Since about 1980, Americans have continued to be some of the hardest working people on the planet. In fact, we work harder, and more efficiently, almost every year. And yet, we don’t see a reward from that. While we produce more, and while we produce it for less money, we don’t see any of that money. Instead, it has gone, nearly every penny, to the people sitting at the top. These people haven’t done the work of making anything, they haven’t sweat or bled or put their bodies into the product, but they own the land or manage the stock or market the idea of continued prosperity to a hungry stock market.
They don’t really do anything, but they seem to own everything. Why is that?
It’s all one big con: we keep being told that the bosses need to be paid 300 times more than their workers. We’re told that WE just need to work harder and all of our dreams will come true. We’re told that you need to have a boss, because without it I’m sure us poor stupid peasants would never figure out how to make, ship and sell in stores the things we already know how to make, ship, and sell, right? The “con” in con game is short for “confidence,” and if you’ve ever wondered why you have to keep pulling double shifts (if you haven’t been laid off or outsourced, that is) while the boss heads off to Acapulco, it’s because the boss needs you to be confident that this is the way things ought to be.
And then there’s the chumps in government, paid off by those bosses, who further build up the confidence and tell you things like we can’t have guaranteed healthcare like every other industrialized nation, because you just have to be confident that the market knows what’s best… and we all know how great the free market is at helping you when you’re sick, right? Or maybe we just need to be more confident that the people in government know what they’re doing, because a massive economic crisis every 10 years or so (get ready for another one, by the way… good thing I’m too poor to own stock!) is clearly the best way to run a country. Oh, and did you know that almost everything lost by the rich in 2008 has been gotten back, and more, while our small towns continue to wither on the vine? This system works just fine!
This is, what, the third time this song-and-dance has gone around? Fifth? More? The chumps in government (and I’m saying chumps because the paper won’t print the words I’d want to use) who just so happen to be supported by the big money who keeps gaining from all of this, keep telling us we need to cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires, we need to de-regulate and put poison in our drinking water, we need to make it easier for banks to rip us off and crash the economy… and we just go along with it? Why on earth have we not voted out every single one of these chumps and told them they aren’t allowed back until they start drawing up a plan to fix up each and every town in their district with what amounts to a billionaire’s pocket change?
Look, I know I’m not supposed to get too angry or political in my commentary columns here. It was one of the few rules they laid down when I asked to write here. I usually try to keep my commentary at least lighthearted enough to make whatever I’m saying go down easy, but after seeing report after report saying that the 2017 tax cut did not only nothing of what these chumps said it would (spark growth, investment, etc) and instead did everything the left said it would (funnel yet more money to the super-rich and cause massive stock buybacks) my fuse is officially blown.
I’m sick of this game. How about you?
Jeffrey Erding says
@ Sarah, sometimes people need a dose of tough love. An older co worker gave me a strong dose when I was 20 and it completely changed my life. Me telling Eric to get off his duff and change his own situation is exactly what he needs. It was excellent advice for me and the same goes for him.
Pogo said it many years ago, and it’s just as true today; ” I have met the enemy, and he is us.”
You think Eric should wait for big government to fix his life? You might also think everyone should get a trophy and a good grade regardless of performance but guess what? The real world doesn’t work like that.
You want me to give him helpful advice? Exactly what I did. And you are dishing out pity, acting as an enabler for a bunch of young crybabies who think the world owes them a living. Think about it and tell me I’m wrong.
Hawkeye63 says
@ Sarah, sometimes people need a dose of tough love. An older co worker gave me a strong dose when I was 20 and it completely changed my life. Me telling Eric to get off his duff and change his own situation is exactly what he needs. It was excellent advice for me and the same goes for him.
Pogo said it many years ago, and it’s just as true today; ” I have met the enemy, and he is us.”
You think Eric should wait for big government to fix his life? You might also think everyone should get a trophy and a good grade regardless of performance but guess what? The real world doesn’t work like that.
You want me to give him helpful advice? Exactly what I did. And you are dishing out pity, acting as an enabler for a bunch of young crybabies who think the world owes them a living. Think about it and tell me I’m wrong.
Thomas E.H. says
That was beautiful Hawkeye63/Jeff Erding
//Hawkeye63 says
July 25, 2019 at 6:41 am//
//Jeffrey Erding says
July 25, 2019 at 6:47 am//
//we went to different high schools together//-Hawkeye63
Sorry mate, but you ARE related to yourself.
Aaron Bishop says
Uff da.
Hawkeye63 says
@ Thomas E H, thanks partner, you just earned me a case of Mick Golden. I knew you would take the bait, Jeff thought you would see the scam coming, he gives you too much credit! 😉😁
God says
James 2:8-13
“If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.”
