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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhat's the plan for the poor and middle class?
We should stop and ask that once in a while. Right now it looks downright terrifying.
There's a malignant, predatory, deliberately-hidden-from-the-public, wage-and-job-killing "free trade" agreement on the horizon, that will hand unprecedented power to global corporations at the expense of all of us.
There's also likely a new Grand Bargain on the horizon.
The cynical might even predict a new war....but it *could* be they are just having lunch.
Yes, our middle class has been hollowed out, the poor devastated. The gap between rich and poor has never been greater....and the United States is now a corporate surveillance state, with whistleblowers and journalism under attack. Yet THESE are the plans and policies in the news. No outrage, still, no bullhorns, still, for what has been done to millions of us. Just more assaults on the horizon.
It's stunning, what they get away with. Isn't it?
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)I mean if we play out the trends over the last thirty years, that's where we end up.
HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)When there is nothing but the body, we wonder if the state will strip it of salable organs and then turn the soft tissues over to IBP for processing into pink slime to be used to stretch hamburger for public school lunches.
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)We've got to tighten our belt buckles so Mitt can keep his LaJolla mansion staff.
leftstreet
(36,108 posts)The politicians can no longer count on appealing to 'TeH MidDLe ClaSS' when there isn't one
DURec
TBF
(32,064 posts)CanonRay
(14,104 posts)it's a very simple plan, really. Figure out whatever it is the middle class needs, then pass the opposite.
liberalmike27
(2,479 posts)And they're saying "Take it. Take it," referring to our screwedness!
Safetykitten
(5,162 posts)people live with relatives, Part-time is booming. People LOVE Costco and everyone should work there. Wholefoods is wonderful I hear, and we get excellent advice from the ACA parrots that LOVE them benefits...the ones THEY don't have to get, or use, or have anything to do with.
So all in all it's a excellent day in America to be shopping, iPhone fetishing and generally living it up.
Brigid
(17,621 posts)Not a good sign. The plan for the middle class? To screw it seven ways to Sunday. What else?
Revanchist
(1,375 posts)Phlem
(6,323 posts)My position was one of the 1st waves of the technology sector during the *Bush Crime Family Reign* to be off shored. And it's gotten worse ever since. I put my self through college, dotted my I's and crossed my T's, worked plenty of overtime with no extra pay. I was taking care of a family and now I scrimp and scrounge for any work. I get mostly contract work with NO benefits and I still don't have a full time job.
I've posted my outrage here and shared it with family and friends , whom are all struggling by the way, and I'm an Obama hater immediately. I just want him to "fail" because I can't stand a day with out posting my "poutrage". Never mind the fact that we haven't seen a steady stream of good paying jobs for the last 16 years. No, it's more important to call me out, call me names, tell me I have no clue, etc.... The End.
No talk about jobs, no talk about how harmful FTA's can be to the American worker, no talk about the TTP that's about to mow us over. No, it's more important to sequestered me and labeled me an Obama hater.
Guess I have no choice but to continue being the squeaky wheel. Maybe someone one some day will listen.
-p
PS. awesome post woo!
Hydra
(14,459 posts)And I can tell you with confidence that the people who call your questioning poutrage simply haven't had their turn with the system biting a chunk out of them yet.
Stay strong, and you're not alone...sadly.
That's the part that gives me consternation, we are many.
peace.
-p
forestpath
(3,102 posts)LiberalEsto
(22,845 posts)At least for the younger ones.
And while you're away spreading freedom around the world, your house will be re-possessed, your credit rating destroyed because your bills will go unpaid, your family will need food stamps (which won't exist anymore) and IF you get back, you'll be greeted with months-long waiting lines for medical and mental care.
Yay us!?!
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)Then we had to eat it.
donnasgirl
(656 posts)For people to get off their collective asses and off our couches and do something about it, instead of sitting here and posting all is lost dam it do something about it.
I will back the people who are pro labor, Elizabeth Warren, Alan Grayson, and Bernie Sanders to name a few. STOP COMPLAINING AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
dotymed
(5,610 posts)We haven't made plans to do anything to guide us where we need to go. We all sit back and bitch and take it.
Let's get off the roller coaster...let us plan and follow through with a constitutional convention.
