When incomes for the middle class stagnate or decline and upward mobility is cut off, people no longer have an incentive to hold down taxes on the rich. Only when the middle class is upwardly rising do people think, one day I could be rich, lets hold taxes down. When hope is cut off, it is easy to say, what the heck, increase taxes on those making more than $250k, I will never make that much. The conundrum for Republicans is that free trade holds down incomes for the middle class in developed countries as skilled work can be done cheaper where the cost of living is lower. So, the more the GOP is for free trade and labor movement, the more middle class incomes shrink and the more they will be for increasing taxes and regulations on the rich and business. The Republican ideology of free trade and low taxes becomes a self defeating cycle.
Great first post! You just proved my point about some people here thinking like spoiled children. Reality check: it may have worked as a child but it won't work in the real world.
Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are feeling the effects of the recession too, so what? As I said before there is some impact but overall vets are doing just fine and there are even shortages in some areas. To argue it's not a secure, high paying career is foolish. But it takes time, sacrifice and hard work to become one...
With all due respect, it is fine to tell people on an individual level to work hard, get more education, become a vet, whatever. The fact remains that society needs more grocery store clerks than vets. There are plenty of people who like to work very hard, and don't want to attend (or aren't suited for) college. The bitter fact for those individuals is that unless they can learn a skilled trade of some kind, they will probably have a very tough time paying their bills.
My, what an economically challenged person. Society doesn't need anything but what's in it's best interests. Right now there is a new allocation of globally competitive talent moving within the United States, to give us that next burst of economic growth. To quote Adam Smith or to paraphrase because I can't remember the exact words even though I have the real foundation of economics known as <u>The Wealth of Nations</u>, "It's not the interest of the baker in you that causes him to bake bread, but it is the Baker's own self-interest to bake the bread." Every self-interested person, therefore, is guided by the demands of labour (british spelling since we're on Adam Smith) to provide for both wants and needs. What's that called? An invisible hand. Working hard is a cop out to me, and, yes, College Education is worth every cent you put into it. Those of you who don't think you need to go to college have already missed the boat. If you didn't make that decision right after High School, trust me, it will be such a black mark to follow you around during whatever miniscule career you think you might have. I guess no one ever explained that there is a ceiling without college education. When you hit that ceiling, it'll be for that big promotion, and it's around $40k. You can become a garbage man straight out high school for your 40 a year, or some other non-career. But that's about the extent of your earning power for the rest of your life. Those without educations making good money are outliers, including socialites, widows and idiot sons, and any other celebrity without a college degree. Speaking from personal econometric research, college people get paid substantially more later on in life. Their earning power is nearly quadrupled on a lifetime basis. Masters degrees were, in some cases, more valued than even PhD's, which was surprising to me. Beware those colleges that are nothing more than academic print presses for degrees. That's what most of them are. Stay away from any college advertising on a radio, b/c it's not your interests they have at hand more than it is about attracting paying students. Let me put it to you like this. If you have a 4.0, believe me, you're not learning anything, and didn't learn anything. A's at the level I was at were complete PhD level mastery of the subject. B's meant you knew as much as the teacher and could teach the class. None of the 4 0's coming out of public universities or colleges struck me as people that could teach. And community colleges are a total joke unless you're just looking for vocational training. A's at that level are just given because you used spell check and checked your grammar. Saying "I work hard", and feeling the need to reward yourself, is a problem and what causes most to incur debt. The fact is, we all work hard in our own minds, and we can't go out and spend that paycheck fast enough, but, obviously, this would include those whose paychecks are already spoken for. This is still whining. Not everybody gets a trophy. Think of how hard a pro ball player has to work to win that world championship. Some of it is luck, but you can tip the scales in your favor by increasing your knowledge.
First off t, I do agree with you. Luck helps in some cases, too. Bill Gates and Warrne Buffet are both college educated. Why does somebody get paid millions? It's because they are considered, since we're in a trading site, a valuable commodity. That one gem that's worth more than all of the others. When you have "perceived value" you will get paid a lot of money. Interviews are about showing a "perceived value." How much perceived value do you think there is for someone with a GED or just a high school diploma with no other professional accredidations. The answer is squat. The college degree and early on career success is what it takes. Most people can get the degree, but fail miserably when actively pursuing what they thought they were interested in mostly due to poor choice of the academic institution they attended that wasn't perceived as a curriculum worth investing in. As a side note, it's now a mark of an outstanding student to graduate in 4 years. 5 years is about the norm, because many students entering don't get it early on.