Posted by Tina
Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama have a lot in common. Both presidents adopted policy that was bound to kill opportunity and cost consumers a bundle. I read somewhere that those Americans with jobs today are working longer hours for less. The rest are stuck in food stamp hell and thinking about joining the ranks of the permanently dependent. Americans will have to wait a couple of years for a new leader but it sure doesn’t hurt on a day like today to do some serious thinking about work and the value of opportunity to work that a vibrant economy brings.
This week-end President Obama spoke to a gathering of labor union workers and in an impassioned (desperate?) speech said the following:
“Sometimes when I talk about this stuff with folks from the other side of the aisle, they ask, ‘Why are you stirring up class resentments … I want an economy where your hard work pays off — with higher wages, and higher incomes, and fair pay for women, and workplace flexibility for parents, and affordable health insurance, and decent retirement benefits. I’m not asking for the moon. I just want a good deal for American workers. … They oppose stuff they used to be for. They used to be for building roads and bridges. I’m just telling the truth. The sky is blue today. Wisconsin brats are delicious. The Milwaukee Brewers are in first place. And Republicans in Congress love to say ‘no’. Those are just the facts of life.”
Contrast that with a man of real vision who was preparing to run for president during the dismal last year of the Carter Malaise:
“Today a president of the United States would have us believe that dream is over or at least in need of change. Jimmy Carter’s administration tells us that the descendants of those who sacrificed to start again in this land of freedom may have to abandon the dream that drew their ancestors to a new life in a new land. … Beginning in January of 1981, American workers will once again be heeded. Their needs and values will be acted upon in Washington. I will consult with representatives of organized labor on those matters concerning the welfare of working people of this nation. … When we talk about tax reduction, when we talk about ending inflation by stopping it where it starts, in Washington, we’re talking about a way to bring labor and management together for America. We’re talking about jobs and productivity and wages. We’re talking about doing away with Jimmy Carter’s view of a no-growth policy, and ever-shrinking economic pie which means smaller slices for everyone of us. That’s no answer. We can have a bigger pie and that’ll mean bigger slices for every one of us. And I believe that together — together you and I can bake that bigger pie. We can make that dream that brought so many of us or our parents and grandparents to this land, we can make that dream live once more.”
America needs another leader with a strong vision for putting our economy back on track and making greater opportunity the focus for all Americans!
Read excellent commentary and see the video of Reagan at PJ Media
Video of Obama’s speech and commentary in USA Today
Hope you all enjoyed a great day off from your labors. Can’t help wondering how many in today’s economy might have preferred to work.
“I read somewhere that those Americans with jobs today are working longer hours for less.”
Me. You read that from me.
Of course, you don’t support actually DOING anything to ensure that workers aren’t paid less than they were a half century ago for doing more work. Because raising the min. wage to 1968 levels is–dun dun DUN!–SOCIALISM!
“Of course, you don’t support actually DOING anything to ensure that workers aren’t paid less than they were a half century ago for doing more work. Because raising the min. wage to 1968 levels is–dun dun DUN!–SOCIALISM!”
Raising the minimum wage to 1968 levels will not create a living wage. All it will do is eliminate jobs that are stepping stones to living wage jobs.
Chris not long ago I posted information that put that liberal talking point into perspective…it’s a bit of a deception and I believe the purpose serves their old worn out class envy playbook. It’s incredible how your team go solid, though, when you think you have found the mother load!
A lot has changed since 1965. There are more women in the workforce and most women, even professional women, aspire to lower paid work. They also leave and re-enter the work force more often than men and so do not always advance. In the sixties, America was experiencing a boom in manufacturing jobs that by the eighties had begun to shift overseas due to foreign competition and an unbending and rigid union workforce that refused to compete with cheaper foreign labor. The contribution and taxes required to fund SS and M-Care grew taking a bigger bite out of payroll as did pensions but worker’s also received more in benefits. Today we have more service oriented jobs performed by unskilled labor and fewer middle class jobs. We also have more people working in government.
But also, the percentages are taken from statistics and we are all familiar with the ways statistics can be used to prove a position.
Anyone interested in opinions that are outside the usual political opinion pages will find help in the following:
Middle Class Income Stagnation is a Myth – Economy Blogspot:
5 reasons why income inequality is a myth—and Occupy Wall Street is wrong ~ James Pethokoukas:
(Here’s only one of the five)
Knowledge is power. those who want to actually understand this issue, rather than being stuck in the debilitating and divisive emotions of resentment, envy, and covetousness, will want to read, “Why CEO Pay Grows Faster Than Worker Pay. It’s a relatively short article with charts and gems like this one:
We Americans need accurate information so we can make smarter decisions in the voting booth. Emotional appeals that play on envy, covetousness and division are not helpful…deceitful bumper sticker slogans aren’t either. Liberal/progressive economic policy is a disaster as we have all discovered over the last six (Actually eight) years!
I’m for doing anything that makes our economy and businesses grow so that we have plenty of jobs and plenty of opportunity. How well any individual does will depend on his skills, willingness to learn and improve, willingness to work and his attitude.
First we need leadership that cares about the overall economy instead of special interest groups and projects.