Leaders are important yet even with the few very good progressive politicians, I have not heard a "follow me," it looks like we have no choice but to bypass the system.
donnasgirl
(656 posts)Thank you
FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)I gave money.
I talked to people.
I voted.
And the ones I gave money to, the ones I talked up, the ones I voted for, turned around and called me Professional Left, needs-to-be-drug-tested, etc, etc.
There is NOTHING we can do unless we have honest candidates to vote for.
Hint: a D by the name isn't all we need (see current White House occupant)
donnasgirl
(656 posts)Honesty That is a very rare commodity these days
raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)Instead of standing against injustice, they fund & share in the proceeds of the decimation of America as well as the world at large.
They complain "What can be done?" and then keep doing the same thing expecting different results and still refuse to accept responsibility when the same thing occurs.
The choice, the free will, is our own. For better or undeniably worse.
Cryptoad
(8,254 posts)donnasgirl
(656 posts)Get that notion out of your head, I do not mean to be rude but it is time for some old fashioned ( Telling it like it is) if we little people do not wake up and get off the chairs all will be lost.
Cryptoad
(8,254 posts)at all the policies for the last 30 years that had have raped the middle class and redistributed their wealth to the Super Rick and you find they are 99% GOP policies ... and yes we are lost until those policies are repealed and reversed , which is going to take control of Congress and the SCOTUS by the Democrats
donnasgirl
(656 posts)With a certainty we will fail if we keep pointing fingers at each other, my suggestion is ( Focus) and stop being told it is one side or the other, this is why we keep losing elections and can't keep control for any length of time.
Cryptoad
(8,254 posts)supports that your premise is BS...........
donnasgirl
(656 posts)Here is a news flash for ya, all the data said the Democrats would win in Colorado. So much for your data.
Cryptoad
(8,254 posts)I have no data that says that.
donnasgirl
(656 posts)I started to say I am a truck Driver, I drive all over the country and talk to hundreds if not thousands of people every month.
I do not believe in data companies anymore and I find them to be wrong on much of their data anyway, my point is I talk to everyday people who are like me, they work for a living and are tired of being beaten down on a daily basis. The people who I speak with are Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, these same people I talk with are as sick of the crap as everybody else and want something done to straighten this mess we are in.
Cryptoad i will state for the record I am with you not against you it is just an opinion that I stated no facts or data, just what the average person is thinking and feeling, I am sick to my stomach at what people are losing, their homes their families and everything they ever worked for.
I just do not believe in either party any longer, there needs to be a new one.
dotymed
(5,610 posts)that you have not noticed that whether the politician has an "R" or "D" behind their name, doesn't matter anymore.
Yes, the Democratic platform used to be for the underprivileged.
For the last few decades, the policies that have redistributed the wealth upward has come from democrats as well as republicans. It is a corporate "I'm taking mine" ideology that knows no political boundaries.
If you haven't noticed this, them I am hard pressed to believe anything you have to say. It is very, very unfortunate but it is reality.
Even the AFL-CIO admits it as do most everyone.
Look at the "free-trade agreements of the past and the TPP currently being negotiated in secret as we speak. These were (are) not republican initiatives. They are a corporate agenda.
Sure we have the distractions of the insane tea partiers whose insanity is helping to destroy America but "our" party has been seized by the moneyed few also.
Believing(?) that it is all because of the GOP is not reality (I wish it were, it would be much easier to fight).
We often see (as is currently happening) a republican in office inventing some nasty, unconstitutional "laws". Usually after that pol is replaced by a democrat, they expand that very same law that they campaigned against.
Too bad that our dying nation is not black and white, D-vs-R, but is far from that. It is wealth-vs-every thing and everyone else.
When I read these blanket statements sometimes I want to be nasty to the poster and hopefully open their eyes. If all that has happened within the last 35 years (at least) hasn't opened your eyes, I sure can't.
Cryptoad
(8,254 posts)But I've been around long enough to look at the facts and data of the policies of the last 30 years and understand that there is one Party of our two Party System that has done more for the working folks and middle class than the other.
Suck up to the R's your want to... but don't try to piss down my legs and tell me its raining..
