Is it really hard to fathom why many people despise the US?

Catweazle · Post by **Catweazle** » 05 Nov 2015, 19:01

emordnilap wrote:There are still people who say, "I know someone who smoked all her life and lived to be 95".

I knew a man who smoked since age 16, up to 20 cigarettes a day plus cigars, and he lived to be 48.

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 06 Nov 2015, 10:17

AutomaticEarth · Post by **AutomaticEarth** » 06 Nov 2015, 10:24

The Telegraph is also picking up on the American Dream going south:-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/econ ... Dream.html

Post by **kenneal - lagger** » 06 Nov 2015, 16:36

That's a pretty damning piece of research that could be applicable to the UK in the near future, if it is not applicable today. The increasing share of the economic pie being grabbed by the 0.1% is the main cause. It's about time that their kleptocratic mental problems were researched and then addressed for the benefit of us all!

AutomaticEarth · Post by **AutomaticEarth** » 09 Nov 2015, 21:01

kenneal - lagger wrote:That's a pretty damning piece of research that could be applicable to the UK in the near future, if it is not applicable today. The increasing share of the economic pie being grabbed by the 0.1% is the main cause. It's about time that their kleptocratic mental problems were researched and then addressed for the benefit of us all!

Yes we do tend to follow the US in most things over a 5-10 year time-scale don't we? We are certainly starting to follow in the US's footsteps with regards to inequality. Even the independent is wading in on this issue:-

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/ame ... 25606.html

johnhemming2 · Post by **johnhemming2** » 09 Nov 2015, 22:08

Don't forget technological change.

Post by **kenneal - lagger** » 10 Nov 2015, 07:35

What has technological change got to do with the Kleptocracy grabbing an even greater share of the pie every year. There is no point in making STUFF if no one can afford to buy it as Henry Ford realised in the 1930s and 40s.

The Kleptocracy are no longer a group to be looked up to and emulated, if they ever were, but a bunch of people who should be locked up in a secure mental institution for treatment.

vtsnowedin · Post by **vtsnowedin** » 10 Nov 2015, 11:19

kenneal - lagger wrote:What has technological change got to do with the Kleptocracy grabbing an even greater share of the pie every year. There is no point in making STUFF if no one can afford to buy it as Henry Ford realised in the 1930s and 40s.

The Kleptocracy are no longer a group to be looked up to and emulated, if they ever were, but a bunch of people who should be locked up in a secure mental institution for treatment.

You go overboard on this Ken. If your vision of things was correct we would all still be working for a dollar a day and wearing homespun cloths. Somewhere along the way the pie has gotten a lot bigger and most of us have an education, housing, closets full of cloths,vehicles in the driveway or other transportation,cell phones and other electronics galore.
Be careful of how much you would tax the one percenters. They might stop doing the things that grow the pie.

Post by **kenneal - lagger** » 10 Nov 2015, 14:40

You have been listening to the propaganda again VT. The pie might well have got bigger until 2008 but then it got very much smaller and the burden of the reduction fell on us not the 0.1%ers. since then the Kleptocracy has increased its share while the rest of us have suffered a continuing reduction in share. Haven't you noticed all the tax breaks that the Kleptocracy have awarded themselves while the rest have paid more?

They take money from us and shuffle it into the financial economy where it is is invested in such useful things as bonds and CDO and other bits of essentially worthless bits of paper. Very little is used to invest in capital projects or even industry which would benefit all of us. The worthless financial markets get bigger by the day while the rest of us are starved of money.We might no all be working for a dollar a day but things are going that way and ask the unemployed how much a day they are getting.

vtsnowedin · Post by **vtsnowedin** » 10 Nov 2015, 15:50

kenneal - lagger wrote:You have been listening to the propaganda again VT. The pie might well have got bigger until 2008 but then it got very much smaller and the burden of the reduction fell on us not the 0.1%ers. since then the Kleptocracy has increased its share while the rest of us have suffered a continuing reduction in share. Haven't you noticed all the tax breaks that the Kleptocracy have awarded themselves while the rest have paid more?

They take money from us and shuffle it into the financial economy where it is is invested in such useful things as bonds and CDO and other bits of essentially worthless bits of paper. Very little is used to invest in capital projects or even industry which would benefit all of us. The worthless financial markets get bigger by the day while the rest of us are starved of money.We might no all be working for a dollar a day but things are going that way and ask the unemployed how much a day they are getting.

There is an old saying Ken. "when your neighbor is out of work it is a recession but when you are out of work it is a depression." Perhaps I'm not seeing it because all five in my immediate family are fully employed at or above the median income. Even among extended family and acquaintances there are few that want to work that aren't and there are several drawing pretty generous benefits of one kind or the other. Just not seeing the pain and injustice of which you speak.

Post by **kenneal - lagger** » 10 Nov 2015, 17:25

You might live in a more prosperous state than some others, VT. In the UK there are record numbers of people using food banks and rents are going up far faster than wages or inflation. *ankers bonuses have lead to a very large uncontrolled private rental sector and the government is pushing home ownership at a time when the wage to house price ratio has never been higher and is also increasing. Ordinary people are being ripped off left, right and centre and most of them don't have the gumption to realise it!!

Post by **clv101** » 12 Nov 2015, 16:51

One messed up country:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPZed8af9RI

One in 30 American men ages 20-34 are in jail, for black males that's one in nine.

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 12 Nov 2015, 18:20

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015 ... rest-towns

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 21 Nov 2015, 22:16

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the ... e-in-2016/

I think he's going to win. The Americans are actually going to elect this person as their president, and he's going to be even worse than George W Bush.

Post by **clv101** » 21 Nov 2015, 22:31

Come back Sarah Palin, all is forgiven!

Seriously, though, whilst Trump may win the nomination, surely he's got zero chance against almost any Democrat candidate? The demographic is shifting away from the Republicans and Trump has no chance of winning the middle ground.