May 18, 2014
How do we restore the balance?
Since the 1982 “Conservative Revolution”, politicians have climbed into bed with big business magnates, creating a government that serves the rich and powerful. The rich previously took 40% of the profits before Reagan’s regulatory & tax “reforms”. Now, under “Conservative’s” under-regulated Capitalism, the rich take over 97% of the profits for themselves – as over 50% of workers at big companies like Walmart and McDonalds live in poverty.
During the Reagan presidency, Conservative’s “reforms” shifted over $1 thousand-billion (a trillion) from middle class families, to the already-rich during Reagan’s Presidency. “Conservative’s” twin myths of tax-cuts (Reagan raised Middle Class taxes to historic highs during his presidency) & “trickle-down” actually created the giant sucking of over $3 trillion of wealth from middle class families, to create 6.5 million millionaire households, and 100,000 with over $100 million each => as Bush-Reagan Conservative “reforms” continued to create whole new classes of obscenely wealthy people ~ through 30 years of ~ “reforms” and “deregulation”.
“Conservative” myths of “job creation” through tax cuts & deregulation created 442 US billionaires…. and no, they didn’t “earn it”.
… unless you see yourself not as exploited, but as a temporarily embarrassed millionaire.
Huh? “Conservatives” & billionaires are “exploiting” Americans? 
McDonalds could raise its average worker OUT OF POVERTY, (a 30-something mom who is the primary bread-winner in the family), by simply paying just $14 billion of profits to the already-rich versus ~ McDonald’s current $16 billion a year in “profits” ~ they pay-out to the already-rich.
Did anyone else notice that Walmart and McDonald’s et al can raise ALL their workers out of poverty, and ~ not raise prices ~ ?
Just trim a little fat from the profits they pay to their executives and owners.
~ Where did the “American Dream” go ~ under Conservative’s world of “trickle-down” , low taxes for the rich, and “regulatory reform”?
Consider the myth of “Privatization save $$ Money” …
~ Greed is not good ~ http://www.alternet.org/economy/privatization-scam-5-horror-stories-govt-outsourcing-greedy-private-companies
The people who actually do the work should:
Vote to take back OUR government, and OUR economy.
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Feel free to copy while giving proper attribution: YucaLandia/Surviving Yucatan.
© Steven M. Fry
Surviving Yucatan 
I feel momentum building across ideologies to respond to the coup that has been perpetrated by Big Capital in USA. A book I reviewed last week at Amazon, THE DIVIDE, by Matt Taibbi, is adding to the awakening. It’s a very powerful statement on your topic, Steve. Here’s a link (second review down): http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A1CEM36LQVE933?ie=UTF8&display=public&page=1&sort_by=MostRecentReview
You’ve nailed it … Why is this so difficult for others to understand?
thank you.
jana
Here’s another take, regarding Generation Y, terming them “screwed” as they will earn less than their parents generation, going forward. (And it seems to suggest that a current report is attempting to spin the case into a rosier picture than big data would indicate.):
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/05/17/millennials-better-off-than-parents-not_n_5340280.html
That’s one way to look at it. The rich also educate their children, so they have the knowledge to get well paying jobs, ie don’t work at Mac or WM, unless it’s finance or marketing, or logistics etc. They also teach them about wealth creation and the power of compound interest over time. You may get the vote if you keep the masses entertained and clueless, but it has its downside as well, ie social costs. Check out the Swiss vote on minimum wage. Those are intelligent voters.
It’s a myth
<Harvey Kempema__Real Pro NW…_503-307-9000
Yep, job creation by giving extra benefits to the rich is a myth. The rich generally use the big $$ new benefits (from tax loopholes and regulatory changes to help them) to buy into existing businesses, and then gut those businesses, selling off the assets and cutting jobs – all to build bigger fortunes.
e.g. Romney’s $300 million fortune was made hiring handfuls of corporate raiders a.k.a. “investment bankers” and ~ more lawyers ~ , ~ more day-traders ~, and more lobbyists who then buy-into productive brick-and-mortar companies and work to gut regulations. The lawyers & corporate raiders (hired with tax-payer $$) then sell off the physical assets, closing divisions, and causing net job cuts. So sure, giving the rich big tax breaks (where the Middle Class pay 58% higher incometax rates than the wealthy pay) give the already-rich more money to hire more lawyers, hire more “investment bankers”/corporate raiders, and hire more day-traders to get more high-risk $30:1 margin loans and more Credit Default Swaps….
The rich have used the $3 trillion in 30 years of government give-aways to also funnel $$ through lobbyists and super-PACs to pay off yet more politicians (campaign “contributions”) to pay the politicians to change yet more regulations to give these already-rich even more new fresh tax-breaks, and yet more corporate welfare. $350 billion a year in tax loopholes for the already-rich, and $250 billion a year in federal welfare paid to corporations has NOT created jobs – it has simply bankrupted the US treasury.
