Inequality in America is getting worse according to top economists

[Barnabas]

Trade benefits the producers, in this case would be the farmers of states like Iowa.

Good try misrepresenting the problem, but you still fall short of understanding. I would suggest going to school to study the matter, but I doubt DeVos School of Buying Positions in Government would be of much help, since it works only for the 1% you hate so much.

Right it benefits farmers when whatever fruit or vegetable produced ends up rotting at a dock. All that does is benefit the fruit flies just like your defense of the exploitation of people in countries that have a trade agreement does. My statement isn't about some type of hate for anyone or a particular group. My statement is just the truth in who really benefits from trade deals.

[Belize]

Right it benefits farmers when whatever fruit or vegetable produced ends up rotting at a dock. All that does it benefit the fruit flies just like your defense of the exploitation of people in countries that have a trade agreement does. My statement isn't about some type of hate for anyone or a particular group. My statement is just the truth in who really benefits from trade deals.

Half of what you just said doesn't make sense, and the other half highlights clearly how little you understand trade.

Take corn for example: 13% of U.S. production is exported. Add to that the job created around equipment maintenance and byproducts like Ethanol (that is also an export) etc. Like it, like it not, this industry that exports U.S. goods through trade deals generates a massive amount of wealth, and jobs.

Rip up those deals, and your facing a shrinking economy, and a loss of jobs in places where there aren't many other industries (the center of the country).

[Edge-]

Have and Have nots?

More like Not Lazy and Lazy.

This is an old, boring, and not terribly interesting myth that for some strange reason persists to this day.

There is no data that supports the suggestion that poor people are poor because they're lazy or rich people are rich because they work hard. At least none that I've seen that's remotely credible.

[Barnabas]

Half of what you just said doesn't make sense, and the other half highlights clearly how little you understand trade.

Take corn for example: 13% of U.S. production is exported. Add to that the job created around equipment maintenance and byproducts like Ethanol (that is also an export) etc. Like it, like it not, this industry that exports U.S. goods through trade deals generates a massive amount of wealth, and jobs.

Rip up those deals, and your facing a shrinking economy, and a loss of jobs in places where there aren't many other industries (the center of the country).

It makes perfect sense. See you are about the details that nobody really gives a fuck about. I'm not arguing that trade is bad or evil in general. I'm just saying again that these deals benefit the 1% more than everyone else. That is all.

https://aflcio.org/issues/trade

[Taso]

So America under capitalism is producing inequality? I guess its time for a proletariat take over and start heavy redistribution. Anyhow I wonder why people always target us as having high inequality when their are countries that literally have it much higher then we do. For instance much of the middle east such as Qatar and Bahrain are known to be leading contributors to mass inequality. When you look at countries like Cuba and Venezuela the elite that promote their egalitarian values they live easy while the masses suffer. That's why Havana has only one really good hospital and the rest is dilapidated and lacking of medical equipment. Point is their will always be a level of economic disadvantage that no nation can solve 100%. Even Scandinavia with their progressive tax income have high personal housing debt and still dealing with poverty. http://thefederalist.com/2015/08/11/...list-paradise/

[Lokryn]

I'm an IT Analyst at a manufacturing company and I can tell you that the industry is starving for workers right now. Our suppliers are struggling to keep up with demand and we're having trouble filling the gap to match it with good, quality workers. Most blue collar workers straight off the street today lack the necessary skills to do advanced assembly work. In today's manufacturing, computers and advanced machinery are used in the assembly process and it takes longer to onboard workers with the necessary skills. I really wish our education system wouldn't shit on the prospect of being a blue collar worker so much.

Mike Rowe describes the issue well.


All I know is that the demand from last quarter to the demand of this one shows some good promise. How long will it last? Who knows.

[NED funded]

Do you have sources on this and sources for how Trump is going to address it? Because all I've seen so far is him fail to get any companies to actually act on this.

Seeing as he and his family don't even stick to the "American labor" schtick, I don't really see how he intends for all of America to follow it.


Again, selling people a narrative that wont work. People need new jobs. The old jobs aren't coming back, and chasing them is a pipe dream.

