Robert Ariail for December 20, 2015

I’m sure someone will be on to explain how our poor are better off than most people on the planet. It’s actually true.The problem is that a very few people have as much influence over the governance of the nation than at any point in our history. They will continue tilting the economic table in their favor until the above statement is no longer true.

Where do the 1% puppeteers shop? Politicians r Us.

If it is an incumbent, vote for the other one and win our govt back.

True, but what is puzzling is how so many of those of a certain political persuasion support the 1%, and how in fact should be even wealthier.

When you spend like a drunken sailor what do you expect? I read about people pulling down $250,000/year who can’t make ends meet. I have no sympathy.

Well, that and no raise for the last 30-plus years because all the wages and wealth are trickling up.

I think it is more fundamental than that. Agriculture used to employ close to fifty percent of the population and now less than five percent. Manufacturing used to employ fifty percent but because of automation and technology that number is rapidly moving towards the five percent number. Foreign countries that provided low cost labor benefit until the cost of their labor rapidly increases then they suffer the same fate. The services sector (investment, banking, medical, etc) are not as likely to be affected and the money goes in that direction. The question becomes what will the middle class be doing to earn a living in the next century? I think our government representatives are about as clueless as the rest of us, so they are little help in setting direction. They also benefit because they are part of the service sector.

While Stipple’s comment breaks my heart, it’s clear that our species passes through stages of productivity that seem fairly predictable.

First comes hunting and gathering. This was in place as the dominant economic activity since thecspecies evolved from earlier hominids, perhaps 200-300 thousand years ago.

Then comes agriculture. Animal husbandry and plant cultivation is something like 7-9 thousand years old. This spurred the development of towns, villages, and ultimately cities. Hand made goods and many forms of services developed to serve the evolving needs of the ag-related economy.

Then came the development of the empirical method and the explosion of science and technology that multiplies the effectiveness and reach of the species. This phase really gained momentum in the mid 1800’s. The application of these methods influenced ag methods to some degree, but revolutionized manufacturing. As manufacturing and its related upstream and downstream activities accelerated, capital began to coalesce into large fortunes. This trend fed on itself as the application of capital to human activity multiplied the impact of those activities, generating both the need for more capital, and even greater fortunes.

As manufacturing was fed capital, human labor as such became less important, and could be performed by fewer people with lower skills. Those individuals in manufacturing found themselves much more replaceable. Labor rate arbitrage pushed manufacturing to wherever it became most profitable. Those left behind had to adapt or sink to a lower standard of living.

Next in human economic evolution came the rise of services. As manufacturing became more capital intensive, and less labor intensive, humans begin to perform both menial services and very complex services to each other. The menial services require little training. Progressively, however, the services are of a higher and higher lever, requiring specialized knowledge that many simply do not have. High level services today are well compensated, but difficult to do unless you have the requisite intellectual and social skills required to do them. Unfortunately, many people do not have these skills, and have fallen further and further behind.

Now, we have entered into the next phase of economic development—the information age where the essence of economic value lies in the nature of the information content in products or services. As our internal information processing is quite weak, we have developed cognitive enhancing tools to extend and empower our weak brains. This is really what all of our microprocessor driven devices are all about.

Meanwhile, our politicians have little awareness of these economy realities. Many on the right seem to believe that very one can simply “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” and succeed. This is quite true for some. One personal example is evident in my sons who have Ivy League educations with advanced degrees. That’s not a guarantee of anything, of course, but they are doing quite well, and, unless they have really bad luck (certainly possible) or making really bad decisions (also possible), they and their children should do just fine.

Increasingly, however, we need to be thinking of those left behind by the inexorable march of our economic system. It is not only a matter of what’s right and wrong, it is also a matter of social stability and future progress of the species. We must begin widespread early education. We have to support children and parents who are struggling. We need to become more compassionate and empathetic. Obviously we need to raise taxes to support those who are falling behind. These tax increases could range from gas taxes to support infrastructure all the way to extra income taxes on those with large incomes. The inheritance taxes should also be changed . Nobody has to leave more than a few million dollars to any on their progeny. Finally, since I’m waving my magic wand, we should obviously spend less on the military (a lot less).

One more quixotic thought. Our current winner take all economic system is a bad model for the species moving forward. The most apt metaphor is cancer, the biological definition of which is endless growth. Our economic system, with its never ending insistence on “MORE, MORE” is ill suited to the realities of the species over the longer term. It has served fairly well as a motivating paradigm to date, but is becoming obsolete. A better paradigm might express the objective of getting “BETTER, BETTER” rather than “BIGGER, BIGGER.”

I’m a dreamer, I guess.

Excellent, Robert! And THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH for not using the S#@* W5&* theme to get your point across!

It’s good to remember that our patriotic multinational corporations are doing everything they can to offshore jobs.

And to evade paying taxes, of course.

And businesses of all sizes hire illegals for jobs that cannot be offshored. For many types of labor, legal immigrants are brought in through H-1B visas and other legal devices.

We didn’t make the choice; the SC did. I’m just surprised no one’s dropped by to say the soap box should have Obama’s name on it, regardless that the president has no control over those things. And that the people who do are probably republicans.

Not on the box is the fact that what really brought down (shrank actually) empires, was the high cost of maintaining bloated militaries to defend ever expanded territories, they couldn’t actually control. Pulling back their sphere of influence to reasonable realms, and focusing on the homeland instead, saved them from total destruction.

We can’t afford to have our President, regardless the party, “King of the world”.

With the greed of the top.1%, the fact that the top.1% don’t regard most of us as anything but leeches and mouths, and if you look up the “Georgia Guidestones” what is written there about population you will see exactly what they have in mind for us, and, of course that they see us as cannon fodder for their endless warmongering profits, these modern day "daddy Warbucks, backed by all the Hawk republicans, is it any wondder that the middle class has shrunk ?Most “middle class” people are maybe 2 to 3 months away from poverty if some thing happens such as car totaled, serious illness, divorce, tornados, floods, fires, and other disasters.

It is both who are at fault. Neither party, but more republican than democrat, It is the lack of empathy and caring of our government and almost completely the fault of the super rich corporations; who are psychopaths. Greed, not caring and check out the Georgia Guidestones for the true plan for their world.

Absolutely! No one who reads should group both parties as being the same.