The middle class has been destroyed. The media keeps saying they are getting hurt, sorry - the media is too late - the middle class as a group is dead. They still "think" they are middle class, but when they qualify for "Medicare" on the ACA website, folks - you are no longer middle class.
They have seen their income levels stay the same or go down for the last 20 years all the while as the economy nearly doubled. It didn't happen overnight, it didn't happen since Obama became President, it happened slowly - by BOTH political parties doing their own damage. The LEFT pushed minimum wage which did nothing but stab the middle class in the heart with each increase, especially since it made other products cost more and didn't give an extra dime to the middle class. "Pushing from Below" makes as much sense as "Leading from Behind". That's what the Democrats believes with Minimum Wage - if they keep raising the lower salaries, they should be able to afford more... yeah - but what about the middle class? The RIGHT isn't much better. They pushed "Lets be a Global Economy" with the idea that the "MARKET" will balance things. That's a great "theory" that has NEVER worked ANYWHERE, mainly because the other players are not using the same rules that we are. Most Libertarians believes this theory will solve everything, but it is just a THEORY, just like Socialism "sounds" good but never has been successful.
This is the equivalent of the NBA wanting to have "global teams". They would play other teams but with owners who didn't have to follow the "owners" NBA rules. Some owner would hire cheap players, those who could shoot 3pointers from half-court but couldn't guard the weakest of the current NBA teams...maybe they could win by sinking enough baskets... The goal is to make money, not win games after all. Heck, the owners ALL get to share the TV money, and if that is $1B a year each, and an owner only had $500M in expenses, he is definitely winning no matter if the person who sells drinks in the stadium breaks even... Some owners would not use a salary cap - they would spend billions to "buy" players to make their team so they could win the Championship the first year, and then the North Koren Yellowjackets would be world champions and their Government could claim they are better than everyone else... In other words, RULES are important. China doesn't play by our rules, neither do most of the other countries that export products to our country for prices that we can't match to make.
The United States used to have big dreams, agreed that budgets for the Space Program was important because, well - we're explorers and we like new stuff. How else did we get GPS, Cell Phones, Satellite TV, etc... Scary thing is that movies like Armageddon could actually happen - and we are not ready - but we could have been. The Government has traded the Space Program budget for a larger EBT budget, and where is that getting us? Think about it, we could have a ROCK, yep, a dumb ROCK, heading our way that could wipe out the entire planet - but because we wanted to have a larger EBT budget, we didn't put any money into our world defense budget. Also, other countries "don't really like us". Our nations defense is getting weaker, not stronger - and on a rock with a bunch of bullies wanting to play King of the Mountain we are just asking for trouble, and we are not eating our vegetables to stay strong. Oh yeah, all these "defense" budgets spelled JOBS - middle class jobs. Space Program - JOBS - middle class jobs. Hundreds of thousands of JOBS. How many middle class jobs are being created with the EBT program??
I read stuff from all over the globe, because in my work I like to know "what's next". One story I stumbled upon from a person who visited one of China's shoe factories that was nearly a quarter mile long, with people everywhere manually making shoes, when asked why didn't they automate to make the shoes even cheaper - the owner of the factory said "what do we do with all the people?". One of the "ah-ha" moments that America missed. If we competed with China with the same labor costs then yeah - let the market decide. However, I can tell you this - if I have 10 kids, all who can work for free for me, and you & I wanted to go head-to-head in a lemonade business - I'm sorry but you might as well not open up shop, because I'm going to be open 24hrs a day and I'll have much faster service than you no matter what time of the day it is - and oh yeah, I'll sell it cheaper too since I'll have no labor cost. That is what is happening with China/America. That is what helped destroy the middle class. We have great people with nothing for them to do.
So what do we do next? Tariffs. Start with outside oil to the US. Opec has not slowed down pumping oil because they want to run America's Oil Companies out-of-business, because America's oil-drilling was built on a $80barrel oil, not $60, so they are NOW operating at a loss - a BIG loss. Next, more Tariffs to most if not ALL of the items coming from countries who have astronomical lower labor costs that we have. Granted, this will result in HYPER INFLATION almost overnight as prices will increase greatly. However, it will also result in the highest job market demand and salaries that we've haven't seen since the end of WWII as American entrepreneurs will crank up like style businesses themselves - and those WORKING will be just fine - they will ride the income wave and will be able to afford these products easily. Now, those that the Government has taught to "do nothing, we'll take care of you", well - those folks will probably feel it. SOME will get off the couch and go to work, some won't and will just complain, complain, complain... Oh well, I'd rather compete in that world than in the world we're currently in.
I believe in the Open Market, but the Open Market doesn't always work in a world arena when so many markets are not playing by the same rules. We're losing, but we could be winning. I chose winning.
TB
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