I read tonight that both Obama and Biden were yammering that it’s time to “take back America.”
Who the hell do they think is running the country? Ted Cruz? Ron Paul? Big Bird?
Tina: “There are more women in the workforce and most women, even professional women, aspire to lower paid work.”
LOL! So the pay gap is because women “aspire” to be paid less than their male counterparts! Genius satire, Tina, bravo.
“America was experiencing a boom in manufacturing jobs that by the eighties had begun to shift overseas due to foreign competition and an unbending and rigid union workforce that refused to compete with cheaper foreign labor”
No, due to lack of regulations on outsourcing.
And anyway, none of this explains why my generation should have to settle for a lower minimum wage than you received.
Your AEI link grossly misrepresents economist Robert Gordon, claiming, “In a 2009 paper, Northwestern University economist Robert Gordon found the supposed sharp rise in American inequality to be “exaggerated both in magnitude and timing.”” But Gordon never said that. He was referring to the gap between productivity and wages, not income inequality. At one point in the same paper, Gordon explicitly says “The evidence is incontrovertible that American income inequality has increased in the United States since the 1970s.”
In an interview with Matt O’Brien, Gordon took AEI to task for misrepresenting his work:
“Consider the research and writing of Robert Gordon, a professor of social sciences at Northwestern University. He has done pioneering work questioning the extent of the aforementioned gap between productivity and median wages—work that Pethokoukis misappropriates to claim that income gains have been shared “fairly equally.” Gordon found that the productivity gap may be about a tenth the size as what is commonly thought, but, as he told me, that doesn’t negate the story about runaway wealth at the top of the income distribution. “The evidence on the long-term increase of inequality within the bottom 99 percent is ambiguous and complex, but what stands out like a searchlight is the unprecedented and increasing inequality between the bottom 99 percent and the top 1 percent,” Gordon told me.”
You have a deeply ironic habit of unknowingly misrepresenting research right before telling others to “get educated” or “knowledge is power,” and imploring others to get “accurate information;” is this more satire?
Pull the log out of your own eye before lecturing others on accuracy, Tina.
I got some details wrong above; Gordon did say that the rise in income inequality had been exaggerated, but he still does not argue that income gains were “shared rather equally,” as AEI suggests.
http://www.nber.org/papers/w15351
Chris: “LOL! So the pay gap is because women “aspire” to be paid less than their male counterparts!”
Don’t be an ass! They aspire to be nurses rather than doctors! Lab assistants rather than scientists. Secretaries rather than CEO’s. This is changing somewhat but given the natural realities and interests of men and women it is highly unlikely that gender will ever determine a “fair” balance that would satisfy the hall monitor types who for some crazy reason think their lives won’t be complete unless they can force compliance with their notion of how the world should line up.
“And anyway, none of this explains why my generation should have to settle for a lower minimum wage than you received.”
Your generation doesn’t have to “settle” for anything. Get off your asses and work, save, plan! The minimum wage is an entry level figure. Those jobs are not career jobs. Income is whatever you create for yourself through your efforts and ambitions…it isn’t a handout…it’s earned. Jobs have a certain value. If you want one that pays more then get yourself trained for it!
The most significant thing about this term is that the left is able to use it to create anger in people like you for votes…and it actually works!
It works because you think a persons economic fate is in the hands of some benefactor and the only way for anyone to get what he wants is if that benefactor is generous enough to allow you a little more.
That’s how welfare works.
It is not how business works. It is not how the economy works. It is not how wealth building works!
“Gordon did say that the rise in income inequality had been exaggerated, but he still does not argue that income gains were “shared rather equally”
And they never will be!
The miracle…the value of America…is that we are individuals with individual rights to own property! We in America are not limited by what the system hands us. We are free to pursue income and wealth in whatever way we choose and to whatever level we choose.
Another person being Oprah Winfrey wealthy does not diminish my ability to earn and grow wealth any more than it limits my capacity for happiness and satisfaction. It is all up to me!
In the news this morning the left activist union thugs will be out creating civil disobedient acts, in order to get themselves arrested, to call attention to the fact that they demand $15.00 an hour and unionization in fast food. The morons believe they can force businesses to pay more in wages than they can possibly afford to pay and they do so because they cannot see that, “May I take your order please,” is NOT a highly paid skill or lofty career goal. No matter how hard you squeeze a turnip it will not give it up blood.
“Pull the log out of your own eye before lecturing others on accuracy, Tina.”
Try climbing down off that arrogant high horse, Chris, you still don’t know what the heck you are talking about and your sour attitude won;t improve your understanding.
#4 Tina: “I read tonight that both Obama and Biden were yammering that it’s time to “take back America.”
Who the hell do they think is running the country? Ted Cruz? Ron Paul? Big Bird?”
Heard today it’s the DNC campaign slogan for 2016. They’re going to run on the good economy during Bill’s terms. They’re also counting on not enough voters to still be around to remember the Reagan years.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/09/02/why-glenn-beck-said-hillary-clinton-will-be-the-next-president-of-the-united-states/
Interesting video. Learned something new too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwPEWiNadhA&feature=em-uploademail-smbtn%C2%A0Top