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Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
How do you explain the fact that the average real earnings remained virtually flat over the same period (the main exception is a highly educated minority)?
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I think better measure would be based on standard of living, or the net value of the goods and services people obtain or can afford. Earnings are important, but for example and I have used this in the past, if a family making $50,000 has a child that obtains a publicly funded scholarship to a university worth $100,000, what are there real earnings compared to the family making $250,000 or more that can not qualify because of income? Then complicating the matter, factor in the relative changes over the time frame in question. when we see things like education costs, medical cost increasing at a rate higher than the inflation rate and some receive public benefits in these areas and others don't, that is not factored into real earnings rates.
For business owners paying for employee benefits or even workers compensation premiums, those costs increase but are not received directly by employees. Looking at real wage changes has value, but there are some issues with the measure.
If my income is flat, but I can get more and better stuff with my income - that is a good thing.
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How do you explain the growing economic disparity under Bush?
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The trend started before Bush, but in a word - education. We are becoming a nation of two classes, those with a good education and access to information and those who are not educated and who do not have access to information.
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People relying on home equity to do their spending?
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Short sighted, greed - easy money corrupted a lot of people. The problem could have been avoided. the Fed's easy money policy contributed to the excess.
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The growing poverty rate?
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Government sets the poverty rate. Even peole in "poverty" in this nation live well relative to what some consider real poverty in other parts of the world. Everyone has access to food, water, shelter (children, elderly, disabled), education, clothing, medical care. I think technically, I was in "poverty" in 2009 and 2010 based on my income given business conditions - I lost money. But, I don't think I am in poverty.
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The ultimate economic downturn?
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A normal business cycle made worse by the housing crisis and then the panic created by the Obama administration.
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Is this due to factors outstripping the benefit of the wealth trickling down?
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No. There are people who have what it takes to create real wealth, and there are many more who do not. There is sort of a symbiotic relationship between the two. People who can change the world through innovation, often get filthy rich, but they support real living standard improvements for the rest of us. If we just look at human history we see so many examples, I don't understand how people say "trickle down" is not real. Perhaps there is one of those semantic issues blocking an understand - I clearly see what I see and can not understand why others can not.
---------- Post added at 01:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:23 PM ----------
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Originally Posted by Shadowex3
Ace as I said before your theory relies on an inherently fallacious basis: It needs perfect people.
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O.k., think of a pack of wolves. You have the strong and most healthy, you have the pups, then you have those that are not as strong and healthy. when times are bad, every wolf suffers in the pack. In better times the strong eat first to gain/maintain strength and an ability to hunt so every member of the pack can benefit. Trickle down. Without the strong the weak will suffer or die. Without the strong the opportunity for new life diminishes.
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YOU may have decided to pay your employees more and provide better service... because you're just that nice a guy. But in the real world, as virtually every other business proves, most of the time what's going to happen is that the guys on top will take the extra money and just pocket it.
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Many would not say I am a "nice" guy, but my mother and now my wife loves me. I had a dog once...
, oh never mind.
That aside, when I train my employee, he gets marketable skills and experience, that have value to my competitors and others. If I don't treat my employees well, and pay them fairlyl - they can leave. I can not operate based on trying to be "nice", perhaps when I get Oprah kind of money, I will become "nice", but until then... I find it so ironic that guys like Buffet and Gates are now trying to be all charitable and stuff - this after being heartless business people. Then they want others to pay more taxes, but they ain't giving their money to the government!
