Do you truly believe that someone born into a family with very little money, a single working parent in a poor neighborhood has the same opportunity as some rich snob who's daddy sends them to a private school (public schools aren't good enough these days), hires them tutors, pays their tuition, and introduces them to a network of other wealthy individuals.
And do you truly believe that we can compete globally by ignoring and not training or providing health care to our next generation as best we can across the board to remain competitive/productive?
I can see the kind of parent you are (or might be), when your child doesn't do something right you yell, stop being stupid and lazy...boy that's really motivating...no, they'll end up believing just that, they're stupid and lazy and can't do anything right....and then, sadly, end up blaming some straw man liberal for their position in life, just like their daddy...we see it on digg all the time.
"if you want to get ahead, work hard, spend less than you make and save"
Our fine leaders have made this less of a reality in recent decades. The Fed keeps interest rates at near-zero while inflation is at least 2-3%. Wages are stagnant, meaning the value of our paychecks is worth less and less. Savings accounts make below inflation; you're essentially paying someone to hold your money. A saver's only option to grow savings is to play the stock market, where most lose to large investors with their armies of analysts.
We're big savers in my household, but given that the system is mainly set up to funnel money to those who already have the lion's share, we sometimes lament that perhaps the people who blow every dime enjoying today might just be the smarter ones.
The New World of the Urban Poor,” in which he argued that much of the social disruption among African-Americans popularly attributed to collapsing values was actually caused by a lack of blue-collar jobs in urban areas. If he was right, you would expect something similar to happen if another social group — say, working-class whites — experienced a comparable loss of economic opportunity.................details:- http://www.newsingaporenews.com/
We should be alarmed (and ashamed) that there are 46 million people living in poverty within the borders of the wealthiest country on the planet. It just shouldn't happen.
Yes, there will always be poor people, and yes there will always be inequality, but what is alarming is the growth in inequality and the massive hoarding of cash by the wealthiest Americans.
Conservative tax and fiscal policies have utterly failed 99% of Americans. It is time to try something else.
Being poor also doesn't mean that you should just take it for granted that you are poor, will always be poor, and you should learn to live with it. There was a time when there was a clear path out of poverty for anyone who chose to follow that path.
It is the job of the economic system to distribute wealth throughout the economy. Capitalism works, but we don't have capitalism in America right now - we have crony capitalism, and crony capitalism funnels all of the money to the top.
"If you aren't happy with what you are being paid in your current job you need to takes steps to learn more valuable skills to get a better paying job. It also helps to not live beyond your means."
But it costs money to get more valuable skills, norman619, requiring the poor and un/underemployed to live beyond their means.
Kudos for Krugman for explaining the mess-up by Conservatives through misinterpretation of Murray's book and implications theirof. His closing two paragraphs sum it up so-well:
"Back in 1996, the same year Ms. Himmelfarb was lamenting our moral collapse, Mr. Wilson published “When Work Disappears: The New World of the Urban Poor,” in which he argued that much of the social disruption among African-Americans popularly attributed to collapsing values was actually caused by a lack of blue-collar jobs in urban areas. If he was right, you would expect something similar to happen if another social group — say, working-class whites — experienced a comparable loss of economic opportunity. And so it has.
So we should reject the attempt to divert the national conversation away from soaring inequality toward the alleged moral failings of those Americans being left behind. Traditional values aren’t as crucial as social conservatives would have you believe — and, in any case, the social changes taking place in America’s working class are overwhelmingly the consequence of sharply rising inequality, not its cause. "
Massive oversimplification. Sudip Mazumdar had a great quote about poverty: "It steals your pride, deadens your ambition, limits your imagination and psychologically cripples you whenever you step outside the comfort zone of your own neighborhood." He was talking about India, but the same is true here.
My wife is an immigrant to the US, so I see the story first-hand through people she knows. Immigrants without advanced job skills or even a solid handle of the English language work tirelessly with no real life to speak of, in order to support the next generation. The next generation sacrifices their childhood to excel in school. To say they just "do it" is an understatement of the sacrifice.
It's not unusual for the third generation to scoff at their workaholic parents and grandparents, and the downhill slide begins. Families that have been here for several generations usually won't even recognize or consider the option of sacrificing a generation or two.
