Steven Pearlstein, business write for the Washington Post, wrote an excellent column that is definitely worth reading.
http://www.washingtonpost.com
We've been living a lie in this country for a long time. It started with the Reagan years and the "trickle down" theory of economics. Things slowed during the first Bush administration, but took off again during the Clinton years. We learned that "greed is good" and that if you work hard enough, you will be rewarded - no matter what your circumstances. (As long as you know the right people, were not born in a poor household.....)
Reagan broke one union and corporate America saw that they had a friend in Ronnie. Soon, we were hearing all about "Globalism" and a "post industrial" era and a "knowledge economy."
So the "New Democrats" jumped on the NAFTA bandwagon. Soon we would all be working on our laptops and making good money. Voices started talking about everyone becoming "contractors." Life was good.
Then we suddenly discovered that the new "knowledge economy" jobs were not as prevalent as we were promised. Then we were told we had to be "competitive" and to "re-train." For what? The experts were vague on the subject. If you asked one of them what jobs should we re-train for, you seldom got a direct answer. Students who got degrees in engineering or computer science discovered that there were people coming to this country with their HB1 visas in hand ready to work for pennies on the dollar. Employers like them. They not only work cheap, they don't skip out after a year and look for another job.
For the last 10-15 years, wages have been stagnant. Meanwhile, health care costs are going through the roof, gasoline is approaching $5.00/gal.
We were told "Invest in real estate. You can't go wrong." Well, you CAN go wrong if you pay $500,000 for a house that sold the year before for $300,000. You can definitely go wrong if you try to use and reuse the equity in your home. You can definitely go wrong if you buy a home at a 3% adjustable with no limits and suddenly discover that your income barely makes the payments, but your real estate taxes and insurance have gone up not to mention the cost of everything else.
For years we were told that there was virtually no inflation. Yet food prices didn't just start going up. My husband and I started noticing the rising prices several years ago.
Too many people can't say no to their kids no matter what. They spend thousands of dollars on video games, designer clothes and every fad that is advertised on television. The bigger the television, the better. The more stuff you have, the better.
Wal-Mart and other corporations decided that building factories in China was the way to go. They can make cheaper crap so people can buy even more of it. So what if some of it is toxic? The best part - all those decent paying jobs for people who really like to work with their hands, for people who just weren't made for college are gone. Now they have the "service sector." Low wages, no benefits but the CEO just made a bundle before he was booted out by the Board for not having double digit profits every quarter.
Pharmaceutical companies are more interested in keeping their drugs from going generic by making a small modification that enables them to keep their patent longer. That's easier than funding real research and development.
The energy companies spend virtually nothing on R&D. Exxon just beat back investors who wanted to force the company, among other things, to spend more money on research.
The Bush years have been anti-science and with zero interest in R&D. The "private sector" can do it better, we are told. Yes, that's why we're still driving gasoline-powered automobiles 34 years after the first gas crisis.
In another column, Mr. Pearlstein bemoaned the fact that we don't make anything in this country, that our young people all want to be hedge fund managers, financiers, and celebrities.
We have a grown son who just got married last September. I worry about their future. We've had eight years of a moron who looted the Treasury, got us mired in a war with no end in sight, and has mortgaged our nation to the highest levels anyone can remember. The fact that he has ANY approval rating at all, says things about our nation that make me fearful for our future.
We have become a country with a mortgaged Treasury as well as one in which too many citizens are basically treading water. The average American lives for today. Too many are only interested in how many toys they can accumulate. There is no security for anyone and that's a scary and sad state of affairs.
It's going to take boldness and the willingness to tell the truth to the American people. I question how many can take it. It's easier to tell everyone it's "Morning in America" than it is to suggest that we all need to grow up.