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Originally Posted by jayeff
I seriously doubt routine government stats qualify as propaganda. Anyway who needs propaganda when you can use your own eyes: I'm old enough to remember when a working mother was unusual. Now for most families a second income is a necessity.
Have you travelled through the "Heartland" recently, thousands of square miles of corporate farms (many not even American-owned) and communities which have been in decline for a century. The mid-west is home to some of the poorest parts of the US and there isn't the slightest prospect of improvement. Try visiting towns such as the one in which I live, where more than 20% are permanently on welfare and people won't even paint their homes because that would mean an increase in taxes.
The whole concept of onwards and upwards on the tails of business profits is transparent bullsh*t. If you take a man who was earning $20 an hour in a shoe factory or whatever, and give him a job selling shoes for $10 an hour, it doesn't take an economist to figure out he is going to be spending a whole lot less money in future. Repeat that across thousands of factories in hundreds of industries and before long, with the buying power of your customers reduced, prices are forced down and margins end up no better than before the first factory closed.
That was a reality no-one had a problem with back in the 70's. Politicians of both parties were comfortable admitting where we were headed, because then they could tell people not to worry, everyone would soon be doing clean, high-tech jobs and earning more than ever before. Unfortunately for most, that brave new world never happened and now we are exporting hi-tech jobs too. The best way to hide a lack of answers, is to pretend a problem doesn't exist, so these days we pretend that such scenarios are all a figment of fevered left-wing imaginations.
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Routine government stats?
How about this, in the last 15 years we've had the lowest combined rates of unemployment and inflation ever.
Just because things suck where you live doesn't mean they suck everywhere.
I guess what you're saying is that the combine should never have been invented, because before the combine the vast majority of Americans were employed in agriculture, most of them lived and worked on farms.
Once the combine was invented most farm workers became unemployed and had to move to the cities to find work in factories.
But yeah, that whole industrial revolution thing was really bad for the country and the economy right?
Then the manufacturing jobs started moving overseas and people had to move and get jobs in information technology. I can see your point, this whole information age has really sucked for us too right?
If some guy made $20 an hour working in a shoe factory then he was overpaid. If his education and skills mean the best job he can get is selling shoes at $10 an hour then that's his lot in life. We shouldn't overpay people who don't have any marketable skills just because it'll make you feel better.
Also, regarding your remark about both parents working being a "necessity" I guess that depends on how you define necessity.
If you think things like cell phones, cable television, high speed internet access, personal computers, ipods, gym memberships and tanning salons are necessities, then I guess you're right.
However, in the era you're referring to, none of those things existed and the average family of 4 lived in a house smaller than 1000 sq ft. If you're willing to do without all of these modern conveniences and live in a very small place, I'm sure the average family can get by with only one parent working.
