Arianna appeared on "Charlie Rose" Monday evening to talk about "Third World America," the decline of the middle class, and what it all means for our future.
She explained that the middle class struggles of today have been in the making for thirty years, over both Republican and Democratic administrations. Because of both unavoidable problems, like the decline of manufacturing, and avoidable problems, like the lack of regulatory action and predatory mortgage lending, the middle class has not shared not shared in the major financial gains experienced by those at the top.
Arianna's appearance came on the same day that Tax.com's David Cay Johnston reported that average wages, median wages, and total wages have all declined -- except at the very top, where they leaped dramatically, increasing five-fold.
WATCH:
The economic system we had never made sense and was unsustainable no matter who was in charge politically.
An economy based on unsustainable levels of consumer spending, based on unsustainable levels of consumer debt, fed by unsustainable real estate valuation rise is ... NOT SUSTAINABLE.
The perpetual growth model we've had for the last 30-40 years is NOT SUSTAINABLE.
So, why are we trying to 'recover' ourselves back into an unsustainable economic system?
Why do both political parties and most of their adherents promote, a priori, that this is what we want to recover?
Nobody forever. Their prices are unsustainable at the levels we have become accustomed to. They were never worth that much; only easy credit and the hyperinflation of real property prices for those already in the market made us think they were. The real value simply wasn't there because the real wealth of communities was no match for the price inflation of their housing. That's a bubble. Decades long, but its crash was inevitable.
And there is no reason to believe those prices will come back. The jobs that bought them by and large were not enough to afford them, those jobs are gone now, and there is no reason for them to come back now that outsourcing is a worldwide tide that cannot be turned back and manufacturing makes so much labor redundant anyway. You can't create widespread lasting wealth from
...You can't create widespread lasting wealth from a diminishing job base, static if not declining income levels, and an out of control housing market bubble.
However, when Charlie Rose asked for solutions--ways to get people working and a productive economy--I didn't hear any solutions offered. There was mention of fixing the infrastructure--that's a great project--but not suggestions for how to do it.
More specifically, I was waiting for someone to suggest a WPA or CCC or some public works program. I wondered if the participants were concerned if they said it, they might receive a backlash of reactionaries screaming the "S" word--Socialism.
You might be doing some projection of your own concerns? The high-powered panelists were so caught up with their analyses phase, after halfhour, they had trouble making quick transition into snappy point format solutions that CharlieRose was expecting, in less than 10minutes remaining. At the beginning, Rose framed the discussion on disappearance of middleclass, what went wrong, and how to fix it. He didn't lead into discussion as "transformation of America". It was the format and emphasis that subconsciously limited the scope of prescribed solutions. If NoamChomsky was among the panelists, discussion might have steered in different direction.
Americans of 21st century aren't exposed to socialism because that concept had been systematically excluded from serious discussion for over half century, going back to before McCarthy era in 1950's. Almost everybody today has opinions about "same sex marriage" and half dozen hotbutton issues. But nobody under 60 feels comfortable with discussing socialism in any context. So, to begin serious national discussions on socialism and total transformation of America, people will have to start broadening the culture, changing the vocabulary, loosening the psyches to allow introspection. The relief from mental constipation today would be like women of last century throwing away the corset, and be able to breathe unrestricted. Then creative solutions would come pouring out.
In the matter of economic system remedies, it's an important item you mentioned about "...changing the vocabulary..." Words like "socialism" have been demonized for so long that people may become incensed about it, and they don't even know why. I'm reminded of the war pep rallies in "1984". The post-WWII U.S. and its combination of TV and sophisticated propaganda certainly served controlling interests. The "Red scare" propaganda films were pretty effective.
Personally, I don't believe any of the "isms" work by themselves. They probably served as rallying points for one group or another. And, I don't believe our 2-party political system works either. I imagine a new economic system and third political party come down to the matter of a new social contract--some black and white quid pro quo in terms of the individual's relationship to the state (country).
Yes, and Obama stepped into their trap with compliance from Congress by providing the bailout money which was supposed to be lent to businesses. I remember Sen. Dodd speaking right after he and his oversight committee gave the bailout money to the banks. He said, "The banks indicated/promised they would loan it to businesses." That's the best he and his committee could do? That's pitiful at best, very corrupt at worst. European governments made the banks they bailed out commit in writing to lending bailout money to businesses. Here in the U.S., Dodd and others in congress were/are owned by the banks.
We should never have trusted them to do the right thing...they took the money and ran and made a quick $50 billion for their bonuses and other wishes.
Taxation without representation for everybody else.
It's not a pseudo "teaparty" mimicking Boston teaparty of 1773 America needs. In 2012, Americans need a new Social Democratic Party to represent everybody that had fallen out of the "middle class". That would include about 300 million Americans.
Then we could take steps to build a more equitable and just America 2.0.
Also: great piece of insight about the growth of private storage. I'd love to see research on how much it has grown over the last 20, 30, 40, years.
Give me a '70 VW any day...... at least I could fix it myself
One thing that is very important, however, is that being middle class in income and possessions can come to a rapid halt when debt exceeds assets as has been found in the past few years.
The middle class grows from both economic opportunity and personal discipline.
I do not see any ideas to fix either.
Tax breaks did not work under Bush and they cannot rob the poor and middle class as no money is left. Maybe they can steal the food stamps.
So, rather than keeping jobs at home even when it no longer makes financial sense, we should be re-training workers so they can do other jobs. THAT'S where globalization has gone wrong. It's not that jobs were shipped overseas that's bad. It's the fact that the workers who lost their jobs were not re-trained to do other things.
The only thing America *does* anymore is supply worker free services, like DirectTV...which have no real manufacturing costs at all and gives oh so much!...I'm stealing directly from a 30 Rock episode here, but its true. The Kim Kardashians of the world in fact should only be looked up as the new American worker class in that they provide content for the huddled masses.
Nobody really wants a Chevrolet anymore or even a fine American made wristwatch (why the hell not I ask?) and no one I know wants to bend to pick vegetables, but if you can manage to coach your cat to walk on its hind legs all the way across the kitchen floor, you might have a youtube hit and $.
Welcome to the new American dream.
The people have brought their disgust to the streets and aren't willing to take it any more.
So the question is--
Why haven't we seen this on our tv's or in our papers in more than a passing fashion?
Could it be that the powers that be here in our Media and on Wall Street just don't want us to know that there are people still willing to exercise "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances!"?
The bottom line is that many nations are in fear of the rising power of debt that China now holds against developed nation...India is next on the table. We are only now seeing the balance of equality swinging in the world and the pendulum will swing far, so get ready for a ride.
Heads they win tails we loose.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-biggest-bank-robbery-in-history-more-quantitative-easing-backdoor-bailouts-for-the-big-banks-without-having-to-go-through-congress
The elite are obviously living in Mars or are being kept alive by the promise of a wall street rally. We are not being fooled any longer.