Letters to the Editor
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First, stop voting for Republicans
Our situation today is not completely unprecedented. Twice before in American history we have had periods in which a very small handful of very rich people owned most of the country and enjoyed most of the income. This occurred in the first Gilded Age (roughly 1876 to the panic of 1893)as well as during the Roaring Twenties that ended with the crash of 1929. In both previous cases, there had been an extended period of Republican government with an emphasis on low taxes and no government regulation of business. The first two ended badly. We are now seeing the end of the third. How bad this one will be remains to be seen.
There is a lot that can be done to improve the situation for the American middle class, but not until we have a Democratic president (and it does not matter which one) and a filibuster proof Democratic majority in the Senate. Then we can start running the country for the benefit of the majority of its citizens, not one percent.
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Electro Robot
So are we falling behind? No not really, we NEVER had a chance.
Why bot. We could end up making a librul out of you yet.
They got their greedy little claws in and it will take a bullet to the head to release them.
Maybe even a leftist. Let's keep it legal, okay?
Dear Mom - if you leave me with your living will decision I will pull the plug so fast it will spark. It's just business.
Mortgage problems, huh? Happens to everybody.
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The T Word
In her rather lengthy article Mooney ignores the evil "T" word Liberals never seem to want to have an honest discussion about...."Taxes." The truth is that when you add up income tax, social security, state tax, payroll tax, gas tax, ad infinitum, taxes are the number one expense for today's middle class - more than their mortgage, more than their food bill, more than their health care, more than their college savings. In a country founded on the values of limited government, this is appalling. When my father was my age, his cumulative tax bill was around 9% - can anyone imagine that today?
You can tax the "rich" at 100% it still isn't going to make a dent. The truth is that over 40 years the Left has built a massive entitlement society and shouldered the burden on the American middle class tax payer. Nowadays, one parent works to pay the bills, the other works for the taxman, and the kids are stuck in daycare. Mooney's solution seems to be to add even more massive entitlements onto the pile! The health care entitlements being proposed by today's Dems are going to make Social Security look like penny candy.
Her techniques are rather symbolic of the Left - promise people entitlement goodies, rape them with taxes to pay for them, and then point to the guy with the Mercedes when the people realize they've been screwed. When are Mooney and her ilk going to realize that drastically cutting the size and scope of our bloated Federal government, and allowing the middle class to actually KEEP the majority of their income just might solve these problems?
The Left is in a sad state when allowing people to keep the money they work hard for is considered a radical idea.....
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This is us, and everyone we know.
We are in our mid-thirties, and we have student loan debts that will be with us until we retire. We pay huge health insurance premiums every month, then pay huge co-pays every time we see a doctor. We are praying for house values to drop enough that we can afford to buy a little two-bedroom in a decent neighborhood. We make money, we save diligently, we eat a lot of lentils, yet we still don't have anything approaching the lifestyle my parents did when we were kids.
I hate seeing those money-management shows that say you should put X away for retirement, and Y for your kids' education. Where exactly is the money supposed to come from?
I don't have any answers, but I worry for our future.
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Excellent
and spot-on article.
Here's an interesting list (from Wikipedia's entry on "French Revolution").
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Adherents of most historical models identify many of the same features of the Ancien Régime as being among the causes of the Revolution. Economic factors included:
* Louis XV fought many wars, bringing France to the verge of bankruptcy, and Louis XVI supported the colonists during the American Revolution, exacerbating the precarious financial condition of the government. The national debt amounted to almost 2 billion livres. The social burdens caused by war included the huge war debt, made worse by the monarchy's military failures and ineptitude, and the lack of social services for war veterans.
* An inefficient and antiquated financial system unable to manage the national debt, both caused and exacerbated by the burden of a grossly inequitable system of taxation.
* The Roman Catholic Church, the largest landowner in the country, which levied a tax on crops known as the dîme. While the dîme lessened the severity of the monarchy's tax increases, it worsened the plight of the poorest who faced a daily struggle with malnutrition.
* The continued conspicuous consumption of the noble class, especially the court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette at Versailles, despite the financial burden on the populace.
* High unemployment and high bread prices, causing more money to be spent on food and less in other areas of the economy.
* Widespread famine and malnutrition, which increased the likelihood of disease and death, and intentional starvation in the most destitute segments of the population in the months immediately before the Revolution. The famine extended even to other parts of Europe, and was not helped by a poor transportation infrastructure for bulk foods. (Some researchers have also attributed the widespread famine to an El Niño effect or colder climate of the little ice age combined with France's failure to adopt the potato as a staple crop.
* The Ideals: Declaration of Human Rights.No internal trade and too many customs barriers.
There were also social and political factors, many of which involved resentments and aspirations given focus by the rise of Enlightenment ideals:
- Resentment of royal absolutism.
- Resentment by the ambitious professional and mercantile classes towards noble privileges and dominance in public life, many of whom were familiar with the lives of their peers in commercial cities in The Netherlands and Great Britain.
- Resentment by peasants, wage-earners, and the bourgeoisie toward the traditional seigneurial privileges possessed by nobles.
- Resentment of clerical privilege (anti-clericalism) and aspirations for freedom of religion, and resentment of aristocratic bishops by the poorer rural clergy.
- Continued hatred for Catholic control and influence on institutions of all kinds, by the large Protestant minorities.
- Aspirations for liberty and (especially as the Revolution progressed) republicanism.
- Anger toward the King for firing Jacques Necker and A.R.J. Turgot (among other financial advisors), who were popularly seen as representatives of the people.[4]
- Finally, perhaps above all, was the almost total failure of Louis XVI and his advisors to deal effectively with any of these problems.
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Except for the anti-Catholic sentiment, I think there are some chilling comparisons to be made to the situation today - the country and the world at large.