[Cog]

You know the boomers like me have retired. Of course we aren't part of the labor force. We are enjoying the record stock market though.

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kublikhan', 'O')utcast_Searcher, every developed country in the world is comprised of the same humans that make up the people in the US. And yet despite you attributing all the problems of the poor to human behavior and personal responsibility, somehow they manage to avoid the pitfalls you describe of the poor in the US. They are not a different species. They are all human. Thus there are other factors at play here besides just human behavior. This is not just the opinion of the "left" in the US either. The UN has come to the same conclusion.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A') scathing new United Nations report has found that the United States is leading the developed world in income and wealth inequality, laying explicit blame with the Trump administration for policies that actively increase poverty and inequality in the country.

UN report blames Trump administration policies for soaring income and wealth inequality

[KaiserJeep]

We have discussed this several times already. The overall wealth disparity has increased under both R's and D's for 35+ years, due to the tech.sector jobs. The people who benefit the most, including five of the eight wealthiest persons on Earth, are the high tech billionaires. The main force driving this wealth disparity as we go forward is everybody's lust for the latest smartphone features from Android and Apple.

Lastly, the above article is dead wrong about one thing. All income segments of our society including those on complete government subsidy and assistance, are better off AFTER the tech revolution, rather than BEFORE the tech revolution. However, as always, the gain at the top dominates any gains at the bottom.

If you want to escape this ratrace, the cure is simple and direct. Take your smartphone out of your pocket and smash it with a hammer. Close your phone account and enjoy life. I have already produced shocked dismay on the part of two Nantucket businesses by not having or carrying a phone. But I am retired and on vacation to boot. I am going to ridicule anybody I see pecking at a phone on the beach.

[onlooker]

But Kaiser what if somebody really really likes using their cellphone for socializing and what not? Are they not doing what makes sense in following their heart's desire

[KaiserJeep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('onlooker', 'B')ut Kaiser what if somebody really really likes using their cellphone for socializing and what not? Are they not doing what makes sense in following their heart's desire

[onlooker]

I do not use cellphone for the Internet. I have a computer at home and use it not just to socialize but I still do freelance translations Spanish to English and vice-versa. So I am not from Academia per say. More a lower middle class person afforded a good education by my parents who came in the 60's from Colombia S.A. Maybe that explains my affinity for the proletariat haha.

I have enjoyed the conversations in general here on PO. And since my wife also supports economically the household, just me and my wife (She is Filipina like Ibon's wife), I am not extending myself in working. I am 56. Anyway, the area you are living in is probably very pleasant and safe and at least in this country, many of us can still enjoy a decent lifestyle.

[onlooker]

I do not use cellphone for the Internet. I have a computer at home and use it not just to socialize but I still do freelance translations Spanish to English and vice-versa. So I am not from Academia per say. More a lower middle class person afforded a good education by my parents who came in the 60's from Colombia S.A. Maybe that explains my affinity for the proletariat haha.

I have enjoyed the conversations in general here on PO. And since my wife also supports economically the household, just me and my wife (She is Filipina like Ibon's wife), I am not extending myself in working. I am 56. Anyway, the area you are living in is probably very pleasant and safe and at least in this country, many of us can still enjoy a decent lifestyle.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Outcast_Searcher', 'P')retending like Trump is the whole problem is pretty absurd. The main change, re the recent trend in wealth inequality started at the time of the Reagan era, over 30 years before Trump was Potus.

Instead of politicizing this, looking at what's changed -- re technology and its impacts on good jobs, would make FAR more sense, in my opinion.

And neither the right, which wants to ignore the issue, nor the left wanting to expand the nanny state endlessly, is addressing the core issues.

[KaiserJeep]

Tanada, without disagreeing with anything you said, what actually changed was the expectations of the Middle Class. I spent early childhood in North Carolina and Louisiana. Six kids and our parents, living in a small house with a single bathroom, no A/C, single 19" B&W TV, a vinyl record player, and a Fallout Shelter dug into the backyard. We wondered about tbe Bomb and the Soviets and thought we were comfortably well-off, in the 1950s and 1960s. Today that life would be described as grinding poverty, not quite sixty years later.

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Outcast_Searcher', 'P')retending like Trump is the whole problem is pretty absurd. The main change, re the recent trend in wealth inequality started at the time of the Reagan era, over 30 years before Trump was Potus.

Instead of politicizing this, looking at what's changed -- re technology and its impacts on good jobs, would make FAR more sense, in my opinion.

And neither the right, which wants to ignore the issue, nor the left wanting to expand the nanny state endlessly, is addressing the core issues.

[kublikhan]

Outcast_Searcher, the UN report does not "blame the whole issue on Trump". Yes, it mentions recent policy actions by the current administration are making inequality worse. But it says this has been a problem for decades:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he United States has the highest rate of income inequality among Western countries. For almost five decades the overall policy response has been neglectful at best, but the policies pursued over the past year seem deliberately designed to remove basic protections from the poorest, punish those who are not in employment and make even basic health care into a privilege to be earned rather than a right of citizenship.

[onlooker]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... h-says-imf

World economy at risk of another financial crash, says IMF

[onlooker]

Whopping 62 percent of jobs don't support middle-class life after accounting for cost of living


https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/20 ... TmYCtPr5RQ