President Biden trails Donald Trump by 20 points in the key swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin when people are asked who “is best able to handle the economy,” according to a recent Wall Street Journal
Workers are mad as hell. We're not very far from "nothing left to lose."
Neither Democrats nor Republicans will ever help workers again, so long as money controls their votes.
I am curious if my generation (in my mid-40s) and those slightly younger will tolerate the abuse like the workers did a century ago. Because those workers in the past didn't have grandparents and parents who retired at 62 and spent 20 years traveling and living easily off their pensions. My generation knows our standard of living is rapidly degenerating. We took vacations when we were kids, and now can't even imagine that luxury.
Roosevelt didn’t act out of the kindness of his heart- it was the workers who forced him to change the social order.
There's only so much more they can take away from us before we come together to face our common enemy.
Pundits don't understand...because not the class of people they have any contact with. Nor any reason to, since 'those people' are uninformed and most likely the stupid, bigoted, and/or fanatic contents of that infamous basket of deplorables. Plus the econ system works just fine for the administrative and liberal intellectuals of the upper middle class.
I've just finished reading up on the New Deal econ policies. I especially recommend //Taming The Street (The Old Guard, The New Deal, and FDR's Fight to Regulate Capitalism)// by Diane B. Henriques, 2023. Manipulations like stock buy-backs have returned because of deregulation, a Republican fave adopted by Dem neolibs like Clinton.
Just before the 1999 anti-WTO Battle of Seattle, I wrote to John Smithin, professor at York U. (Toronto) and world class expert on money. He flatly said econ math is an insider language, and mostly, well, b.s. Anyway, the theories don't matter when those of us in the trenches can see the results--the rising deaths of despair.
About money and how it is created. Read Ellen Brown's 2019 book //Banking on the People (Democratizing Money in a Digital Age).// To anyone feeling overwhelmed by the subject, watch "THE SECRET OF OZ" a doc film by Bill Still free on YouTube. This fight over finance between populists and the elite few is an old theme in history. He creatively connects this with the characters in the book the Wizard of Oz. Fascinating and not at all difficult to understand. Vital to having any semblance of econ fairness and of democracy.
My point is we need to be ready with alternatives. But for sure, start with the fact of mass lay-offs. Which don't happen because of sound management. And the horrific devastation of working people is unconscionable.
I can't find it, but didn't the Carrier situation not work out so well in the end? I think that Robert Reich understands your points quite well, but I think he wants the majority of people to believe that the economy is in a fine place compared to recent history. We know that Neoliberal ideologies, over decades, play a factor in the economy and layoffs. My dad was laid off in the early 80s due to the farming crisis and bounced around jobs for a few years. He finally landed a full-time job, worked a lot of part-time hours for a farmer, and went back into military service by joining the reserves in his 40s.
Now as he hits 80, he and my mom live off of Social Security, a small IRA, and a small military pension.
There is a lot of work to do to get the majority of people and politicians to understand what has happened in the last 40 years and how to right the ship. Unfortunately, the billionaires have a large say in this in so many ways.
Workers are mad as hell. We're not very far from "nothing left to lose."
Neither Democrats nor Republicans will ever help workers again, so long as money controls their votes.
I am curious if my generation (in my mid-40s) and those slightly younger will tolerate the abuse like the workers did a century ago. Because those workers in the past didn't have grandparents and parents who retired at 62 and spent 20 years traveling and living easily off their pensions. My generation knows our standard of living is rapidly degenerating. We took vacations when we were kids, and now can't even imagine that luxury.
Roosevelt didn’t act out of the kindness of his heart- it was the workers who forced him to change the social order.
There's only so much more they can take away from us before we come together to face our common enemy.
Pundits don't understand...because not the class of people they have any contact with. Nor any reason to, since 'those people' are uninformed and most likely the stupid, bigoted, and/or fanatic contents of that infamous basket of deplorables. Plus the econ system works just fine for the administrative and liberal intellectuals of the upper middle class.
I've just finished reading up on the New Deal econ policies. I especially recommend //Taming The Street (The Old Guard, The New Deal, and FDR's Fight to Regulate Capitalism)// by Diane B. Henriques, 2023. Manipulations like stock buy-backs have returned because of deregulation, a Republican fave adopted by Dem neolibs like Clinton.
Just before the 1999 anti-WTO Battle of Seattle, I wrote to John Smithin, professor at York U. (Toronto) and world class expert on money. He flatly said econ math is an insider language, and mostly, well, b.s. Anyway, the theories don't matter when those of us in the trenches can see the results--the rising deaths of despair.
About money and how it is created. Read Ellen Brown's 2019 book //Banking on the People (Democratizing Money in a Digital Age).// To anyone feeling overwhelmed by the subject, watch "THE SECRET OF OZ" a doc film by Bill Still free on YouTube. This fight over finance between populists and the elite few is an old theme in history. He creatively connects this with the characters in the book the Wizard of Oz. Fascinating and not at all difficult to understand. Vital to having any semblance of econ fairness and of democracy.
My point is we need to be ready with alternatives. But for sure, start with the fact of mass lay-offs. Which don't happen because of sound management. And the horrific devastation of working people is unconscionable.
I can't find it, but didn't the Carrier situation not work out so well in the end? I think that Robert Reich understands your points quite well, but I think he wants the majority of people to believe that the economy is in a fine place compared to recent history. We know that Neoliberal ideologies, over decades, play a factor in the economy and layoffs. My dad was laid off in the early 80s due to the farming crisis and bounced around jobs for a few years. He finally landed a full-time job, worked a lot of part-time hours for a farmer, and went back into military service by joining the reserves in his 40s.
Now as he hits 80, he and my mom live off of Social Security, a small IRA, and a small military pension.
There is a lot of work to do to get the majority of people and politicians to understand what has happened in the last 40 years and how to right the ship. Unfortunately, the billionaires have a large say in this in so many ways.