In other words, mortal; lying is as bad as murder.
Thomas E.H. says
Sure Jeff.
Kim Wentworth says
Sarah, thank you for your reply and well written letter. Where do I humbly start? Well the bad years not just 08 saw my loss of $64,356.00 in my 401k. which for me was devastating. In the first one and a half quarters of 2017 I made up for that. I don’t belittle no one. I will simply thru facts destroy anyone preaching class warfare. My advice for current education is first look at a trade school. Many opportunities there for well paying jobs: electrician, pipe fitter, welder, machinist, For a long time, thru their self interests college degrees have been over sold. Not everyone is suited or smart enough or deserves to go to college.
Today we have politicians saying we should forgive college debt, why? Nobody lied to these kids. They all signed on the dotted line. There was NO guarantee of a career once done. The same politicians want free tuition at state colleges, which is sick. That is as sick as saying free healthcare for all. No Sarah, I don’t belittle nobody, just some people need to buck up. 😃
Sarah says
@Kim, having been in the workforce longer than me at in ’08, my parents suffered similar losses so my sympathies to you. Having watched the additional work they put in to try to make up for the loss nearing retirement age, it’s admirable that you were able to make up and exceed that loss. Kudos to you!
I work with a large number of Millennial & Gen Z adults, and what seems to be unique to Millennials is that for many, despite reading the market prior to entering college, and by the time they graduated (into the Recession) the jobs they had trained for either no longer existed, had clamped down hiring, required years of experience a recent graduate could not have, or were no longer paying the salary they had merely 3 years before. So they took whatever jobs were available (read: low-paying, minimal benefits) and tried to string multiple jobs together to make a living. Result being, lower start pay will put them behind years into the future for things such as salary advancements and 401K savings, and since they are already in debt for a degree they cannot find a job in they cannot afford to take out additional debt to go to a trade school/get additional certification or save enough to go towards either of the above.
For example, one younger person I know graduated in 2007 with a teaching degree in WI, right into the hotbed of Scott Walker taking in the teachers’ union and the recession crippling the job market. So cobbling together seasonal jobs and substitute teaching for several years to try to get a “foothold in the job market”, she ended up having to leave teaching and take a position in a completely unrelated field in order to support a family. Another, after graduating with a music education degree in 2009, was unable to find work due to many schools cutting arts funding, so borrowed money to go back and get another 2-year degree and is now working as a paralegal. In both cases, teaching was considered a safe bet because they’re always going to need teachers, right?
I agree with you 100% that trade and vocational schools should be pushed as opportunities equal to (and in many cases better than) college. I’ve discussed this opportunity at length with any children in my scope of influence. And interestingly, some states already offer free tuition at state schools for students above a certain grade-point average (in the case of Georgia, funded in part by state lottery proceeds) https://www.theclassroom.com/attend-georgia-colleges-free-31391.html
But I do have to disagree that no one lied to these kids. College since at least the 90’s, and probably earlier, was pushed as “the ONLY way to get a decent job and not end up working at McDonald’s” in popular media, from teachers & guidance counselors, from friends and family members, etc etc, with trade school pushed as the alternative for people “not smart enough” for college. The thought was that a college degree, ANY degree, would put you ahead of someone who “didn’t care about their future” and went straight into the workforce after high school. Sad irony is the number of people with a degree now working McJobs due to lack of experience or certification. And while they did sign on the line for student loans, I can speak from personal experience that loan counseling in colleges was, and continues to be, a joke, not to mention the number of predatory practices the lienholders participate in https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman /2018/07/25/navient-student-loans-refinance-consolidation/#46623fb41f32 and https://www.marketwatch.com/story/lawsuit-alleges-gross-mismanagement-of-student-loan-forgiveness-by-the-education-department-2019-07-11 for reference.
I’m thankfully long past the point of paying student loans, but still fighting the financial aftershocks of 2008 and expect to be for a long time. I wouldn’t say I make a lot of money, but I make enough for the basics, and I’m OK with that. Even so, I do not expect to “retire” in my lifetime until old age or disability force it, and I don’t expect Social Security funds to be there when I do. But an extra $100 a year in income tax to make sure that doesn’t happen to the younger generations? I’m OK with paying that forward. After all, “a society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they will never sit”.
Kim Wentworth says
I have to say I don’t know these different generational names. Suffice to say many things never change over time. The selling of a “need for a college degree” was no different than a used car salesperson.
Humans adapt as all living things on earth. Your response is like there is a “victim” ? I simply disagree in total with that argument.
Thor says
If you live your life concerned with what others have that you don’t have, then you will never be happy.
You will be jealous, spiteful, and unfulfilled.
If we get caught up in materialism, we lose sight of the most valuable gift in our lives — time with people.