Autor, Dorn and Hanson have papers on this.
http://www.ddorn.net/papers/Autor-Do...ChinaShock.pdf

[WskyDK]

Wewt!
According to this my household is top 1% of the world, and my income alone puts me at top 1.7%

[Draco-Onis]

Because if the issue is tackled then even more wealth leaves the country. Tax the rich businesses more if you want. They'll just go elsewhere and they'll raise prices on everything to offset the tax increase.

That's just the narrative they sprout, the tax laws have so many loopholes that some of them have negative tax rates. I don't know about you but asking them to pay more than just nothing does not seem outrageous, the only reason they are able to get away with this is because we allow them. Also a lot of them have pricing power because of our very ludicrous patent and pricing laws, they can jack up the price and we can break up their oligopolies. They have far more to lose than we do and they know it which is why they spend millions on lobbying.

[NED funded]

Trade with other countries is also basically the only thing keeping some major industries alive.

See --> corn exports for an example. Trade isn't all bad like you'd want people to think.

Exporting more valuable goods like electronics, furniture, etc >food.

[Super Kami Dende]

This is an old, boring, and not terribly interesting myth that for some strange reason persists to this day.

There is no data that supports the suggestion that poor people are poor because they're lazy or rich people are rich because they work hard. At least none that I've seen that's remotely credible.

You know, I've never met a Person that Works for a living that was under the Poverty line for any reason that wasn't their own fault.
I've also never met anyone Rich that was only Rich because of something someone else gave them.

I've met plenty of poor people who just blew their money on Drugs and other stupid shit and never worked a day in their life.
I've met plenty of Rich people that worked hard as fuck for everything they earned.

Of course you would never see actual Data either because if they literally released something that said "Poor People just need to take responsibility for their life" you would have people crying Racism or something otherwise as stupid.

[Belize]

Exporting more valuable goods like electronics, furniture, etc >food.

Ok.
But low education workers really don't get the job benefits from those, considering automation generally requires higher education to run.

Unless you're advocating shitty sweatshops like in China, in which case I'll point you to labor laws. And let's not try to argue labor laws are a bad thing, eh? I'd rather not drive employees to the point of suicide.

[Guy4123]

The size of the gap between the top 1% and bottom 50% is and never has been an issue. The only thing that matters is how far the money the bottom 50% does make CAN take them.

in 1980 $21,000 was pretty good when a brand new car only cost $7,000 and a house cost $50,000-70,000. Not to mention along with all utilities being much cheaper and you had less of them since people can't live without the internet/TV or cellphone plans anymore.

$25,000 doesn't get you far when even a cheap new car is $18,000 and houses are $200,000+. Renting an apartment is also 3-4 times most costly now than 1980. You'd have to completely gut the entire top 20% to make the bottom 50% achieve the same type of purchasing power in relation to cost of living as it used to be in the 80's and none of that would solve the rising cost of generally everything people use.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Wewt!
According to this my household is top 1% of the world, and my income alone puts me at top 1.7%

When it comes to talking about inequality, why do Republicans bring up mediocrity as a talking point? Why is this a race to the bottom? What happened to "taking care of our own" during the Trump campaign tours? Was that just a bunch of empty rhetoric and lip service?

The poorest in America, as compared to the rest of America, are doing pretty shitty atm. Every time someone does a world comparison, it makes one roll their eyes a little, given that you know their point is trying to say "LOOK, YOU'RE BETTER OFF THAN PEOPLE DYING IN GUTTERS, BE THANKFUL!"

Fuck that, I'm a believer in American exceptionalism, we shouldn't settle for mediocrity. We should be the best. We shouldn't settle for letting our sick die and our hungry starve. We shouldn't begrudge the poor buying food with EBT cards. And yet people still do, because fuck the poor, amiright?

[Toppy]

I'm an IT Analyst at a manufacturing company and I can tell you that the industry is starving for workers right now. Our suppliers are struggling to keep up with demand and we're having trouble filling the gap to match it with good, quality workers. Most blue collar workers straight off the street today lack the necessary skills to do advanced assembly work. In today's manufacturing, computers and advanced machinery are used in the assembly process and it takes longer to onboard workers with the necessary skills. I really wish our education system wouldn't shit on the prospect of being a blue collar worker so much.

