Robots, automation and computers have greatly increased worker productivity, while also displacing many American workers in the process. But not only wasn't this increased productivity not shared with the workers in the form of equally higher wages, the jobs that these displaced workers might have otherwise gravitated to were sent overseas, leaving them with nowhere else to turn—except maybe to lower-paying jobs in the service and retail industries (that is, if enough such jobs were even available).
Warren Buffett (worth $58.5 billion) was not joking about winning the class war. Before the Great Recession (in 2006) Warren Buffett had said "they were winning". But in the aftermath of the Great Recession (in 2011) he said "they won".
Having the mightiest military, more powerful than the world has ever seen, doesn't make America exceptional. An ever expanding middle-class, equal opportunity for all, fairness in the political process and worker's rights was what had also made America exceptional since World War II—when the rising tide of capitalism had once lifted all boats. Now it just lifts the biggest yachts.
The anonymous Obamacare expert, who provided us a year ago with the most complete account of Obamacare available, has returned with an explanation of estate recovery. Obamacare herds the poor into Medicaid which requires some enrollees to forfeit homes and other assets they might have to the state to cover the cost of their medical care. The research article below is meticulous and demonstrates that Obamacare was not enacted to serve the people.
Whether ideologically or politically motivated, economists and politicians on both sides of the aisle have been debating as to the reason for the falling labor participation rate.
The BLS employment report shows total nonfarm payroll jobs gained were another dismal 113,000 for January 2014, with private payrolls adding 142,000 jobs. Government jobs decreased by -29,000. The silver lining of the jobs report is while the government continues to cut, cut, cut, there wasn't a lot of growth in crappy jobs and gains achieved were in typically higher paying ones. The U.S. post office alone shed 9,000 jobs.
The headlines blare Obamcare will cause over two million more jobs to be lost by 2017 and the losses will grow to 2.5 million jobs by 2024. That analysis is from the Congressional Budget Office in their 2014 Budget Outlook report. Unfortunately, the rationale behind the CBO claims are that the subsidies to buy health insurance for individuals are larger than the wages earned working full-time hours. From the report:
This can not be said enough: "People don't choose to be poor."
Most people do all they can to better their lives. It's not the mismanagement of their available resources, it's not being able to obtain the minimum resources necessary in which to survive—such as being able to find a job, or finding a job that pays a living wage, or finding a job that offers enough hours. Some of the poorest people manage their money better than anyone else, because their lives depend on it. They are attempting to "take personal responsibility for their lives".
Last night on MSNBC's The Last Word, Lawrence O’Donnell in his "Rewrite" compared the new 5-year farm bill to Socialism; where taxpayers have to guarantee profits for large corporate farmers with crop insurance and farm subsidies (bad socialism), while at the same time, the Republicans and the Democrats also agreed cut food stamps (good socialism) for the poor.
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