Economics of working for a living

[stevebreeze]

This is an exalent op-ed piece in todays Chicago Trib.
The Trib requires a free registration. Taken as a whole the article shows how the lives or real Americans have been affected in the last couple decades since the Repuglicans have decided to make our lives easier with tax cuts.

By Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi. Elizabeth Warren is a law professor at Harvard Law School. Amelia Warren Tyagi is a business consultant. They are the co-authors of "The Two-income Trap

Dear Alan Greenspan:

Consumer debt and its evil twin--credit-card defaults--have risen yet again, according to reports released earlier this week. But like a gentle grandfather, you, Mr. Greenspan, once again reassured families that they had nothing to worry about. You smiled and said families' "level of debt is being serviced adequately." We all felt better.

But there is one nagging question, sir: Precisely when should we worry? Every 15 seconds, an American files for bankruptcy. Do we worry when a bankruptcy comes every 10 seconds? Every five seconds? We'd like to be ready.
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Are you particularly concerned about families with children, Mr. Greenspan? The families in the worst trouble with debt are not a random assortment of spendthrifts who don't know when enough is enough; they are disproportionately families with children. Indeed, having a child is now the single best predictor that a person will go bankrupt. A family with children is more likely to lose a home to foreclosure, and more likely to be behind on their credit-card bills.

more........

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/printedition/chi-0310170094oct17,1,2306550,print.story?coll=chi-printcommentary-hed


:kick:

[welshTerrier2]

1. Dean's Tax Rollback Position

this is precisely what worries me about Dean's "we should rollback the entire tax cut" ...

families with children who are living on the edge don't want to hear how they will lose their tax breaks but be better off in the long run ... it might be good policy but i'm afraid it will be very bad politics ...

[Demobrat]

2. All Dean, or anybody, has to say is

"don't worry, I'm not going to ask you to send your $300 checks back" and the problem is solved. People know what they got and they know how much extra showed up in their paychecks, if anything. So far I don't really like the way Dean or anybody else is talking about the tax cuts. Neither Kerry with his theoretical family nor Dean with his "there never was a middle class tax cut" have gotten it right yet. Somebody needs to make the point that what we've already seen is all we're going to get.

[InkAddict]

3. I'm ashamed to say that

they'll probably borrow the line from my holier than thou roller Mommie Dearest:

"No one told you to have kids!" or "You failed to check your crystal ball, dear!" (is that a Christian comment?) Me lazy? This Jesus-freak never worked outside the home her whole married life nor drove a car (cause it made Daddy feel more like a man)and didn't stop having kids until she got her "rice bowl" son, a whimpy chip off the old block for sure -- more :puke:

That is, unless BFEE can make a profit on the little tykes - day care, or afterschool skill set for the well-rounded student resume w/sports, music, art after school, and then the big one, COLLEGE where life's a party somewhere everyday in the UD "ghetto" (THAT'S not racist-that's what the students call it)! What, you want to change your major again, and you'll need more funding for additional socialbabble classes... (Mine toxic parents got off cheap - just a wedding 33 years ago--paid tuition myself while working fulltime only to have the community college follow-on programs leave the state and welfare queens then getting the classes I paid for free and receiving preferential hire status - Guess they might have a point about the kids -- I couldn't even graduate because I couldn't afford rental of cap and gown - (kids first, again, when spouse hit in a downsizing, contract loss, merger, one of 'em == I've lost track - think it was Berry or Carlson Mkgt relocations where they took no one) But it really was the kids fault???? NOT!!!!

Where's the support from loving family/friends/fundies then, huh :mad:

Long ago, this same bitch told me I should not "borrow trouble" when speaking of my anxiety over the behavior of my only-child spouse's father. Well, I didn't borrow it, I married it - Daddy's only child who decided to make IT his career (joke's on us) - he's been employed only six months since 9/11 and foreclosure appears likely. The State mandates we now take care of him--how????? if this continues much longer??????

What a waste - seems as though Middle Class Americans should have been teaching those kids how to shoot smarter and straighter (like those darling children w/AK-47s in Palestine and their oppressed undereducated little girls at home.

That does seem to put the fear of G*d in MORAN & CO. - scarrrrryyyyyyyyyy news!!!!!

BTW, no member of my family has spoken to me since. These jokers power of evil is absolutely incredible!!!

Meanwhile, the Republicans have "put asunder" what I was once under the impression that God had joined together. It's not that we couldn't find solutions--solutions need time to come to fruition--but it's been an unrelenting barrage of guerilla tactics aimed at this family since 1984. What fortitude and cunning bravery - you'd think we were the terrorists, raising extra taxpayers for them, keeping their property in good repair and attractive, buying their precious hunks of metal that suck gas and pollute (when you commute 200 miles daily - big is indeed better), and despite our best efforts to hold onto dignity in this whirlpoolling undertow to the bottom, I think they've finally succeeded in destroying my family - Lost faith, lost trust, lost religion (no great one there); believe me, prayer doesn't work for me, and I'm not asking for a Mercedes Benz, color TV, or night on the town - that's just plain too easy!!! Just count this family in as part of the harder prayers to right.

And you know what, there's many Americans that didn't even get these opportunities, so it just wasn't worthwhile for these jerks to steal their money, their puny unproductive lives in the pit was even better--how dare they have nothing worthwhile to steal! To those invisible ones now without hope and with life ebbing away, will my vote even matter...

THE AMERICA I KNEW IS DEAD, AND I DON'T LIKE HER EVIL TWIN - THANKS A LOT! I HEARD FLIPPING THE BIRD WAS LEGAL! Let's all pause for a small gesture of our appreciation - Wonders never cease!

[jiacinto]

4. Yep

I will probably one of those folks soon.