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Thursday, Dec. 23, 2010 | 2:03 a.m.
I’ve written a few opinions warning of corporate greed, especially in the banking industry, that will be the demise of the middle class. It looks like we’ve reached that point, and I hope it won’t get any worse.
The Working Poor Families Project just reported: “New data from the U.S. Census Bureau show that in 2009, there were more than
10 million low-income working families in the United States. Between 2007 and 2009, the share of working families who are low income — earning less than 200 percent of the official poverty threshold — increased from 28 percent to 30 percent. This now means that nearly 1 in 3 working families in the United States, despite their hard work, are struggling to meet basic needs. The plight of these families now challenges a fundamental assumption that in America, work pays.”
Meanwhile, according to Joseph Marr Cronin, Massachusetts’ education secretary, and Howard Horton, president of Boston’s New England College of Business and Finance, the next bubble to burst will be student loans and higher education.
These two conditions should make Americans wake up to reality. People need to understand that as long as we cater to the wealthiest 2 percent, we all will suffer. If we continue on this path, the middle class will be the new poor, unable to fund national security or the two wars we are engaged in.
After 10 years of the George W. Bush tax cuts, very little has been done by corporate America to rectify our economic downturn. When will they assume responsibility for their actions that caused this recession?
Shanty towns
Vernos Branco and other Americans can wait as long as they like, but the 'rich' are never going to do 'the right thing'. The 'rich' and the 'powerful' are made up of human beings and human beings look for advantage. In America, the way to gain advantage is to use lobbyists and send them to Congress to trade money and support for legislation that favors them. This 'trading' has been happening for a long time and both political parties participate in it. As both the 'government' and the 'rich and powerful' groups such as big industry and big labor have gotten ever larger and more powerful, this trading has accelerated. The result has been what Mr. Branco points out. However, demonizing the 'rich' will do nothing. Our Congress and each Senator and House member (R's and D's) were supposed to be the protection for the middle class against the desires of the 'rich and powerful'. This protection has broken down becuse our Senators and House members (both R's and D's) have sold out to the rich and powerful. They routinely (every day) trade legislation favoring the 'rich and powerful' for money and support for the parties and at re-election time for individual members. The villans here may include the 'rich', but we have no control over them. The 'villan' we can control are the Senators and House members (both R's and D's) that are selling out the middle class. STOP SUPPORTING THEM! ALL OF THEM!
Michael
Very TIMELY letter, Vernos.
Well said!
The SQUEEZE being put on the U.S. worker in the wake of the "Big Recession" is unconscionable.
Corporate greedster's want MacDonald's and WalMart to be the new model;
Part-time hours, few if any benefits, low wages, and an atmosphere of "just be thankful we're giving you a job at all".
WHO WILL CONSUME???
If only the upper class can afford to BUY beyond the essentials of food and rent, (cheap food and low rent, at that), WHAT WILL FUEL THE ECONOMIC ENGINE?
CHINESE, ANYONE???
Michael Casler,
Who did you vote for in the last election? The party that voted more often to hold the wealthy and powerful business interests at least more accountable (the Democratic party) or the party that kowtows to those same interests (the Republican party)?
I retired last year as a lawyer in Canada. In the late 1980's I watched as my legal profession began adopting the goal of "maximizing billable hours". That change in basic philosophy resulted very quickly in lawyers putting their own interests ahead of their clients' interests. By the middle of the 1990's, my beloved legal profession had been ruined.
In similar fashion, probably beginning in the early 1990's, the corporate world, led by America, changed the basic philosophy of companies to the sole, narrow goal of "maximizing shareholder value". This has allowed the boardrooms to abandon any loyalty to the employees or to the communities, and to ship jobs offshore, all for the reason of increasing profits to share among the shareholders (and it also led to the practice of huge bonuses for the bigwigs). As a result, in my opinion, corporate America has been ruined, just like my legal profession.
As far as I am concerned, America and most of its people will continue to head into widespread poverty until the basic corporate philosophy is amended. The new American corporate goal should be something like "manage the corporation to balance the interests of the shareholders, the employees, the communities in which the factories and offices dwell, and America as a whole". Without such a change, the gulf between rich and the rest of America will continue to widen until some sort of revolution completely wrecks America.
SUN had a story on Vegas lawyer glut...
mschaffer (Mark Schaffer), I held my nose and voted for Sharon Angle for Senate, and not because she was a good candidate or because I felt she would make a good Senator. I am at the point where, in elections, I simply refuse to vote for the guy or gal in office. They all choose to participate in a corrupt system where lobbyists simply trade their money, influence and support for legislation they want. Harry Reid, John Ensign, Dean Heller, Shelly Berkley and all the others participate as well. I will not buy the crap that both parties offer up 'that the other side is worse'. We cannot afford to play that game anymore - things are too bad now. If we leave people in more than one term, they WILL BE CORRUPTED - I guarantee it!
Michael
FromBelleviewCanada, That is one of the better explanations as to what has happened here. It is not only big corporations, the legal profession and many other businesses and professions, it is rampant down to the individual. It is simply GREED. I want mine and I want as much as I can get whether it is fair or it hurts others or not. It is destoying the country I love and that is very sad. I don't have a solution except to watch things devolve but try to maintain my principals through it all. May GOD help us all.
Michael
Hey fosimmons, what do think about this? "These debts are piling and piling up at the treasury, and normally the government would collapse, but for one thing, that is unique to the USA, the ability to print more and more dollar bills." Hey, think the Treasury would print a few thousand dollars for you and me so we could pay off our houses, cars? So then we'll be able to show the credit reporting agencies, lenders, how solvent we are so we can borrow more! Or spend more. Hey, what else do our good political spenders need? You know, to subsidize something that the politicians need in order to serve their constituents. Or, to reimburse their loyal lobbyists? Free benefits? Free healthcare? AND THEN HAVE THE MEDIA TELL US HOW THE DEBT HAS BEEN REDUCED AND HOW THE ECONOMY IS SLOWLY MAKING PROGRESS! Or have Obama appear on the news to tell us how the economy is improving... How's the economy affecting you? Your situation improving? Or, are you going to avoid the question and blame Bush for everything disaster that has occurred since time began... Getting old bud, move on for everyone's sake.
