On the positive front, America is really good at dropping bombs on foreigners.
MarketWatch reports:
The American dream — the idea that anyone can own their own home and do better than the previous generation with the right amount of hard work — has been fading for years, with rising house prices and stagnant wages. Now, people who want to achieve it may be better off seeking it in Canada, the U.K. or Denmark according to a new study published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
At least the Fed is admitting its total failure.
The study, authored by Raj Chetty, professor of economics at Stanford University, defined the concept as the ability for children born in the bottom fifth of income distribution to reach the top fifth. In the U.S. the likelihood of that is 7.5%, whereas in Canada children born in that group are twice as likely to rise to the top — at 13.5%. In the U.K. the likelihood of achieving that move from the bottom fifth to the top fifth is 9% and in Denmark it is 11.7%.
Indeed, the rich do appear to be leaving the middle class behind. Most U.S. middle-income households (81%) had flat or falling income between 2004 and 2014, according to a U.S. Congressional Budget Office data analyzed by the McKinsey Global Institute, a global management company.
“Most people growing up in advanced economies since World War II have been able to assume they will be better off than their parents,” the report said. “Yet this overwhelmingly positive income trend has ended.”
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Yes the american dream is dying, however across the globe the american nightmare is growing.
I’m glad that I am pre-boom, thus old! My family lived in my grandmother’s garage when I was little. My parents eventually moved up to buying their own home, and I have done so, too, in retirement. These kids of the “millennial generation” really have a sore, rotten deal!
This is the problem that must be addressed. taxes need to be shifted from the productive portion of America and onto the unproductive FIRE sector. Until that happens this country will continue to deteriorate.
The system has been getting more and more unsustainable every year. Huge private debt to gdp ratio is killing our growth in the economy. Yet the politicians concentrate on the wrong debt. They concentrate on reducing govt debt. They dont understand how the economy works. They think govt debt works like household debt. It doesnt. Shrinking govt debt hurts the economy. The govt needs to be in constant debt. No govt ever paid off its debt and there is no reason to do so. Expansion of public debt helps the economy but the stimulus that public debt provides has to be spent in the right places. Obama spent the stimulus money on banks. The banks loaned the money to companies who used it to increase debt by buying stock back and mergers and acquisitions. Less companies created more power at the top and buying stock back created more debt without expansion in income.
The stimulus needs to be spent on the productive side of society to encourage growth and not the unproductive FIRE sector.
There is a reason why war is good for the economy. It is the time when public debt is expanded and spent on planes, tanks, cannons, trains and guns. The middle class gets more jobs and makes money to buy things.
Why not expand the govt debt like you do doing war time but instead of spending on war products, spend it into the economy directly on the middle class. Spend it on Trains, cars , planes, skateboards, and other great things. This will lower the price of the items giving the middle class money left over to spend on other things that grow the economy.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot.
Bypass the FED. Create the money from the treasury like Lincoln did to fund the Civil War. We dont need to be paying interest to a bunch of super rich bankers. We dont know who they are and we dont know how they spend the money they create or we give them. This is the stupidest arrangement ever. Income tax was first used at the same time the FED was created. One could hint that the unproductive nature of the FED caused us to need income tax to compensate.
I am sure if we audit the FED we will find that they have been manipulating and robbing the general public for 100 years now.
Canada is a class-ridden society.