the economic versions of the religious lies used for millenia to control and motivate the peasantry.

[scarletlib]

14. You are so right.

Great reads on this: Nickle and Dimed by Barbara Eirenich (Spelling)
and "When Corporations Rule the World" Sorry I don't have the author on that one right now. I sent the book to my daughter in L.A. to read. This one actually has good information on the corporatization and globalization of the economy and its negative effects on us all. Also has some good talking points to rebut right wingers. This book is the Bible of the anti-globalization movement and actually was written by a republican who is opposed to the current trends and the bastardization of Adam Smith's seminal book on economics, "The Wealth of Nations"

[KoKo]

15. That's the Truth! And I say this coming from a Corporate Life DU'er....

From the mid 1980's on Corporate Coruption was the way to go.....For us who were raised differently it meant we didn't "fit." The price for not "fitting" has hurt more than America is aware of today. The honest, ones, who tried to stop it were told "You aren't a team player......you have to play the game..." Downsizing was the way to clean out the "honest ones." Downsizing was the game that was played to weed out those who might have a conscience.

Believe me......I won't say anymore...but there are other older DU'rs who know what I'm talking about......

It started with Poppy........and it grew like a monster in the 90's. I don't know what Clinton could have done to stop it.....Regulation.....Congress.....got rid of much regulation because they were in the pockets of the lobbyists.....but I'm telling you that "Upper Management" of Fortune 500 got a "big cleaning out"in late 80's through 90's of those "who wouldn't play their game." Now, what I call the "Laughing Boys" are in charge.

Check out CNBC any time of the day now......you can see what the "Laughing Boys are all about." It ain't pretty.......

[JanMichael]

16. So, so, true. Steal a $35 car stereo and get 3-5 years hard time.

Steal, I don't know let's say $10,000,000, and 6-18 months playing golf minimum security.

:shrug: