Instead of having a discussion on gays, guns, Bush, Iraq etc.

 

I pose this question to everyone. Not what you personally dont like(maybe youre rich and dont like taxes at all, thats not what I mean). I mean the biggest problem DIRECTLY affecting every red blooded lower through upper middle class American. Not the issues that are in the news or the issues that politicians have made important(though if you think those are the issues adversley affecting the average American then ok). Perhaps a better way to pose the question..what is the worst problem for Average Joe of Brevard County Florida.

 

 

 

My answer: The growing Wal Mart economy. I think the average American is being driven into lower paying, less benefits jobs. I think growing lower class and more and more income consolidated in smaller and smaller upper class is destroying the once great middle class. Average Joe can barely raise his family anymore. He cannot makes sure his kids are 100% healthy. Thats directly affecting him.

 

Now if you think gays guns and morality are the biggest issues DIRECTLY affecting average people's lives, making Average Joe's life more adverse, then go ahead and say that with defense.

I think you're right on, F_M... classes are becoming too rigidly stratified... and I'm feeling it.

speaking of Wal-Mart, dammit I just missed that Frontline special on it the other day....

 

gotta watch it online.

Its similar to what we have seen in a number of European nations in their history...when the middle classes shrink and even disappear a society really decays and crumbles.

 

 

You can also argue that other issues such as education is a problem as well as certain forms of crime. But those issues esecially crime are not the problem they were on a large scale even some 10 years ago.

 

 

But why the shift in the business economy....one has to be the politics behind it...the govenment has made it so easy for companies to outsource.

 

Companies on the other hand have learned that they can gouge people...both consumers and employees...and come out smelling like roses...growing their coffers, building their glass homes and being shut off from the world.

 

 

I would also argue that health care is also one of the biggest problems in this nation. Especially if you arent a child or elderly. There is a major lack in availability of health care for working class folk...and when these beneifts are afforded the working class they are substandard in many ways.

 

 

So its not just the shrinking middle class...it extends to health care and education.

 

 

they are all linked ultimately. rank em however you want...they are are all of upmost importance.

the threat of terrorism.

 

one guy setting off a suitcase nuke in manhattan or DC will topple this country.

The threat of asteroids.....

 

Hitting the atlantic and washing out half of america :plain

 

They should build a wall to block waves up to 5 miles high.

People in the country are just becoming too stupid, and its really not the education system. :thumbdown

The main problem is the economic conditions. As the deficit increasing, personal responsibility is on the decline in economic terms, why work hard when the govt will support you for not working? Another problem is taxation, lets stop corporations from outsourcing by taxing the hell out of them, defintely not the way to go. Give tax incentives to corps for keeping jobs here. Furthemore as the general rule of eocnomic systems the US MUST lose low wage jobs in favor of technological jobs, this is whats happening in the EU. The manufacturing jobs in places like France are moving to places like Cyprus or Malta, while tech jobs from Malta go to France. The EU allows for the country tkaing in the manuf. jobs to prosper b/c of subsidies in certain sectors. We need a system similar to the EU in this nation, so that ourselves and the nations of America can work together in a multi benifital relationship, where job flows go from country to country. In the last year alone we lost 3 million jobs to outsourcing but GAINED 6 million jobs due to insourcing. Means we netted 3 million jobs in that aspect. We need to open up the system so that the eocnomy can flow in its natural courses.

 

Furthermore, Chewbacca made an idiotic comment. However, education does need to be reformed, pumping more and more money does not work. Make evaluatory periods for teachers to maintain or improve class scores, and make a more comprehensive FCAT, where it covers all course material that a a student of that grade should be learning. After the period if the teacher fails to maintain or improve scores, then apply to wal mart. This can be done even without the need for a voucher system because then the public system will improve, and accountability to the students and parents will make it a functional system. A system that as it is now receives more and more money based on how bad the school is, thats rewarding it for failure, so there is no incentive to improve. Take a poor school in the inner city..... with its limited resources it still improves the quality of education for children...nOW this school should receive more funding to further improve, not the other way around

Give tax incentives to corps for keeping jobs here.

 

Did you get that from www.johnkerry.com? :whistle

 

 

Seriously though, I agree that we are probably picking up jobs higher end on the sector scale. But isnt the nature of globalization such that those jobs wont be as plentiful as the old school manufacturing and service industry jobs? Companies just dont need as many managers as they need producers right? The problem Im wondering, and Ive heard this in other places, is that though we are getting managers, those managers are becoming lessor and lessor in number and those who are managers are making more and more money. In addition, even in a perfect education system, we wont have enough positions for everyone and hence the lower end will have to take up the service for the managers right? ie They will have to become Wal Mart employees etc. But once they take those service end jobs, will they have enough to sustain their families?

 

Lets say we do get rid of the major federal entitlement. Who does that necessarily effect? The poorest of the poor who no longer get Medicaid. The elderly who no longer get medicare and social security. But that still leaves a good chunck of the lower middle class that cant make enough either way. Beyond even healthcare, do they have enough to sustain their family? In the past theyve made enough such that the government didnt even need to get involved. Are more and more people hitting the poverty line? Even if we fix education, will there just not be enough jobs for people and will the lower end make enough.

 

One big red flag is though we've gained jobs recently, personal family debt is through the roof. More and more people are relying on Mastercard to solve their woes and that is not a good thing.

 

Perhaps in reality, companies just arent trickling down to these lower end workers of theirs. Ie the wal mart problem. I think Das said it best:

 

Companies on the other hand have learned that they can gouge people...both consumers and employees...and come out smelling like roses...growing their coffers, building their glass homes and being shut off from the world.

