Posts Made By: David Cotterell

Moscheck beat me to it!

Dave

Originally Posted by Jim Moscheck

Well, after that response I will just leave it at that as you wouldn't know facts or disrespect if they hit you in the face.

FYI - I'm disrespecting you right now. That's a fact.

Let's hope Greg can, at the very least, recognize a turd when it hits him in the face.
Dave

Originally Posted by Greg Shaffer

Yep I can.....I saw you coming lol

...

Post 23, Mr. Shaffer, is where you lowered it to the elementary school playground level. My Post 24 was merely aimed at the level of discourse you were displaying.  So you would understand, don'tchaknow. 

Dave

I found the use of complete sentences and mature oratory quite refreshing.

Dave

Let's get together at the winter Star Party Jim...

Maybe I can convince you to come to Starfest, too...

Dave

Ronald Reagan?  The guy who killed the middle class for the foreseeable future with his 'trickle-down' giant tax cuts for the rich?  That Ronald Reagan?  

Dave

Originally Posted by James Brown

Killed the middle class?  You're joking right?

https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa261.pdf

The Cato institute?  

Well, we should lock our two articles in a room and let them fight it out.  

In the post war era, until about 1980 a single, middle class income earner could buy a house, a car, send the kids to college and take the family on a vacation to Wally World every year.  

Fast forward to the most recent years and a single middle class income won't get you any of that.  The concentration of more and more wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer people has as its direct result the elimination of the middle class.

Dave

The disappearance of the middle-class' spending power is what has really gone in comparison to what it once was. June Cleaver could stay at home and make lunches while wearing her pearls in 1960 but in 2024 she'd have to be working full time for the family to live as well.

The money has trickled UP, not down. 

The income gap has greatly widened.  CEO pay vs worker pay ratio has increased tenfold or more.  The murderous student loan system in the US is another blight on the middle class - many people are in their third decade of trying to pay it off and have fully paid back the principal more than once but the interest just keeps piling up..  Minimum wage has been stagnant for decades.  Worker productivity is way up but wages are not even close to keeping pace with that.  Huge profits are turned into stock buybacks instead of being shared, at least partially, with the workers who made the profits possible in the first place.

More and more money in the hands of fewer and fewer people.  This money didn't disappear from the poorest folks because they don't have the money to appropriate.  It's the teachers, cops, firefighters, appliance store owners, DMV clerks, construction workers etc. etc.  who are losing their purchasing power.  These people and their jobs still exist so my saying the middle class has disappeared is misleading in the literal sense.  But metaphorically it is a disappearance.

Sure the economy is doing well - just look at Walmart's sales figures as a perfect example. They are setting records every quarter.  But everyone working there south of the Walton family on the income ladder is barely making minimum wage and they sure aren't driving a Lexus to the restaurant. And they are viciously prevented from organizing a union...

A clear beginning for the big change in the fortunes of the middle class is the first half of the 1980's - the Reagan years.

Dave

Originally Posted by James Brown

In Canada, do the taxpayers send anyone who wants off to college to study anything that inspires them, with no regard for the job market after graduation?

You can major in whatever you like subject to enrolment limits in some specialized and high demand, competitive programs.
Interest rates are 2.5% for the Ontario Student Loan Program and 10 years is the typical payback time.

Dave