Pew Research Center, AUGUST 7, 2018
[D]espite the strong labor market, wage growth has lagged economists’ expectations. In fact, despite some ups and downs over the past several decades, today’s real average wage (that is, the wage after accounting for inflation) has about the same purchasing power it did 40 years ago. And what wage gains there have been have mostly flowed to the highest-paid tier of workers...

[W]age gains have gone largely to the highest earners. Since 2000, usual weekly wages have risen 3% (in real terms) among workers in the lowest tenth of the earnings distribution and 4.3% among the lowest quarter. But among people in the top tenth of the distribution, real wages have risen a cumulative 15.7%, to $2,112 a week – nearly five times the usual weekly earnings of the bottom tenth ($426).
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tan...rs-real-wages-have-barely-budged-for-decades/

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Pew Research Center, SEPTEMBER 27, 2017

About a quarter of U.S. adults (24%) say tax rates on corporations and large businesses should be lowered, while roughly twice as many (52%) say they should be raised...

[J]ust 24% say taxes on incomes over $250,000 should be reduced; 43% say they should be raised.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tan...rates-on-corporations-high-household-incomes/

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Gallup, MAY 11, 2017

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans continue to express an increasingly liberal outlook on what is morally acceptable, as their views on 10 of 19 moral issues that Gallup measures are the most left-leaning or permissive they have been to date. The percentages of U.S. adults who believe birth control, divorce, sex between unmarried people, gay or lesbian relations, having a baby outside of marriage, doctor-assisted suicide, pornography and polygamy are morally acceptable practices have tied record highs or set new ones this year. At the same time, record lows say the death penalty and medical testing on animals are morally acceptable.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/210542/americans-hold-record-liberal-views-moral-issues.aspx

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Trump has two and a half years to orchestrate an economy in which most American pay checks buy more than they did when he was inaugurated. I do not think he will do it.

As Americans conclude that economic growth is not possible for them, I predict more will opt for economic redistribution. This will be good for what Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez represent.

Meanwhile, the move to the left on social issues will make it more difficult for the Republican Party to appeal to nostalgia for the moral ethos of the 1950's in their efforts to restore the economic status quo of the 1920's.

 

Tax the rich, feed the poor, til there are no, rich anymore.

Someone should write a song like that...

 

When the rich are gone you have Venezuela.

 

God save the rich!

 

You can raise taxes on big corporations all you want. The US consumer will still pay for it in the end. These big corporations will just raise prices accordingly to compensate for the increase in taxes....

 

What are wages?

 

The thing is, worker productivity has increased dramatically over those same decades, meaning we are working harder for the same amount of purchasing power.

This increased income inequality may be good for the people at the top, but it's terrible for the economy as a whole because the wealthy spend proportionally less of their income. They save, or hoard if you like, their excess income and that keeps it out of the economy as a whole. The middle class and the poor put most of their money right back into the economy, buying homes, cars, vacations, eating out, etc. It's that purchasing that creates jobs. That's good for EVERYONE, even the rich.

 

What you say is obviously true. It is the reason this is true:

"Since 1900, the Dow has averaged a 7.8% annual gain under Democratic presidents, compared with a 3% annual gain under Republicans, WSJ reported earlier this year."
http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2012/11/06/what-an-obama-win-may-mean-for-stocks/

Unfortunately, President Obama failed to achieve in eight years what Franklin Roosevelt did achieve in two years: he failed to convince ordinary Americans that the government could make a positive difference in their lives. That is why we are burdened with a vulgar, low class grifter who may be even more dishonest than Richard Nixon on a lies per day basis.

After Roosevelt was in office for two years, the unemployment rate declined. After Obama had been in office for two years, the unemployment rate rose.

I voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012. I like the guy. Nevertheless, he lost the chance to become a post racial president when he said, "If I had a son he would look like Trayvon Martin." Whenever there was a racial incident, which is to say whenever a black criminal was killed by a white man, President Obama took the side of the black criminal.

 

Trayvon Martin was not a criminal. If Obama took the side of SOME black criminals, it was in cases where police, or wannabes like George Zimmerman, decided to be judge, jury and executioner.

Obama inherited a 7.8% unemployment rate from GW Bush in 2009. Yes, it went up in 2010 to 9.8% in 2010. Considering the financial crisis peaked in the fall of 2008 with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, one would expect unemployment to continue to rise for many months, and it did. Things were turning around though by January 2011, and by January 2017 when Trump took office, the rate had been cut by half to 4.8%. When FDR took office in 1933, the Great Depression had already been going for 3 years and unemployment had already peaked at around 25%.

Even so, Obama's gains mostly happened with a GOP dominated Congress from 2011 on who fought him every step of the way for the last 6 years of his administration. Considering Mitch McConnell's mission in life was to oppose ANYTHING Obama wanted and the GOP continued to cultivate racism, it's not surprising Obama didn't achieve more. He could only do so much by himself. I feel most of the blame goes on the GOP Congress, not Obama.

 

Photographs of George Zimmerman taken right after his encounter with Trayvon Martin demonstrated clearly that he had been thrown on the ground and punched in the face. A black mugger did that to me once. If I had had a hand gun you can bet I would have shot him.

George Zimmerman had every right to follow Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman was a watchman in the gated community where he lived. He had never seen Martin before. Also, Martin was black. Blacks have a rate of violent crime that is eight times the white rate. That is why race profiling is a good way to prevent black crime proactively.

Martin did not like being followed by Zimmerman, so he attacked him. Martin was killed in self defense. There never should have been a trial.

Years ago one night I was riding my bicycle past an electronics firm where I had earlier worked as a security guard. Because I am retrospective I rode my bicycle to the parking lot behind the building of the electronics firm. Two security guards came out to look at me. I got off of my bicycle, walked with over to them and asked, "Excuse me. Am I trespassing?"

When one of the guards told me I was, I apologized, explained why I was there, and said I would leave immediately. We had a brief, friendly conversation, and I left.

Trayvon Martin had earlier been expelled from high school for a drug offense. I have seen photographs of him looking very differently from the choir boy we saw on the news immediately after he was killed. If he had behaved like I did, which is to say if he had behaved like a civilized human being, instead of the throwback to the Paleolithic Era he that was, he would still be alive.

 

The Republican Party is the enemy. Of course the GOP wanted Obama to fail. It is pointless to blame one's enemy for finding a way to win. Obama had two years with Democrat majorities in both houses of Congress. Instead of forcing through a health care plan most Americans did not like he should have found ways to reduce unemployment, like Roosevelt did.

 

Careful, DL.

The lid on that simmering pot of irrational vitriolic hatred for an entire race of people is coming loose.

Looks like it might boil over.

 

I have known too many blacks I liked to dislike the entire race.

At the high tech firm where I worked my boss hired a black computer programmer. Because I enjoy sharing my knowledge with people I mentored him, although I had not been asked to. He told my boss. My boss told me, "It is my job to train the people I hire, but I do not always have the time. You are making my job a lot easier."

That is the best thing a boss can tell a subordinate.

Friendships are based on common interests and shared values. The black programmer shared my interest in boxing. I invited him to my apartment a few times to watch pay for view boxing matches. He is also a good family man, and an observant Christian.

One of the most interesting friends I ever had in my life was a black college professor. He taught freshmen English. Because he was attractive and charming half the girls in his class had crushes on him. He had too much integrity to take advantage of that. I would have liked for him to marry one of my sisters, but I never had the opportunity to introduce them.

If these two men were typical of their race there would not be problems. The problems exist because they are atypical.

I do not care if you or anyone else calls me a racist. I would like for you to know what you are condemning in me, and what is unworthy of your disapproval.