Posted on 06/28/2010 6:55:59 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
What happens when you’re smarter than the “educated class”?
I read here on FR that beginning Jan 1 2011 my flexible spending account will be made less valuable by eliminating much of the tax advantage.
Great.
The “educated class” just wants there to be a bigger difference between themselves and the masses.
It frustrates them to no end that “the masses” can enjoy nearly the same perks as they can. They are entitled to far more than your “average” person.
RE: What happens when you’re smarter than the “educated” class
That could mean :
1) They are educating people to be dumber, not smarter, nowadays.
2) People are spending (wasting) lots of money in order to be educated on so much that isn’t so ( as Reagan would say ).
Their blue state America is bankrupt, the blueest states are tanking.
Real wages for Americans have decreased since 1972. We are poorer than our fathers. This first ever (to my knowledge) reduction in wealth for the average American across generations Americans occurred even after cell phones, the internet, and a million other technological advances great and small. There is an elite that is vastly wealthier; they have taken all of the increase in productivity (and then some), along with government workers, union workers, and a few groups favored by government.
Exactly!
Educated beyond their intelligence?
I like the idea of only property owners only voting, I even like the idea of only male property owners voting. Men seem to have more sense when it comes to practical economics. Women vote for the most handsome candidate or vote their feelings.
No where is it enumerated in the Constitution that we have a duty to be charitable to the point that we give it all away. Which is exactly what has happened. All politicians have droned on about our nonexistent “duty” to the world, no one can fulfill their expectations. From day one we were not able to afford the Welfare/Entitlement programs. Where we go from here isn't a happy picture. The horse has left the barn.
I think it would be worthwhile to run a nationwide ad campaign to remind voters what Obamacare is. Now that it has passed it is slowly shifting to the background. Third party groups need to spend an equal amount to counter the Obama lie machine.
“Real wages for Americans have decreased since 1972. We are poorer than our fathers.”
But real hourly compensation has NOT. In terms of purchasing power, today’s generation of Americans has the highest standard in all of U.S. history. The figures here:
http://myslu.stlawu.edu/~shorwitz/Good/myths.htm
are a bit out of date, but if the figures were extended 1 more decade, the story would not have changed appreciably. It takes far less time for the typical worker to provide food, clothing and shelter for their family than at any other time in the past.
“And a nation of property owners is less willing to plunder the property of others in search of some promised gain than a nation in which most people don’t and will never own significant property.”
Hmmmm. Then explain to me why the liberal Democrats, Marxists, and other communist leaders, are very wealthy, (Soros), and still want it all? Fallen human nature?
Wiki:
David Brooks (born August 11, 1961)[1] is a Jewish-American[2] political and cultural commentator. He served as an editorial writer and film reviewer for the Washington Times,[1] a reporter and later op-ed editor for The Wall Street Journal,[3] a senior editor at The Weekly Standard from its inception, a contributing editor at Newsweek and The Atlantic Monthly, and a commentator on National Public Radio. He is now a columnist for The New York Times and commentator on PBS NewsHour.[1]
Most liberals are.
Brooks is the ultimate rino. There is nothing conservative about him nor was there ever.
I think you are fighting the last war with this post and link.
The counteraruements in the weblink have a grain of truth but they were deployed against wackadoodle libs arguing against Republican Presidents by shouting out that wages have fallen and socialism is the answer. The fact is that REAL WAGES HAVE FALLEN since 1972 and the link your provided says so. Today, most intelligent and educated people recognize that regardless of who has been in power government has continued to grow every year since 1972 . . . so saying that real wages have fallen is NOT a valid argument for bigger government.
The link you provided says that the fall in real wages over 40 years it’s not as bad as it seems because:
1) Benefits have gone up so total compensation is better.
2) Per capita income is up (capital gains, stock value, etc.)
3) The Consumer Price Index overstates inflation so wages are better than they look.
One at a time:
1) Benefits are not salaries. Economically you are better off with $1 than with $1 in free medical care. Why? You may not need the one dollar in medical care but you can supply a want or a need with that $1 cash guaranteed. In other words benefits are given as a tax dodge and they suck for us! A young man may have great medical benefits when what he needs and wants is a good salary to buy a nice car and condo to impress his future wife. Etc., etc.
Second point about benefits. We’ve seen retirement benefits collapse and so I wouldn’t trust a lot of those benefits if I had them. In other words, smoke and mirrors with underfunded liabilities.
Third point about benefits. Medical inflation has grown so radically that the medical benefits have gone up and up in dollar terms for those that have them . . . but the value is still a doctor when you need them. If you can get one in a year or two with government taking over health care. What happens to the benefits argument with socialized medicine? Those benefits go away. My bet is that the wages don’t go up but down when they do go away, because overall the system will be less efficient so we will be poorer.
So I really don’t buy point one about the benefits. It sounds nice but give me better wages instead please.
2) They state that per capita income is up because of our investments even if our salaries are down. So our fathers saved, we inherited, our salaries are down but our investments are up. That’s apples and oranges. And it depends on the year you do the calculation . . . has the stock market crashed that month, the housing market? It’s not wages. It’s not the ability to earn to save to get capital gains. It’s not the ability to rise up in this society.
This argument will go away as well since net saving is 0 or negative now as well.
3) They argue that the CPI is not accurate. My view is that it is as accurate as the economists can make it. I think that the Feds shifted away from the CPI in order to cut cost of living increases on their entitlement programs, not because the CPI is innacurate.
“And a nation of property owners is less willing to plunder the property of others in search of some promised gain than a nation in which most people don’t and will never own significant property.”
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The reason is that the majority have something to protect from encroachment by government. Soros and the liberal politicians have power, so they are not as afraid of a system that they control, imho. It’s their system and the conservatives just want to leave them alone (and be left alone) so they are not really threatened even when conservatives run things.
Now if we defunded the left that would scare the !@#$ out of them.
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