Taxes are not stealing. That is a fundamental flaw in the mindset of you people. There is not sugarcoating from the left, only lies from the right on this issue. Income inequality, forced by corruption and interference from the wealthy and the corporations is the central issue, NOT government waste or overly high taxes.
We HAVE a strong economy. 10 straight quarters of positive GDP, a strong stock market, strong profits, strong corporate earnings. What we don't have is an economic system that ensures all of the stakeholders in that success benefit.
The wealthy sure as hell have done a great job forcing change. So can we.
Of course they do. If they wanted the American economy to succeed for all people they would have put their efforts into ending the disastrous "conservative" economic theories that have failed us so badly over the past 30 years.
What I got out of this was a desire to read Wilson's book "When Work Disappears." It seems to have a broader story to tell than the one it initially told. Certainly it provides a powerful argument for improving educational outcomes, and thus life possibilities, for high school students, especially males.
"A classless society?" Don't let the republicans and Fox News hear because they are like; "see no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil" approach to any efforts to help the whole country to rise together at different rates and levels. They prefer that we all received wages like in Third World countries, Lord masters!
spatula7Feb 10, 2012Buried
They have no right to demand equal opportunity?
Do you truly believe that someone born into a family with very little money, a single working parent in a poor neighborhood has the same opportunity as some rich snob who's daddy sends them to a private school (public schools aren't good enough these days), hires them tutors, pays their tuition, and introduces them to a network of other wealthy individuals.
And do you truly believe that we can compete globally by ignoring and not training or providing health care to our next generation as best we can across the board to remain competitive/productive?
I can see the kind of parent you are (or might be), when your child doesn't do something right you yell, stop being stupid and lazy...boy that's really motivating...no, they'll end up believing just that, they're stupid and lazy and can't do anything right....and then, sadly, end up blaming some straw man liberal for their position in life, just like their daddy...we see it on digg all the time.
bdbrFeb 10, 2012Buried
"if you want to get ahead, work hard, spend less than you make and save"
Our fine leaders have made this less of a reality in recent decades. The Fed keeps interest rates at near-zero while inflation is at least 2-3%. Wages are stagnant, meaning the value of our paychecks is worth less and less. Savings accounts make below inflation; you're essentially paying someone to hold your money. A saver's only option to grow savings is to play the stock market, where most lose to large investors with their armies of analysts.
We're big savers in my household, but given that the system is mainly set up to funnel money to those who already have the lion's share, we sometimes lament that perhaps the people who blow every dime enjoying today might just be the smarter ones.
merriousFeb 10, 2012Buried
The New World of the Urban Poor,” in which he argued that much of the social disruption among African-Americans popularly attributed to collapsing values was actually caused by a lack of blue-collar jobs in urban areas. If he was right, you would expect something similar to happen if another social group — say, working-class whites — experienced a comparable loss of economic opportunity.................details:- http://www.newsingaporenews.com/
nygenxerFeb 10, 2012Buried
People united by poverty instead of divided by race will demand an equal share.
greatwhitmonkeyFeb 10, 2012Buried
I hope your giving this cred to Paul and not to merrious since it's just a quote from the article...
bdbrFeb 10, 2012Buried
Maybe in a small company. In larger companies, the person w/o the degree will have their resume disqualified by HR.
treehugger87Feb 10, 2012Buried
We should be alarmed (and ashamed) that there are 46 million people living in poverty within the borders of the wealthiest country on the planet. It just shouldn't happen.
Yes, there will always be poor people, and yes there will always be inequality, but what is alarming is the growth in inequality and the massive hoarding of cash by the wealthiest Americans.
Conservative tax and fiscal policies have utterly failed 99% of Americans. It is time to try something else.
treehugger87Feb 10, 2012Buried
Being poor also doesn't mean that you should just take it for granted that you are poor, will always be poor, and you should learn to live with it. There was a time when there was a clear path out of poverty for anyone who chose to follow that path.