Something happen about 1980 that started this down this economic abyss we find ourselves in
You want to take a guess at what it is??
quakerboy
(13,920 posts)At today's Democratic policies... they are the Republican policies of 30 years ago. (yes, this is an exaggeration. Mostly. But many points, particularly on economic policy seem to be coming straight from an old Republican playbook)
Like they say... Behind every Republican with a batshit crazy plan to destroy the world is a Democrat with a willingness to offer a compromise that only takes us half way to total destruction.
Everything's gonna keep getting worse until we get some honest politicians who are for the people. There's a few of them in the Democratic party. Can't find a single one in the Republican party. But we need a majority of them in all elected offices, not a minority in one party.
Cryptoad
(8,254 posts)I can agree that we need more "Good" politicians. Kinda like saying ",,, everybody Loves Babies...." Like it or not,,, we have a two party system.....you best decide which one in more inline with your beliefs and work to elect more and better people !
quakerboy
(13,920 posts)Sometimes its a bit like living in an abusive home. Dad wants to get drunk and will likely beat you. Mom will only verbally abuse you and maybe slap you around a bit.
Which do you vote for then?
If my perception is that opposing notables like Feinstein and McCain are basicaly the same on issue that I care about, and that we are in a true national crisis where anything less than a full success is going to doom our nations long term future, what do I do then?
I see it a lot like this.. Imagine that the US is a car pointed at the Grand Canyon. The republicans and the democrats are two drivers. The US people are sitting in the back seat. Now.. the Republicans propose to drive that car right off the edge at full speed, and promise that the free market will build a bridge to get us across. The Democrats as a whole(minus a few individuals) propose to slowly drive over the edge, assuring us that its better than flooring it off the edge, and the slower speed will make the landing less bumpy.
But either frikin way we are driving off the cliff into the grand canyon. Neither way is at all "in line" with me. So what do I do now?
RandiFan1290
(6,237 posts)NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT, and now TPP.
Not many "dems" fighting against these publicon policies.
Cryptoad
(8,254 posts)but its hard to fight when you dont have control of Congress and you have to make deals with the Devil for anything you want!
totodeinhere
(13,058 posts)is all a part of the game plan. It has progressives bickering with each other when they should have many more pressing problems on their mind. And when this crisis of the moment finally fades I'm sure they'll come up with something else to throw us off track.
donnasgirl
(656 posts)Do not let them throw us off track. ( Focus)
Autumn
(45,106 posts)is gonna fucking hurt.
The Link
(757 posts)to get things moving and people talking.
felix_numinous
(5,198 posts)the unconstitutional takes a little longer. "
-Henry Kissinger
florida08
(4,106 posts)grilled onions
(1,957 posts)they have to keep a few around to clean toilets,mow lawns,wash limos, have around just for laughs and to keep boosting their morale by seeing how high up they are from the rest of civilization.
AzDar
(14,023 posts)KansDem
(28,498 posts)"Trans-Pacific w'erePhucked"
etherealtruth
(22,165 posts)Poor ---- serfdom
That appears to be the plan .... sadly, the plan is working
kenny blankenship
(15,689 posts)No one up there is even talking about you. They're all too busy peddling your ass to various corporate patrons and planning their golf resort retirements.
1-Old-Man
(2,667 posts)Alkene
(752 posts)ancianita
(36,066 posts)"They" are always hiding behind politicians who've legislated a surveillance state, media who point to false 'enemies,' and lobbying front groups who legalize the shredding of social safety nets.
eridani
(51,907 posts)Until no one has any money left to support the economy
winter is coming
(11,785 posts)gulliver
(13,186 posts)...putting more education and stimulus in the budget, calling off the Drug War, and dismantling the human blight factory known as the prison system. Priorities.
Barack_America
(28,876 posts)A new spin on an old disease.
Consumed by consumerism.
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)Triana
(22,666 posts)FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)Triana
(22,666 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)The plan is to enact a new and improved "free" trade deal called the TPP.
There are other plans in the works. Lower corporate taxes because the US has the highest corporate taxes in the world (pffft). Reduce the regulatory burden on corporations because it stifles job creation. Lower taxes on the highest income earners because they are the job creators. Cut entitlements.
Those are a few of the plans.
