And Happy New Year Comrades!......

[socialist_n_TN]

I thought I'd be first this time. Starry and TBF usually does such a good job with the holiday(s) greetings, I thought maybe they could use a hand.

Let's see what we can do in a new year! We had some success in 2013, hopefully we can keep it going.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

1. Happy new year!

[TBF]

2. I'm always hopeful that this will be the

year that folks will fight back ...

I'm excited about the New Year but also very worried about those on the margins that are losing more benefits than ever

[socialist_n_TN]

3. Yeah, I know.....

Unfortunately, we're so far gone now, to get anything back is going to be painful for a lot of folks. And especially those on the margins, which BTW, would probably include me. We've always got to look towards making it as painless as possible while recognizing that there's no way it's going to be totally painless.

Happy New Year, T. All we can do is all we can do.

[TBF]

4. I think it is touching so many of us -

I know this political forum tilts older but not necessarily wealthier. I did a poll once on wealth and although we have the so-called "latte liberals" here we also have students, retired, and just plain average workers. Lots of them. In my family doing ok and continuing to tackle the student loans (I could write a book on the evilness of those) ... however worried about a close family member who is unemployed right now. It is becoming more and more common for folks over 40 to find themselves unemployed with few options.

[socialist_n_TN]

6. Yep, it's actually all of us.........

For all practical purposes anyway. The old folks like me at the tag end of our working lives are facing years of a precarious work situation and very little safety net. My wife just got laid off after 10 years on her job. She could take early retirement this Spring, but what about insurance? With her medical history even an ACA plan will be VERY expensive and she makes too much for subsidies. My daughter has $30k of student loan debt and that's going to take a while to pay off even with a BSN. And you folks in the middle have wage stagnation at BEST and increasingly precarious work also without even the prospect for future retirement.

Like I said, ALL of us are in the same boat. No matter which way we go, it's going to be hard on the 99%.

[ctsnowman]

5. More of

us are being moved to the downside margin every day.

Happy New Year.

[socialist_n_TN]

7. That's so true ct.......

but Happy New Year anyway. And welcome to Socialist Progressives and DU, BTW. I'm glad to see you putting it out there for discussion.

[Starry Messenger]

8. Happy New Year, comrades!

I've been helping out our local left-wing academic library over my winter break and have been up to the knees in books and neat old Red stuff.