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| 2013-10-21 |
| h/t Instapundit Declining prospects for upward mobility, and the simultaneous social inequality, are the existential issues of our time. The percentage of adults who believe things will be better for their kids is at its lowest point in 30 years, with a majority now saying upward mobility for the next generation is not likely. The kids, God bless them, are still far more optimistic. Despite President Obama's occasional class-warfare rhetoric, this gap has widened significantly under his watch; the top 1 percent of earners garnered more than 90 percent of the income growth in his first two years, compared with 65 percent under George W Bush. |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #5 The lack of interest, or de facto negative interest, keeps the near-retired working and hampers job prospects of the young; It's a well known fact: I'm old and in the way. I'd like to retire but I'm afraid I can't afford it. I'm the old dog who keeps learning new tricks so some smart young programmer can't take my place. But sometimes I get soooooo tired. I can think of other things to do with my remaining years too. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2013-10-21 15:44 |
| #4 Victor Davis Hanson: The present huge sum of $17 trillion in debt is serviced at the same cost that we paid over 15 years ago. Indeed, we are paying today about the same amount in aggregate annual interest payments, in non-inflation-adjusted dollars no less, as in 1997 — even though the 2012 figure of $17 trillion in debt is about three times larger than it was a decade-and-a-half ago. That anomaly is possible only because today’s interest rate of about 2.2% is only a third of what it was back then. If interest ever returned to 1997 levels, at say 6.6%, we’d be paying over a trillion dollars a year in debt service. In crude terms, the winners of this Ponzi scheme are the very wealthy connected to Wall Street, which is flooded with foreign and domestic capital. It need not do much of anything more than outperform a pathetic 1% return on savings accounts. The poor benefit from the vast increase in federal spending and exemption from federal income taxes. In contrast, the middle class still pays high interest on its student loans, credit card, and, to a lesser extent, car debt, receives almost no interest on its meager savings accounts, and is not so ready, after 2008, to dabble in real estate and the stock market. In some sense, holders of U.S. Treasury debt and passbook savers are giving up hundreds of billions of dollars in interest returns (cf. the difference, say, between 1% and a more normal 5%) to subsidize the redistributive policies of the federal government. The lack of interest, or de facto negative interest, keeps the near-retired working and hampers job prospects of the young; discourages thrift, savings and investment; and plays an underappreciated role in the slow economic recovery. The Democrats must deal with the contradiction of needing zero interest rates to service their recent extra $6 trillion in debt, and higher interest to encourage savings, investment, and job growth. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2013-10-21 12:01 |
| #3 We simply can't wish away reality; the scar of racism and the impact of economic change, has made it tougher for less-educated minorities to rise in contemporary America. Of course legalizing 10 million non-Americans with minimal skills who violated the law to add to the voter rolls will do nothing to help those Americans already with low skills in the labor market. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2013-10-21 09:03 |
| #2 Thanks QE! Who'd have thought that the more controlling the government, the more those close to the government would make?! I'm shocked, shocked! to see crony-ism here. What's this? Your kickback Mr Chicago-Machine. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2013-10-21 09:00 |
| #1 We simply can't wish away reality; the scar of racism and the impact of economic change, has made it tougher for less-educated minorities to rise in contemporary America. The "less educated" tend to do less well nearly everywhere. Blaming a "legacy" of racism or [colonialism and apartheid as in Africa] along with "economic change" will only take one so far. This is particularly striking as in Africa, true when the alleged victim demographic [87-90%] far outnumbers the European oppressors. The struggle of culture and demographics has been around for a while. Good article on the whole. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-10-21 02:50 |