The most recent reality disproving :Conservative” myths: “Conservative” politicians in Kansas tried to stimulate their economy by rewarding the already-rich with even bigger benefits, $1.1 billion in tax cuts for the already-wealthy, providing even more corporate welfare, and it has back-fired badly – making Kansas one of the few states that has not recovered – but Kansas is actually getting worse due to new Conservative give-aways to the already-rich – as Kansas’ credit-ratings are falling:
Chicago Tribune: http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2014/05/kansas.html
Kansas City Star: http://www.kansascity.com/2014/05/01/4995196/foolish-tax-cuts-flushing-kansas.html
steve
I see how to subscribe, but i don’t see how to unsubscribe. I appreciate the good info about living in Mexico, but have tired of the constant socialist rant.. Thanks in advance for removing me.
Hi Will,
Is working to get “the American Dream” back on the table for 40% of Americans now some “socialist rant“?
Sad…
Sorry you have been unable to “change the channel”. I remember being surprised when at the home of old family friends in rural Illinois (near Wisconsin), the June Taylor Dancers came out to dance on the Ed Sullivan Show.**
Realize, I’m not socialist, nor do I push socialist policies. As a scientist, I simply follow facts:
Troubling Facts:
USA Conservative state’s children have the LOWEST quality of life in the top 30 industrialized nations, except for Bulgaria.
Conservative US state’s politicians speak the loudest about their being too much Federal welfare and aid, as Conservative states have been and continue to be the biggest recipients of Federal aid and welfare $$.
Are these facts “socialist rants“? or are they facts that contradict some group’s personal beliefs?
**The father, a gentle kind happy conservative man whom I much admired, got out of his chair, saying: I don’t want to see no “n***ers” on my TV. 30 seconds of seeing a young black woman as a part of an otherwise all-white dance troupe was just too much for him to tolerate.
Clearly, paying people living wages is NOT a socialist issue – it is a centrist-independent practice that is the route out of the current mess where Red States have 25% higher child poverty rates than the rest of the USA.
25% more of Conservative district’s children go hungry… and don’t know where their next meal comes from.
USA Conservative district’s children have the LOWEST quality of life in the top 30 industrialized nations, except for Bulgaria.
Me? When I see something short that tweaks my sensibilities: I listen, filter, and move one. I hope you are happy moving on.
I don’t know how to “unsubscribe”, so, I’m off to the WordPress help-section to find out.
Sorry that facts that differ from your personal beliefs are so difficult, without just clicking-to-another-site,
and
I’m especially sorry that working to get “The American Dream” back on the table for ordinary Americans, is so upsetting,
steve
All that talk about “get the rich” is nonsense. Just Boob bait. The fact is that the Democrats are the party of the rich. The Repubs are just the stupid party. Facts are that Progressive policies exacerbate income inequality: the Federal Reserve, the minimum wage, illegal immigration all serve to hollow out the middle class. You nut jobs vote to destroy a country then move to another country. Lets hope the Mexicans have enough sense to listen to your kook blabbing
Hey Wes,
Interesting theory, but it hasn’t worked in practice.
Note the mess that Kansas is still in, as Kansas has practiced many years of Koch Bros. policies – lowering taxes yet again on the rich – and Kansas continues to suffer horrible deficits – as neighboring states are doing well. http://www.kansascity.com/2014/05/01/4995165/brownback-obama-blame-game-as.html
The US states who follow the “Conservative” agendas and beliefs are the worst performing economies in the USA. US poor children in Red States are #29’th in the world for poverty, have the lowest quality of life in the industrialized world, and have the poorest health care.
Red State “Conservatives” are the biggest federal welfare $$ recipients.
Follow the money, and learn the truth.
Rational people get the facts, and decide for themselves.
Learn the realities of what’s really happening – and come back and dialogue,
steve
Hey Wes,
“Illegal immigration”‘s effects and causes are yet other “Conservative” myths of the rich.
Big corporations and the rich forced through passage of clauses in NAFTA that have US taxpayers paying $4 billion a year in US federal tax dollars to big agribusiness to dump US corn onto Mexican markets at prices far below production costs. US taxpayers have paid these rich companies over $80 billion tax dollars in corporate welfare to RUIN 1.5 million Mexican family farms. As these Mexican corn farming communities collapse, these welfare payments to US corporations have CREATED 7 MILLION economic migrants (illegal aliens).
So, before complaining about “illegal aliens” harming the US economy, realize that your politicians and your personal tax dollars forced 7 million of these Mexicans to come to work in America. Address the real problem – not just the symptoms.
Again, please read and learn – educate yourself,
steve
Can someone do an abortion on this nuttter blog. Perhaps like Trotsky you will meet a sharp axe Comrade
Hey Wes,
Like every other far-right Conservative that’s written their opinions here, none of them are able to remain either civil or reasonable.
Also like every other far-right Conservative, when they meet facts that refute their personal beliefs, they are only able to reply with childish retorts and personal insults.
Sad,
steve