As is usual in this insert, there are numerous individuals crying "woe is me", but there isn't a single actual solution or idea.
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You can tax until you turn blue in the face, extend unemployment forever, continue to raise entitletments for the non-productive, and things won't be any better.
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Anybody can achieve some measure of success, if they are willing to work for it. Perhaps the best some might ever achieve is working two jobs, thirty hours each at minimum wage, but even that would provide enough for an apartment, possibly with a room mate, a used car, television and a cell phone, along with a bit of extra cash to have fun on occasion.
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Hardly a yacht and a home in the Hamptons, but nobody is entitled to that. We are not all equal little snowflakes. Some of us work our tails off just to make a decent living. Others are content to collect unemployment for as long as they can, rather then take a job that pays minimum wage.
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Taxing the rich won't make lazy people any less lazy, won't make terrible parents any better, won't make geniuses out of morons, and won't grant common sense to people gambling their paychecks away each and every week.
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We are Rome, our fall is imminent.
@FromBellevilleCanada :
I share your viewpoint !
1. Americans have been enjoying low-cost offerings.
2. As a result, American corporations have shipped jobs offshore for quick return on investments , to the great delight of shareholders.
3. The gulf between rich and the rest of America will continue to widen.
4. The Chinese fundamental position built on the perception that capitalism would collapse eventually, so the actual intent of its partial openness is certain to topple capitalism.
5. The pledge to its openness & democracy is much the same as that of the flip-floppers, say, the reps & Obama.
This kind of people (communists & flip-floppers), so-called political animals, in my view, should wreak an irreversible havoc on society.
Branco again? This person is so disenchanted with his country that he complains bitterly on the pages of the third rate Las Vegas Sun.
The Sun prints all his whining rants every time he writes. They agree with his liberal views. I think they should publish a book of Branco letters and see how many people will buy it.
Branco bleeds for the poor. He knows the poor will always be with us and the rich will always feed them. He just doesn't like the diet. Branco wants free food, free money, free health care and also dignity. Well there ain't no dignity in being poor. There ain't no honor in being poor. All there is more poor. The poor breed too much thereby creating more poor. Nobody likes the poor. We resent them for their neediness. Their ever present yearning for this and yearning for that. Don't worry Branco we will still feed you and your poor brethren, especially in this, the holiest of all seasons. We will supply you with sustenance and succor, but we cannot supply you any dignity. You have to earn that.
Hey Bud, whose the worst? How's your boy doing? Gee, listening to the Democratic media machine are we? You know, Obama and his arrogance? Big Bother? He's certainly my idol. Loves to read his teleprompters, preach to us like we're little kids like his Congress. Tell you what Mr. Obama, us taxpayers are smarter than you think. We don't think you are the great orator you think you are - like Kennedy. We all (except Liberals) don't think you're the "genius" YOU THINK YOU ARE. You're JUST A FRESHMAN POLITICIAN (and I wonder why you were elected...) Hmm, wonder why. By the way we all know its all handouts, publicity and BS. Looking towards 2012 are we? Duh. Hey, why don't you do something that addresses the economy, unemployment? Or would you rather just find something to show you're doing something, right? Put your picture on the front page - show your naive constituents that you're doing something, anything... right my Democratic friends! Good for you! Need any more money Obama? Just have the Treasuy print more money! Give more handouts to your buddies, lobbyists. Tell us how you saved us. Right Fosimmons? Hey just use that money to buy what you need for re-election. Fosimmons, still blaming Bush for every disaster since time began - while writing more checks from money WE DON'T HAVE? But there are those that are so selfish that thay would rather write checks than reduce spending. Good for you! Don't give up on those "important" earmarks. Right Harry?
We will suffer. Leaders who think they can teach everything to everyone are here to seen as result. If you have black dragon leading, you will not know where this all pain ends for.
Are you a wishful thinker to give a word for empty pulpit.
More liberal class warfare--nothing wrong with being rich--the rich do not make the middle class poor. This is not a zero sum game in which robbing the rich of their wealth will make the poor less poor. Teaching the poor how to produce and save is what will make America a better place--lifting new people up, while allowing others who have eanered wealth to keep it is the best policy. What liberals fail to get is that we are dealing with the potential for an expanding pie in which everyone has the potential to create and keep more--not a fixed amount which has to be redistributed around by takng away from earners.
dipstick (dennis williams), I said I held my nose and I did. It probably also gave me a headache to vote for Angle. That said, it was and is a 'lead pipe cinch' that Harry Reid will continue to sell the middle class down the river, make himself and his family wealthy, do exactly what the far left part of the Democrat party wants done and worst of all, he will continue to participate in and further the corrupt system that exists between lobbyists for powerful interests and our representatives that are supposed to be looking out for us. It was a heck of a choice - Angle, who obviously wasn't ready for prime time and Reid, who is part of the corrupt Congressional system.
Michael
Wait until the shoe drops on Universities. There are not enough wealthy to support a large percentage of them along with their high salaried faculty and upper administrations.
Vernos Branco next week's letter will be why did L.A. get more rain than the Vegas Valley.
Michael Casler voted for Sharron Angle?
Michael, your credibility here is ZERO.
You're just another greedy republican.
You fool no one.
I'm glad I voted for Harry Reid.
Harry's doing a great job.