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9/9/12
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Capital considerations
Obama both inspiring, depressing
President Barack Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention was inspiring in its long-term vision but utterly depressing in what it said about the nation's ability to overcome a near-term crisis.
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Eric Fleischauer |
The thrust of Obama's address involved income mobility. He talked about "the basic bargain at the heart of America's story: the promise that hard work will pay off; that responsibility will be rewarded; that everyone gets a fair shot."
On the individual level, that "fair shot" is the ability to participate meaningfully in the capitalist system. It is not a right to be wealthy or even to be in the middle class; it is merely a promise that hard work and responsibility are enough to offer Americans a "chance to go to college, to buy their own home."
On a societal level, income mobility is essential. It is not about fairness but about the long-term sustainability of our nation. During the past 40 years, income and wealth polarization have separated us into a wealthy class and an impoverished class. A child who grows up in poverty has less and less of a chance to escape it. A child who grows up wealthy is almost assured of retaining most comforts.
It is not the financial gap that threatens the nation, but the near impossibility of bridging it.
Providing ladders
Most of Obama's policies and proposals are aimed at providing "ladders of opportunity to this nation of dreamers." His focus on health care and education — including post-secondary education, which is a near prerequisite to reaching middle-class income — is all about income mobility.
Humanitarians can adore his proposals because they fulfill our mission to help the neediest among us. Ironically, it was GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan — who would eliminate health care for millions to fund tax breaks for the wealthy — who articulated this humanitarian vision: "The truest measure of any society is how it treats those who cannot defend or care for themselves."
But political scientists recognize the disaster that awaits when a significant percentage of the people realize neither they nor their children have any way to escape poverty. Saying that America is the "land of opportunity" does not make it so.
The top 1 percent of our population holds 43 percent of the nation's financial wealth. The next 19 percent holds 50 percent. The bottom 80 percent holds 7 percent of America's financial wealth.
Since 1979, the average pre-tax income for the bottom 90 percent of households has decreased by $900, while that of the top 1 percent increased by more than $700,000. From 2009-10, the top 1 percent collected $93 of every $100 in income growth. Increases in productivity, once shared by workers and business owners, now go almost exclusively to those with capital.
So Obama's long-term vision is inspiring, not just for the poor but for those who fear the social turmoil of our developing caste system.
In the short term, however, we need to shake the lingering effects of the recession. And Obama's speech said precious little about how he would accomplish this.
Deficit obsession
The recession resulted from plummeting consumer demand. What economists have understood since the Great Depression is that the path out of a recessionary spiral is short-term deficit spending, or stimulus. Government spending replaces the loss in consumer demand. Businesses must hire employees to meet the artificial demand. The employees then have the income to buy goods, and consumer demand eventually recovers.
Obsessed by the deficit — which jumped because of the lost revenue caused by the recession, the increase in recession-related expenditures and the prosecution of two wars — the GOP opposes any stimulus. Indeed, the budget Mitt Romney supports calls for huge cuts in federal spending, an austerity approach that has had devastating results in Europe, just as it did in the United States in the early days of the Great Depression.
Obama — either not understanding the severity of the recession or not anticipating the loss of Congressional cooperation that would come in January 2010, when Democrats lost a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate — pushed through an inadequate stimulus in the early days of his presidency. It was enough to replace the drop in spending by state governments, but did not offset the massive drop in consumer spending.
Obama, along with most economists, apparently knows we need more stimulus. He repeatedly has pushed stimulus bills that died in the House.
The topic barely came up, however, in Thursday's speech. He was brimming with long-term plans, but left out the one solution America needs to get out of its immediate economic turmoil.
That leaves the American people with no way to escape the ongoing economic malaise. The GOP is ideologically opposed to the steps necessary to stimulate the economy, and Obama apparently has surrendered to an obstructionist Congress.
America is in a mess, and neither candidate is offering a way out.
Contact Eric Fleischauer at www.mile304.com or eric@decaturdaily.com.
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Obama couldn't get anything done, With a do nothing Republican Congress.That would rather see the Country fail . Than agree to do anything that would make the Democrats look good.Still He accomplished a lot. With no help from them.
In the end the Republicans picked two losers in Mitt and Ryan.That are out of touch .Even with all of the money thrown at them.
If they count all of the Votes..There is no way the People will vote against their best interest. In the Major States that control who wins and loses in the Presidential Elections.
Sure the Democrats will lose the South. The Civil Rights Act of the 60's took care of that.
Again were voting against our best interest. Not Me...I will cast a wasted Vote.. How many elected officials changed to the Republican Party to get elected ?
You don't have to look very far, From this City to find that answer
The simple fact is, the Obama Administration is one of two things: 1) a complete failure because he's in way over his head and refuses to cut government spending to help balance the budget. 2) a complete success because the U.S. is becoming just like a lot of other countries that continue to be a nanny state for millions of its citizens while heading down the path to ruin.
In either case, I look forward to him packing his bags and heading back to Chicago.
Another "long-term vision" might be to do away with disease, and, to provide all citizens with private jets. Absent a plan to achieve these goals, the "long-term vision" is but an empty promise. Those like little Eric Fleischauer, who found President Obama's speech "inspiring", are as hollow as the President's rhetoric. What little Eric and the liberal media deliberately omit, and what the election turns on, is assigning a measure of responsibility to the poor for their lives. Employment, even at the entry level, carries with it the risk of success and promotion, or, failure and termination. Nothing so saps one's motivation as a steady, no-risk, guaranteed taxpayer handout. While the American poor wait for wages to rise before seeking employment, a bustling, vibrant immigrant population fills the void in construction, agriculture, fast-food service and other entry-level positions, each hire delivering another setback to the uneducated, unskilled, poor American. Immigrants routinely escape abject poverty by coming to America, accepting the low wage that attends entry-level employment, enrolling their more disciplined children in public schools, and soon eclipse their poor American counterparts, their economic mobility unimpeded. Proof positive the American dream yet lives. Were the American poor to adopt the immigrant ethic and begin to contribute to, rather than siphon from, the nation's vitality, substantial progress could be made on a number of fronts, among them a reduction in the welfare rolls. In Decatur, the working population quietly passes by or through local housing projects Monday through Friday between 6:00 and 9:00AM, careful not to disturb the residents' weekday slumber, lest they riot, and and turn on the producers who fund their lives and those of their families. As crushing debt increases, and America, indeed the whole of western civilization, nears economic ruin, the citizenry, wealthy, middle class and poor alike find themselves in the same overweight boat. In an individual family, at least in the South, the father would make the ultimate sacrifice to save his family. In our larger American family, the poor would have the entire family perish in the name of fairness. Eric, the readership would appreciate an article detailing the responsibilities of the poor, as the responsibilities of the producers are listed ad nauseam on a steady basis. Again, you exhibit, at best, a marginal grasp of capitalism and its functions. You will, however, begin to discover its true meaning as you start to list the responsibilities of all persons, including the poor, in our capitalist society. The emptiness of your stance exposed, your reluctance to pen such an article will serve as an appropriate measure of your cowardice. Might someone new conduct the interview for the next editorial board hire?
People in poverty is code for blacks and illegals.Blacks have a 73% out of wedlock birth rate.Their culture promotes failure and dependancy.Hispanics have a 53% out of wedlock birth rate.We spent 7.3 BILLION on headstart in 2010.By 3rd grade any advantage black children had is gone.These are government statistics.Statistics aren't racist....they are facts.
Hey Dan obama had COMPLETE CONTROL of the House and Senate with a SUPER MAJORITY ! for 2 years . he could have done anything he wanted ! he chose a job killing legislative nightmare called obama care.
@Dan, Barry had the house and Senate,the first two years and he got everything he wanted passed,the Republicans couldn't stop anything from getting passed .That's how they got obamacare passed that 65% of America didn't want and NO Republican voted for ,Dan .
He is a community organizer with no experience in business . 5 trillion in new debt and you think he needs 4 more years to further ruin the economy and build another 4 trillion in debt. Time to put an adult in the white house and get rid of Barry and his socialist Czars .Romney will turn this country around and stay off Air Force One and the golf courses .
Never elect a person with an AKA ! Barry is the worst POTUS ever elected. Jimmy Carter moves up a notch.Hurry up November!
Never elect anyone who doesn't believe in American exceptionalism.
Obama and his speech were utterly depressing and their platform.......
James, what was you watching. It was up lifting and was 100 % Better than the boring GOP convention.
Mitt and Ryan lied through their teeth.
You need to get off of the Fox New Channel,and learn something.. But that isn't going to happen. They are the cheerleaders For the GOP. with their talking points. Rush Limbaugh is the Leader of your Party.
Along with Grover Norquist..There couldn't be bigger slime balls.
Dan's grammar and content make a good case for better education..........
Obama was also arrogant....