Mike Rowe describes the issue well.


All I know is that the demand from last quarter to the demand of this one shows some good promise. How long will it last? Who knows.

I think a lot of it has to do with people not wanting to move far from where they are.

You need to remember, the idea of the American dream has been hammered into people from childhood. That you can stay in your home town, buy a house, have 2.5 kids, and surpass your parents. But thats not the reality. The reality is for even basic work you have to move. Some towns are dying and others are booming. Buying a house is just all sorts of stupid. Many old towns are not only dying but they're being strangle held by old money who also refuse to get with the times. So we have large swaths of the population, of all ages, living in the 90's with no intent on getting out. Add on to that a retired population incapable of moving from their owned homes (jesus christ why would anyone ever buy a house?!) which is also to an extent tying families down who dont want to leave grandma by herself and you have the perfect storm of broken dreams and poor living.

[Armakus]

When you cut taxes on the "rich" (this includes big corporations) it allows them the capital to hire more employees and raise wages for their employees. This is also called reinvesting in the business to make the business grow. It helps everyone, including the stakeholders of the business.

Also lowering taxes on small businesses and reducing red tape allows them to do the same, just on a smaller scale.

Simple economic sense. Hence, the "bottom 50%" see their wages increase and increased jobs.

The fact that people still think this way boggles my brain so hard

[WskyDK]

When it comes to talking about inequality, why do Republicans bring up mediocrity as a talking point? Why is this a race to the bottom? What happened to "taking care of our own" during the Trump campaign tours? Was that just a bunch of empty rhetoric and lip service?

The poorest in America, as compared to the rest of America, are doing pretty shitty atm. Every time someone does a world comparison, it makes one roll their eyes a little, given that you know their point is trying to say "LOOK, YOU'RE BETTER OFF THAN PEOPLE DYING IN GUTTERS, BE THANKFUL!"

Fuck that, I'm a believer in American exceptionalism, we shouldn't settle for mediocrity. We should be the best. We shouldn't settle for letting our sick die and our hungry starve. We shouldn't begrudge the poor buying food with EBT cards. And yet people still do, because fuck the poor, amiright?

Yeah, not where I was going with that at all. My household makes $150,000/year

[Toppy]

The fact that people still think this way boggles my brain so hard

It works in theory. Mostly because it does not at all account for greed. And in the US, greed is encouraged from the day you're born to the day you die. Greed is america's number one virtue.

[Armakus]

I think a lot of it has to do with people not wanting to move far from where they are.

You need to remember, the idea of the American dream has been hammered into people from childhood. That you can stay in your home town, buy a house, have 2.5 kids, and surpass your parents. But thats not the reality. The reality is for even basic work you have to move. Some towns are dying and others are booming. Buying a house is just all sorts of stupid. Many old towns are not only dying but they're being strangle held by old money who also refuse to get with the times. So we have large swaths of the population, of all ages, living in the 90's with no intent on getting out. Add on to that a retired population incapable of moving from their owned homes (jesus christ why would anyone ever buy a house?!) which is also to an extent tying families down who dont want to leave grandma by herself and you have the perfect storm of broken dreams and poor living.

I'd buy a house because I'd like to actually put my "rent" money into something I can own, instead of throwing it in a fire every month.

[Barnabas]

I'm an IT Analyst at a manufacturing company and I can tell you that the industry is starving for workers right now. Our suppliers are struggling to keep up with demand and we're having trouble filling the gap to match it with good, quality workers. Most blue collar workers straight off the street today lack the necessary skills to do advanced assembly work. In today's manufacturing, computers and advanced machinery are used in the assembly process and it takes longer to onboard workers with the necessary skills. I really wish our education system wouldn't shit on the prospect of being a blue collar worker so much.

Mike Rowe describes the issue well.


All I know is that the demand from last quarter to the demand of this one shows some good promise. How long will it last? Who knows.

Yet companies aren't willing to train these people off the streets. They rather bring someone from another country with the skillset that the other country paid for. Is it really that expensive to train someone to do your job? I guess it's up to trump to try to promote some type of government funded training so the companies don't have to?