It is the job of the economic system to distribute wealth throughout the economy. Capitalism works, but we don't have capitalism in America right now - we have crony capitalism, and crony capitalism funnels all of the money to the top.
miklkitFeb 10, 2012Buried
Crony capitalism and corporate raiders.
nygenxerFeb 10, 2012Buried
"If you aren't happy with what you are being paid in your current job you need to takes steps to learn more valuable skills to get a better paying job. It also helps to not live beyond your means."
But it costs money to get more valuable skills, norman619, requiring the poor and un/underemployed to live beyond their means.
mscsbcFeb 10, 2012Buried
Kudos for Krugman for explaining the mess-up by Conservatives through misinterpretation of Murray's book and implications theirof. His closing two paragraphs sum it up so-well:
"Back in 1996, the same year Ms. Himmelfarb was lamenting our moral collapse, Mr. Wilson published “When Work Disappears: The New World of the Urban Poor,” in which he argued that much of the social disruption among African-Americans popularly attributed to collapsing values was actually caused by a lack of blue-collar jobs in urban areas. If he was right, you would expect something similar to happen if another social group — say, working-class whites — experienced a comparable loss of economic opportunity. And so it has.
So we should reject the attempt to divert the national conversation away from soaring inequality toward the alleged moral failings of those Americans being left behind. Traditional values aren’t as crucial as social conservatives would have you believe — and, in any case, the social changes taking place in America’s working class are overwhelmingly the consequence of sharply rising inequality, not its cause. "
LiebeschtickFeb 10, 2012Buried
Yes, those skills are not documented, so you can't even get your foot in the door.
bdbrFeb 10, 2012Buried
Massive oversimplification. Sudip Mazumdar had a great quote about poverty: "It steals your pride, deadens your ambition, limits your imagination and psychologically cripples you whenever you step outside the comfort zone of your own neighborhood." He was talking about India, but the same is true here.
My wife is an immigrant to the US, so I see the story first-hand through people she knows. Immigrants without advanced job skills or even a solid handle of the English language work tirelessly with no real life to speak of, in order to support the next generation. The next generation sacrifices their childhood to excel in school. To say they just "do it" is an understatement of the sacrifice.
It's not unusual for the third generation to scoff at their workaholic parents and grandparents, and the downhill slide begins. Families that have been here for several generations usually won't even recognize or consider the option of sacrificing a generation or two.
treehugger87Feb 10, 2012Buried
Taxes are not stealing. That is a fundamental flaw in the mindset of you people. There is not sugarcoating from the left, only lies from the right on this issue. Income inequality, forced by corruption and interference from the wealthy and the corporations is the central issue, NOT government waste or overly high taxes.
We HAVE a strong economy. 10 straight quarters of positive GDP, a strong stock market, strong profits, strong corporate earnings. What we don't have is an economic system that ensures all of the stakeholders in that success benefit.
The wealthy sure as hell have done a great job forcing change. So can we.
treehugger87Feb 10, 2012Buried
Of course they do. If they wanted the American economy to succeed for all people they would have put their efforts into ending the disastrous "conservative" economic theories that have failed us so badly over the past 30 years.
treehugger87Feb 10, 2012Buried
Only Mitt Romney would believe that. The poor are poor due to a lack of opportunities, not a lack of motivation.
upnorthgirlFeb 10, 2012Buried
hey all, hate to blow your bubble, but it appears to be happening on the education level. and as we all know, education is a great equalizer.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/10/education/education-gap-grows-between-rich-and-poor-studies-show.html?pagewanted=all
crymtyphonFeb 10, 2012Buried
A blast from the past!
1930's Deutchland or thereabout.
But you neglected to mention how the jews are holding back
the race that Providence intended as our natural rulers!
Poor Liebeschtick!
When and where will your natural superiority be recognized?
Not here, obviously.
brucedeanlarsonFeb 10, 2012Buried
What I got out of this was a desire to read Wilson's book "When Work Disappears." It seems to have a broader story to tell than the one it initially told. Certainly it provides a powerful argument for improving educational outcomes, and thus life possibilities, for high school students, especially males.
ObaAdeleFeb 10, 2012Buried
"A classless society?" Don't let the republicans and Fox News hear because they are like; "see no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil" approach to any efforts to help the whole country to rise together at different rates and levels. They prefer that we all received wages like in Third World countries, Lord masters!