the very first line of the first post shows an amazing bias, and a complete misunderstanding of economics. i quote "top 1% of the families takes 1/3 of US's wealth... while the bottom 50% take only 2.5%....." the word: TAKE the top 1% hasn't taken the wealth because wealth is CREATED (read that again) in our economic system. it is not a zero sum game (shades of another thread). for example, the US economy has significantly grown wealth over the last 100 yrs. compare the total wealth, wealth per capita, etc. and that is undeniably true. innovation, invention, economy of scale, technology, etc. all help to grow wealth. it takes less manhours, and less acreage, for instance, to grow a bushel of wheat now vs. 100 yrs ago. again, this shows amazing bias. the word "take" implies that for every dollar that the top 1% GAIN, it is necessarily taken from a limited pool of $$$ not true. the economy can (and does) shrink or contract, as does wealth, but it is an undeniable fact that over the long run wealth does (and has been) created. i could also mention that USA has among (usually in top 5% of industrialized nation) the greatest income quintile mobility of any economy. iow, the poor tend to (in general) not to stay poor over time, and to a large extent - membership in lower quintiles is relatively short lived.
Throughout history, let's say the last 20k years or so, there has been one solution to poverty, education. It's the dirty word nobody wants to talk about. Our middle class will be re-stored as soon as we improve the education in this country for our children. Look, we have schools in this country were 40% of it's graduates can't even pass a literacy test. How the f*ck are these kids suppose to compete in this dog eat dog world. They don't have a freaking chance. Kids in Europe are speaking 4 languages at age 14 and we can't even speak our native language when we graduate from high school. I got news for you guys, it's going to get worse, much worse.
Excellent comments. One of the best by-products of globalization and outsourcing is it will require the lazy in America to get off their asses. It will enforce the need for, and enable discovery through, being educated. +1. Not to mention It could, in a very indirect way, be a positive on the diminishing of the rampant drug usage.
this tax debate is funny, the rich DO pay most of the taxes but they can afford them. If you have a $30K salary, and you pay $3K in taxes, that $3K is a lot of money. If you have a $300K salary and pay $100K in taxes, $100K is a lot of money but you still have $200K.
While I certainly don't disagree with the importance of good education and the fact that the US is falling behind, nevertheless education alone is hardly enough to improve the situation. When companies like IBM lay off 10,000 college educated AMERICAN engineers with years of on the job experience and 10,000 college educated EUROPEAN engineers with years of on the job experience and hire 20,000 Indian engineers in Bangalore - obviously it has absolutely nothing to do with education.
Wrong, it has all to do with education. Europeans are not educated as Americans. Europeans are not as patriotic as Americans. And they don't think either that they are the best and the biggest. Be humble and never underestimate your enemy in the struggle for live. Otherwise you get results like being slaughtered in Vietnam and in Irak. If even a superarmy can get hurt so bad, it is clear that the biggest and strongest economical power ( supposing the US still is ) in the world can get hurt also. Remember David and Goliath. Thinking and acting like "we are the strongest" can make you vulnerable. Bush has proven this many times. He was going to catch Osama Bin Laden; he was going to make the world more secure. Reality shows that Osama hasn't been caught, and there has never been so much insecurity and terrorism than since Bush was going to solve the problem. And the most dangerous is to think and tell that he has everything under control while reality shows the opposite.
Right same old coservative BS for stealing! long live the banana republic and good luck to your kids no matter how hard they work. By the way , according to experts and the thieving minority, Europe doesn't compete because they are so socialist. You know with all that protectionism and unions and all that bad stuff, like a middle class. I are smart http://www.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/08/26/sprj.sch.sat.scores.ap/index.html:
Makes sense to me since they have all the money, but kinda scary when so many people don't make enough for SAM to raid them. The poverty rate is only 12.7% of the population so a whopping 38% got dam good tax accountants. Take a look at this link and spend a little time to follow the simple formula to see if you are poor. You gotta be kinda smart to know if you are poor. http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/povdef.html#1: