Absolutely, it drags everyone along. Probably why at some point we will see a reverse in globalization--i.e. more protectionism.
Well, truth be told, all of us got together back in the early 70s and lit up a few bongs with Abbey Road playing in the background, and figured how we could screw our kids and get our retirement paid for. Far out. We made it. Now we're all gazillionaires and have to face every morning with the decision of playing 18, polishing the brass on our yachts, or burning through a few gallons in our 500 SL AMG. You want yours? Well turn off your stupid Facebook, get off your ass and work for it. You think it was fun entering the workforce in 1973 with the worst recession on record, and paying 18% interest for your first mortgage, and getting drafted to kill Vietnamese? Every generation has its challenges. Some people step up and get it done, and others just sit around and complain.
Don't blame the "boomers" blame the two political crime families that have done everything their political overlords (campaign donors) have told them to do DESPITE it ruining our country. They are self serving power hungry pigs that sold out the good of their constituents lusting after power.
The right answer is to not get suckered into playing that game. Trade barriers with any particular country should be equivalent to whatever labor barriers exist between those two countries. IE, the US and Canada would have nearly unfettered access to each other, and highly tariffed trade with China. If other countries want to sell out their futures by following different paths, let them, and tariff their exports accordingly.
They did exactly what their constituents voted them to do - sell out the future to benefit the present.
Really? Their constituents were useful idiots that fell for the "wedge issues" like "God, guns and gays", they DID NOT vote for them to ship an equivalent of 3% of our GDP to China or vote for them to repeal Glass Steagall or vote for the "Bankruptcy reform bill of 2005". These politicians were voted in on the lies they told on the campaign trail- what they did in office was an entirely different thing which NOBODY voted for.
lulz, I didn't know you could be old and naive. I barely use facebook. As stated before, I had a business but had to shut down due to numerous factors. I had many people on payroll. I am doing it myself, hence why I'm a trader and even on this board. You still can't explain away that the boomers had less competition for jobs, had easier recessions (the last two both went on forever compared to the usual shorter ones) and have been in positions of power for 2-3 decades now. Ever since Reagan and HW, the country went to shit. It's obvious why.
Yes, they most certainly did. Perot ran two "giant sucking sound" presidential campaigns. The issue was brought to extremely high voter visibility, and received a full electoral hearing. Both Perot and his opinions on the matter were soundly rejected by voters. There is no one to blame for this mess but the voters themselves. Either that, or we have to accept that the very notion of democracy itself is fundamentally flawed.
As they say, democracy is not "ideal" but better than all the rest. I try to view democracy as a system which does not pick the best guy, but does a good job by preventing the worst types from getting in. Half-joking: Maybe instead of voters picking their favorite they should rank the candidates based on who they dislike the most. Who ever gets the least "dislike" votes is the winner.