05-13-2011, 03:07 AM
freeradical: I see you left out W's decade. Can't say that I blame you. If you are interested in supporting the middle class, you left out the two most significant economic indicators: real wages, and retail spending.
Let's put aside Reagan v. Clinton v. W because it's so much more complicated than partisan politics, AND it started well before Reagan.
Helping the middle class and why it hasn't been working since the 1960's...
Real wages are stagnant. As worker rights have steadily eroded for the past 30 years, there's been little incentive for business to pay more. But they need customers, so the answer was easy credit. 70% of US GDP is consumer spending. Why anyone thought we could keep borrowing more and more and never earn more...I don't know. Then, the Wall Street bubble bursts, and big banks get their debts written off, but individuals don't. And the easy credit is gone for both individuals and the small businesses that do the most hiring, at least for now. Won't likely come back to what it was in the '00's.
So how to help the middle class?
*invest in our own country: education, infrastructure
*support small business and entrepreneurship
*keep our tax system progressive and fair
*continue to work on a healthcare system that is sustainable
*keep our social contracts healthy
*be ready for the growth that's coming in the next decade and that will demand many workers: make it easier for immigrants who have grown up in the US to go to college and to become citizens
*protect the environment so that people can live and work in our cities
*make businesses accountable partners with government and labor, start to reverse the banana republic trend.
It's all doable.
Let's put aside Reagan v. Clinton v. W because it's so much more complicated than partisan politics, AND it started well before Reagan.
Helping the middle class and why it hasn't been working since the 1960's...
Real wages are stagnant. As worker rights have steadily eroded for the past 30 years, there's been little incentive for business to pay more. But they need customers, so the answer was easy credit. 70% of US GDP is consumer spending. Why anyone thought we could keep borrowing more and more and never earn more...I don't know. Then, the Wall Street bubble bursts, and big banks get their debts written off, but individuals don't. And the easy credit is gone for both individuals and the small businesses that do the most hiring, at least for now. Won't likely come back to what it was in the '00's.
So how to help the middle class?
*invest in our own country: education, infrastructure
*support small business and entrepreneurship
*keep our tax system progressive and fair
*continue to work on a healthcare system that is sustainable
*keep our social contracts healthy
*be ready for the growth that's coming in the next decade and that will demand many workers: make it easier for immigrants who have grown up in the US to go to college and to become citizens
*protect the environment so that people can live and work in our cities
*make businesses accountable partners with government and labor, start to reverse the banana republic trend.
It's all doable.