GeorgeGist
(25,321 posts)bvar22
(39,909 posts)There are just a couple of Finishing Touches left to add:
1)The Ring-to-Bind-Them, or the TPP (NAFTA on Steroids)
which is being forged "in secret" as we speak by the Representatives of the Global 1%.
NO representatives from Organized LABOR, Human Rights, Environmental Protections, Consumer Rights, Worker Protections, or Concerned Citizen Groups are "allowed" at these "secret" meetings.
President Obama is "asking" for Fast Track Authority to have this Treaty passed by an Up or Down vote with NO Amendments and NO debate,
probably after mid-night on a Friday so the betrayers of American's Working Class can slink off and hide before the sun rises.
2)The dismantling and privatizing of Social Security,
and THAT is NOW a Chip-On-the-Table for any future discussion of Budgets.
So, it is almost MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
Welcome to the New & Improved Gilded Age 2.0,
brought to you by The Republicans, and their friends and Co-Conspirators, the "Centrist" Democrats.
....because some things, only a "Democrat" can do!
[font color=firebrick][center]"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans.
I want a party that will STAND UP for Working Americans."
---Paul Wellstone [/font][/center] [center] [center] [/font]
[font size=1]photo by bvar22
Shortly before Sen Wellstone was killed[/center][/font]
You will know them by their [font size=3]WORKS.[/font]
haele
(12,659 posts)The plan of the Plutocrats is to keep a comfortable standard of living that gives people time to expand their horizons or pursue interests other than working out of reach for anyone who has to spend more than 1/6 of their income, however great, on "bills and taxes". The idea to promote is a harsh Calvinistic view; if you work for a paycheck, you are obviously lazy or a moron, and the less you make, the less human consideration you should get. God only rewards by prosperity and power. Especially those who cheat, and live off shuffling other people's money around and taking fees off the top.
It's hard work to network and convince people to trust you to manipulate numbers and formulas with their money, you know...obviously much harder to make something appear out of thin air rather than doing something that has a physical, tangible result, because the numbers of decimals on the bottom line of the final column are so much larger than if you're making a tangible object or doing physical work.
So, the plan is to encourage workers to go into debt if they want even a little bit of modern social interaction or happiness in their lives, to make a home and have children to keep them in debt, and to work until they get sick and die. Wages are loans that need to be worked off, after all.
The cynic in me is convinced that to most of those who play in the monied circles now-a-days, workers are like any other tool - they're disposable and fungible.
Haele
florida08
(4,106 posts)Well I'll tell you the plan woo
"Don't get sick..but if you do die quickly"
But we already know this and I believe the country is coming alive. Was quite surprised to see the polls on the latest with Syria
Hope is slow but it's alive! We keep fighting the good fight. I ain't going down willingly and I know you aren't.
paulrandfu
(35 posts)Die quick.
Autumn Colors
(2,379 posts)Until just enough serfs are left that are needed to serve the 1% and their interests.
Death by ....
Lack of insurance to treat illnesses
Starvation
Long-term diet of foods including GMO, meat filled with hormones and who knows what else
Reduction of regulations causing increase in air and water pollution as well as soil contamination leading to diseases ... results sped up by lack of insurance
accidental drug overdoses by destitute people trying to escape from reality
suicide by the desperate
wars created by the MIC for profit as well as culling the herd
feel free to add your own
indepat
(20,899 posts)successive administrations since the gipper foisted his voodoo economics upon us: yes, WJC's deregulation of banking et al and BHO's pending "free trade agreement," virtually unchanged tax policies, et al virtually assure full fruition of this plan and, one of these days, our society is likely to pass the tipping point and implode, perhaps never to return to a well-off and productive society. The mounting societal ills caused by this plan are rampant and clearly depicted in every measurement of quality-of-life factors due to virtually everything government should be doing to promote the general welfare is being sacrificed to feed a national security state by gorging the MIC and to enrich large corporations and the uber-wealthy at the expense of virtually all else. Only time will tell if and when our society does indeed implode. Ah, the infinite joys of living in a right-wing soused society perpetuated by a largely willfully ignorant electorate.
B Calm
(28,762 posts)Oilwellian
(12,647 posts)K&R