 

 

As far as education,

I agree in principal with holding teachers accountable but things like FCAT testing and NCLB have had some major problems. For one, a lot of schools have complained that even when they meet funding requirments, they arent getting it. And secondly, when a school's funding is tied to its weakest link, rational choice theory seems to say take the easiet method to solve that weakest link. Too often that means not fighting to stop a struggling kid from dropping out of school. Too often it means shuffling that kid around. Maybe the idea is right but just needs fixing.

Funding isnt met b/c govt bureaucracy is ineffective and inefficient. Thats why funding has been a mess. Furthermore when i say tech jobs i dont mean just managers, i mean lawyers, doctors and other jobs that require more training than working in an assembly line, those jobs will go to other nations. And again your wrong on what cutting entitlements will do, because its not outright cuts, its gradual cuts, with added dollar for dollar tax incentives given people for donating to PRIVATE cahrities, approved by the govt if you want, who help those 'left out' or 'who cant make it' And the other option in a free union like that is to move to another country. Outsourcing/insourcing is good not bad and its disgusting how the media has made it look. This isnt 1912 isolationism is dead, open up the world completely for everyone. At first in groups EU, AU, and so forth

Funding isnt met b/c govt bureaucracy is ineffective and inefficient. Thats why funding has been a mess. Furthermore when i say tech jobs i dont mean just managers, i mean lawyers, doctors and other jobs that require more training than working in an assembly line, those jobs will go to other nations. And again your wrong on what cutting entitlements will do, because its not outright cuts, its gradual cuts, with added dollar for dollar tax incentives given people for donating to PRIVATE cahrities, approved by the govt if you want, who help those 'left out' or 'who cant make it' And the other option in a free union like that is to move to another country. Outsourcing/insourcing is good not bad and its disgusting how the media has made it look. This isnt 1912 isolationism is dead, open up the world completely for everyone. At first in groups EU, AU, and so forth

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Yeah but when did the middle class ever get entitlements? What entitlements are people relying on today? When did the government ever support the average American in any program. Maybe the poor and the elderly, but never the average American. I think blaming entitlements has been a cop out.

 

And when I said managers I was referring to higher end jobs like the ones you mentioned. Im not sure what you meant but I think that with education, more people will obtain those higher end jobs. But my point is that on a national level, those jobs are going to much less plentiful than past bread and butter jobs so people will be diverted to the service sector no matter what and the service sector jobs just dont pay enough to sustain a family or the basic American dream and no amount of private charity nor government programs for that matter will solve this.

I think there is a spreading lack of responsibility and propensity to blame others on both a personal, corporate and governmental level

 

I believe that can be found near the base of most other problems that are effecting the nation

 

I think the cycle of debt that is prevelant now is a major issue. I think people have trouble feeding their families and taking care of their base needs by trying to keep up with the Jones' not by working hard and out performing them, but by simply outspending them. Instant gratification with a credit card, makes you feel good and look good. However, enjoy paying off the comfort for the next 5 years at 25% interest.

the entitlement thing is no cop out. Its exactly hitting the nail on the head. The middle class doesnt need help as long as you work hard and live within your means. Responsibility is key here. Only the dirt poor need help of any sort and among those groups the only ones that deserve help are the elderly and infirm

I would have to vehemently disagree there. Things have not always been equal in this country and still are not.

I would have to vehemently disagree there. Things have not always been equal in this country and still are not.

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Things shouldnt be equal. Equality of law does not mean that everyone has to have the same amount of money and the same social status. Equality simply means no discrimination for being rather than doing.

That's the point. Chances have only been equal for 30 or so years and even that's debatable.

That's the point. Chances have only been equal for 30 or so years and even that's debatable.

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The thing is what makes chances equal. Helping minorities may be one way, i do not feel giving money to the 'poor' actually helps because when ppl make money they dont need to work. So too many things r in play here. its not as simple, this country is moving forward not backwards in terms of opportunity and a better life for all but we must continue working

I've got to admit it's getting better, getting better all the time.

I've got to admit it's getting better, getting better all the time.

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the entitlement thing is no cop out. Its exactly hitting the nail on the head. The middle class doesnt need help as long as you work hard and live within your means. Responsibility is key here. Only the dirt poor need help of any sort and among those groups the only ones that deserve help are the elderly and infirm

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legacy, what entitlements exist for the middle class?

The biggest problem in the country is religious nuts who are trying to destroy separation of state and church to force all their extreme values on the rest of the population and censor everything.

I would have to say that I think the near lack of separation between church and state is the biggest problem in this country right now. I don't like the idea of President Bush increasing his "faith-based initiatives" to organizations by giving them taxpayers' money.

 

It's also sad that almost a quarter of the voters in this country ignored all of this administration's failures, since they were more concerned about stopping gay people from getting married.

 

They were also extremely focused on ending abortion, even though our war in Iraq has killed tens of thousands of civilians, not to mention the war total, and the U.S. death toll that has exceeded 1100.

 

And, thanks to the FCC, TV stations were too scared of fines to air "Saving Private Ryan", one of the best war movies ever made, un-edited on Veterans' Day. However, the following Monday, ABC tried to promote its "Desperate Housewives" show by having one of their actors naked during the intro. That I really don't understand.

the entitlement thing is no cop out. Its exactly hitting the nail on the head. The middle class doesnt need help as long as you work hard and live within your means. Responsibility is key here. Only the dirt poor need help of any sort and among those groups the only ones that deserve help are the elderly and infirm

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legacy, what entitlements exist for the middle class?

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Social Security is generally considered an entitlement.

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An entitlemnt for the elderly who no longer work. What entitlements are there for middle class America? The average guy who works..not the elderly or the poor.