Robert Reich is Right ... LINK --(Reality is setting in for former Middle Classers)

[Blackhatjack]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/the-root-of-economic-frag_b_644465.html?page=3

"What we get from widening inequality is not only a more fragile economy but also an angrier politics. When virtually all the gains from growth go to a small minority at the top -- and the broad middle class can no longer pretend it's richer than it is by using homes as collateral for deepening indebtedness -- the result is deep-seated anxiety and frustration. This is an open invitation to demagogues who misconnect the dots and direct the anger toward immigrants, the poor, foreign nations, big government, "socialists," "intellectual elites," or even big business and Wall Street. The major fault line in American politics is no longer between Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, but between the "establishment" and an increasingly mad-as-hell populace determined to "take back America" from it.

When they understand where this is heading, powerful interests that have so far resisted fundamental reform may come to see that the alternative is far worse."

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Pretty well sums up the situation we are in, and what is to come.

[Sebastian Doyle]

1. Yep, Reich nails it, as usual.

Obama should have had him and Elizabeth Warren, not Scummers and Timmy The Elf in the first place.

[havocmom]

2. If there was really to be any 'change' he would have

Timmy in place says it all.

[daa]

8. I just began Kuttner's book

:A Presidency in Peril: The Inside Story of Obama's Promise, Wall Street's Power, and the Struggle to Control our Economic Future:
and it is sickening when you think about what should have been.

And then another supporter bails:

"Obama Is Barely Treading Water (first posted in US News)

By Mort Zuckerman

The hope that fired up the election of Barack Obama has flickered out, leaving a national mood of despair and disappointment. Americans are dispirited over how wrong things are and uncertain they can be made right again. Hope may have been a quick breakfast, but it has proved a poor supper. A year and a half ago Obama was walking on water. Today he is barely treading water. Then, his soaring rhetoric enraptured the nation. Today, his speeches cannot lift him past a 45 percent approval rating."

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/boston-properties-mort-zuckerman-obliterates-barack-obama

[catzies]

3. He said that very well & I will be reposting that quote a lot, I think.

As already said, he nailed it.

[patrice]

4. Nailed. It.

re-posting . . . Thanks!

:hi:

[raccoon]

5. "When most of the gains from economic growth go to a small sliver of Americans

at the top, the rest don't have enough purchasing power to buy what the economy is capable of producing."

You'd think the power elite/pundits/economists would realize that. Maybe they do and just don't give a rat's arse?

[marions ghost]

6. So take back America, America.

:applause:

[SoCalDem]

7. Before the '80s, most people drew their comparisons based on people they knew

and people they worked with. I think there was a paradigm shift in the '80s that too many people bought into. Look at the tv shows that were on then ..Dallas...Dynasty...Miami Vice...Falcon Crest...Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous... These shows were a departure from what we had before.. Even people who had great educations (on tv) were showcased in rather pedestrian fashion:

Marcus Welby practiced medicine in his house
Most tv characters were of middle-to-lower-class:
.....Archie Bunker
.....The Partridges
......Little House on the Prairie
......The Bradys
.......Taxi
........Welcome Back Kotter
......MaryTylerMoore

These people were watched by millions of people every week, and even though many of them had really cool jobs, they all pretty much LIVED in "normal" looking digs..we rarely even saw any of them in a car. Their clothes were normal..we saw them struggling week after week over problems similar to our own..

When Dallas started in 1978, it ushered in an era of overt consumption, for consumption's sake, and introduced a meanspirited main character.

It all happened at the same time everyone's mailboxes started to fill up with unsolicited credit cards... the perfect storm:(

[Hannah Bell]

12. agree. the change was noticeable. & has continued to evolve today to new heights.

- reality cop/prison shows (= the world is scary, people are evil, protect yourself from everyone, you need the police)

- supposed reality shows where the "real" people soon become completely unreal celebrities -- like how john & kate + 8 evolve from working suburban family with stay at home mom to divorced celebrity mom living in mansion with paid staff living off the kids & presenting staged events

- competition shows (survivor, dancing with the stars, idol) for big bucks, evoking the ethos of the dance contests of the depression

- fake news to catapult the talking points from the fake left & fake right

- nancy grace type shows trying to involve the audience in analyzing & 5-minute-hate some murderer or child-snatcher, completely removed from anything that might actually make a difference in the viewers lives -- as if it were of utmost importance

- judge judy type shows where low-income people are lectured & treated like shit, encouraging viewers to emotionally join the judge in condemning the low-lifes who do such things


it's a pretty creepy cultural picture.

i think there's a phd thesis there as to what it all means

[SoCalDem]

13. I remember watching the doctor shows of the 60s-- Kildare & Ben Casey

I mean really..they were doctors & they lived in really shitty looking places & I don't think they even had a car..

and I agree about the "Gladiator" shows we have now (we don;t watch any of them) where everything's a competition..even stuff like cake decorating & cooking, for Pete's sake:rofl: just show me how to make the recipe..I don't need to see three cooks duking it out to make it fastest..

I know that tv material pretty much repeats itself over time, but every year it's more cops shows, more hospital shows, more detective shows.. and the episodes repeat & repeat.. I look for offbeat stuff & my viewing habits are extremely quirky..:)

I love Weeds ...Hung... loved Deadwood.. Nurse jackie is great..so is United States of Tara.. I'm liking Memphis Beat too I guess I like watching flawed people:rofl:

[raccoon]

17. Well said! Also, remember "Sanford & Son"--imagine a show like that now. nt

[TheKentuckian]

9. Reich is on like neck bones again

[Blackhatjack]

10. In retrospect I believe the economic elite gave up on reviving the American Middle Class and instead

.... decided to 'gut the victims' for every last dollar that they could extract before looking overseas for future 'victims' to exploit.

You hear the financial elite talk about populations in China and Asia as their targets for future sales. You don't hear the financial elite talk about reviving the American consumers.

American consumers for the most part are walking dead. They still own some valuable assets, but those are being pried from their hands even as we speak. And the practical result is a tremendous transfer of wealth from the lower economic classes to the top 1%.

And to seal the deal you have to have control of the government, which they have captured. Just look at the watered down efforts to begin to regulate the financial industry and healthcare/pharmaceutical industries.

In many ways our economic futures have already been decided by our economic elite --and the news is bad.

[inna]

11. +

We are surplus labor supply to them. Exactly the way they like it.

[Blackhatjack]

15. "Surplus Labor" is exactly how they view us ... like an expensive credit line they hold in reserve

I've heard CEOs say that their duty to the shareholders means they have to go overseas to cheap labor pools and close US factories and businesses. And they would rather use local labor in the US but US workers won't work for the same wages that offshore workers earn, so they have no choice.

The decline in Unions and failure to update fair worker laws has led us to a desperate labor force in the US that is totally at the mercy of US corporations. There is no bargaining power for workers.

[Vinnie From Indy]

16. And, it gets worse

The acquisition of our political system by corporate interests and 1%'ers has made the military might of this country merely the personal police force for those same interests. Wars are no longer fought for freedom or national security, they are now huge profit centers and hostile, corporate takeovers.

[xchrom]

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