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Triban
Joined: 14 Jul 2009
Location: Suwon Station
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 Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 8:25 am Post subject: |
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| Hm, the images will display on my work computer but not my home computer....I wonder what's wrong... |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 5:03 pm Post subject: |
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Derek Thompson unpacks what I'm talking about in terms of skyrocketing productivity, rock-bottom consumer goods prices, but stagflationary effect.
Why do Americans work so hard but feel so poor?
| Derek Thompson wrote: |
In the last 30 years, productivity grew, but it didn't make you rich because all the benefits went to make stuff cheaper. You can see this in Walmart and on your computer screen. Food and clothes have never been more affordable. Information has never been so easily accessible. Electronics have never been so advanced. Consumer products have never been so diverse, effective, and cheap.
If everything is getting cheaper and better, why don't you feel richer? Because the basic necessities -- homes, gasoline, health care, and education -- are not getting cheaper. Real housing prices slowly increased for 30 years before the housing boom. Real gas prices are the same today as in the 1930s. The cost of health care is growing faster than wages. Higher education costs are growing even faster.
Houses, gasoline, health care and education make up the core of our day-to-day life. The typical American family spends half its money on housing and transportation. The economy spends one out of four dollars on health care ($2.6 trillion) and education ($1 trillion).
The reason these things aren't getting cheaper also goes back to productivity. Productivity is growing fastest where we work -- information, technology, manufacturing, wholesale, services. It is growing slowest around many necessities: health care, education, construction, and government. |
What does this mean policy-wise?
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| The presumption in Washington is that as long as we have a growing economy, everything will work out, and if productivity rises, jobs and wages will follow. It turns out that growth and productivity, while not at all evil, are not panaceas, either. GDP growth has been decoupled from job growth. Productivity has been decoupled from wages. What's good for work has been decoupled from what's good for workers. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 7:08 pm Post subject: |
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Here's a chart comparing living standards in Germany and the US:
US Living Standards Are Lower That Most Americans Realize
Americans get to work 33.7% more hours a year in return for 36.0% more money to pay 93.9% more for health care and die 1.17 years sooner...is one way to look at it.
http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2011/06/30/258080/us-living-standards-are-lower-that-most-americans-realize/
I suspect we'll see more charts like this as we slip farther and farther behind other countries in one field after another. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 7:31 pm Post subject: |
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So basically except for health care, we're even with the Germans (who I would expect enjoy the highest standard of living of a comparably sized nation).
We're doing better than I thought, actually. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 10:18 pm Post subject: |
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| Kuros wrote: |
So basically except for health care, we're even with the Germans (who I would expect enjoy the highest standard of living of a comparably sized nation).
We're doing better than I thought, actually. |
I believe that is called damning with faint praise.
It looks to me like Americans are working 33% more than Germans and just managing to stay even with them. As the Red Queen said, "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!" |
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Theme
Joined: 06 Jun 2009
Location: Cedar Rapids Iowa
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| Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2011 11:40 am Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| Kuros wrote: |
So basically except for health care, we're even with the Germans (who I would expect enjoy the highest standard of living of a comparably sized nation).
We're doing better than I thought, actually. |
I believe that is called damning with faint praise.
It looks to me like Americans are working 33% more than Germans and just managing to stay even with them. As the Red Queen said, "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!" |
What I want to know Yatta yatta, is how many years , in the past 16 years you have lived in the US?
You seem to know everything about everything in Korea, the US and even elswhere and draw upon your age when it suits you.
But I believe you have not even lived in the US for over a decade and know nothing about it here. |
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Koreadays
Joined: 20 May 2008
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| Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 3:42 am Post subject: |
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| humans in the future say, 1000 years from now which really isn't much when looking at it on a time line, will remember America as a once power country, nothing compared to ROME or England in their hay day.. but still America will be remember.. but America will fall soon.. and they will fall HARD! |
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visitorq
Joined: 11 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 4:45 am Post subject: |
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| Koreadays wrote: |
| humans in the future say, 1000 years from now which really isn't much when looking at it on a time line, will remember America as a once power country, nothing compared to ROME or England in their hay day.. but still America will be remember.. but America will fall soon.. and they will fall HARD! |
The power, influence, and impact on the world of the United States is far, far greater than that of ancient Rome - greater by orders of magnitude. It is a silly, and anachronistic comparison to make however.
As for the British empire, it basically just merged with the American empire (forming the Anglo-American elite, which remains at the head of the global power structure). Other Europeans, and Japanese have also been near the top, with oligarchs from other nations entering the ranks in more recent times. Overall the global elite can be seen as sort of breakaway civilization unto themselves, and transcending the power of nation states (families like the Rockefellers in the US and the Rothschilds in Europe measure their influence on a global scale).
To speak of the so-called American empire is actually to speak of a country that was once great and for the most part an engine of liberty and prosperity, which has now been hijacked by globalist interests (swelling the ranks of both the government and the corporate sector). America is now basically just a military muscle for the global elite, and has little real sovereignty left. |
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johnnyenglishteacher2
Joined: 03 Dec 2010
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| Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 9:51 am Post subject: |
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| visitorq wrote: |
| The power, influence, and impact on the world of the United States is far, far greater than that of ancient Rome - greater by orders of magnitude. It is a silly, and anachronistic comparison to make however. |
Indeed - the Roman Empire was a regional power by today's standards, whereas it was only with the 19th-20th century European empires onwards that it makes sense to talk about truly global powers. OTOH the Roman Empire might have had a bit more staying power than Britain, France, Spain or the USA.
But as you say - it is difficult to make the comparisons.
Anyway, I prefer the Athenians - they were much more fun. |
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visitorq
Joined: 11 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 6:27 pm Post subject: |
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| johnnyenglishteacher2 wrote: |
| OTOH the Roman Empire might have had a bit more staying power than Britain, France, Spain or the USA. |
Yes, this is true - because the Romans didn't have the technology we have.
Anyway, Rome was similar to a nation state at first, but grew into a multinational empire. The global empire we have today also started within nation states (arguably around the time of the Napoleonic wars, when the Rothschilds first took over Europe), but grew into a multinational financial empire. The power stemmed from central banking. The British in particular used to power of credit and the central banking/warfare model to conquer the globe, but again the people at the top (who were incidentally British citizens) were actually globalists. Given how they operate, we can safely assume that none of these globalists has any particular loyalty to the nation state he/she holds citizenship in. Their agenda is to subsume the nation state into larger blocks and eventually into a world government which they will control. This has already happened to a great degree, but the consolidation is still not fully complete. |
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carleverson
Joined: 04 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 11:36 am Post subject: |
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| When the US government rewarded corrupt corporations with trillions in bailout money, it became clear in my mind that corporations control the government and everything else in America. Nothing and no one is going to stop them. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 11:50 am Post subject: |
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| carleverson wrote: |
| When the US government rewarded corrupt corporations with trillions in bailout money, it became clear in my mind that corporations control the government and everything else in America. Nothing and no one is going to stop them. |
Corporations? You mean hedge funds and private equity groups and Wall Street firms. Corporations have nothing on these groups. Corporations are burdened with high corporate tax rates in America, but the others get ultra-favorable carried interest tax rates. |
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