Getting upset about others who’ve worked hard to earn something you don’t have actually makes you materialistic.
Sarah says
Good grief, the level of spiteful commentary, in a local newspaper nonetheless! @KimWentworth & @Hawkeye, if you don’t like what he has to say, why are you reading it? I would wager that you likely fall on the opposite side of the political spectrum from Mr Leitzen, so why bother reading his column? Is it to laugh at the “stupid snowflake” or do you just genuinely enjoy belittling people in a public forum?
@Kim particularly, perhaps instead of making fun of the “sad little guy” your time may be better spent being grateful that you have the discretionary cash to contribute to a 401K, particularly if your employer has any type of match plan or percentage that they contribute? In personal experience that was one of the first employer benefits to go after the Recession in 2008, What do you stand to gain by belittling and putting down Mr. Leitzen, other than personal satisfaction that you “showed him”? Looking at the economic state of the country the Millennials came of age in, I’d say they started out behind and will likely never catch up https://www.forbes.com/sites/workday/2019/07/22/warner-music-group-how-to-create-a-harmonious-workplace-culture/#78f21ed47d6f
And @Hawkeye, you are absolutely right that the stock market is currently following an upward trend (which it has been doing for 10 years) and the current employment numbers are better than they have been (again, following an upward trend from the last several years). However, I cannot place your factual basis for “the greatest economic boom the world has ever seen” under Trump, other than hyperbole? A little research is showing the GDP is in the moderate 2%-3% range as opposed to the high 3%-5% in the late 90’s, or wartime booms over 17% during WW2. https://www.thebalance.com/us-gdp-by-year-3305543 and similarly our current GDP to Debt ratio is over 100% and has been for the last few years https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GFDEGDQ188S .
Also, having just read several of Mr Leitzen’s columns based on the vitriol spouted above, I would politely disagree that his complaint is about the current type and quality of job available as opposed to the numbers. For example, browsing the current classifieds in the FCJ shows several specialized jobs and only a handful that don’t require a specific degree or certain number of years’ experience, which would “up to $14/hr” or a theoretical $27,300 per year for 37.5 hrs/52 weeks (because lunches are no longer paid). This would put a person at half of the statistical average of current household salaries https://www.statista.com/statistics/203183/percentage-distribution-of-household-income-in-the-us/ or appx $400 below the current national average for weekly pay https://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/ceseesummary.htm . A glance through similar papers in the area gives roughly the same salary/hourly ranges. So it seems unless a Millennial a) bet on the correct horse in college, b) has several years of experience in a field that would have required several years’ experience at the time of graduation, or c) is willing to work multiple low-paying jobs, they’re SOL.
To both of you, do you have any constructive suggestions instead of belittling and complaining? If not I would suggest the schoolyard lesson of “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all”.
Aaron Bishop says
Great research on a very important topic, Sarah.
Kim Wentworth says
Such a sad little letter written by a sad little guy. Starting from the end of your tale, the tax cuts have done massive good for the country. You sound like someone who was looking for a fat rebate check. That’s not how it works. You sound like you are all about that wealth redistribution thing. You went to college? Why? You were fooled, now you are bitter. Oh, my 401k each quarter since the 1st quarter of 2017 has been growing in leas and bounds. This last quarter to the tune of slightly over…never mind, it would hurt your feelings.
Greg says
Eric,
Thanks for your insightful commentary. You got it right.
Hawkeye63 says
Eric Leitzen has submitted lots of whiny, pitiful, woe is me commentaries, but this one takes the cake. Mr. Leitzen, are you living in some parallel universe, totally disconnected from reality?
Do you not realize that the last 2 years under President Trump have ushered in the greatest economic boom the world has ever seen? Record low unemployment for all Americans, including hispanics, blacks, women, and students. More jobs than workers to fill them. Rising wages across the board. GDP of over 3%. Record gains in all phases of the stock market.
You complain about the tax cuts being only for the rich…. but 44% of wage earners pay no federal tax. Just how do you propose to give a tax cut to those who pay no taxes??
Your commentary is filled with lots of complaining, but complaining without offering viable solutions is nothing more than whining. You have cornered the market on that, no doubt about it.
You strike me as one of those misguided people who graduated college with 150 grand of student loan debt and a degree that makes you qualified to earn starvation wages. Whose fault is that? Donald Trump?
Please give us a break from your eternal complaining. There has never been a better time to change to a better job or climb the corporate ladder. Playing the victim is no solution. No one ever improved their circumstances by sitting on their duff and sniveling. Get out and work for it… and spare us the “o poor me” garbage. Reading your stuff has gotten to be as enjoyable as listening to fingernails scraping on a chalkboard.
Oh. and by the way, the tax cuts have not added to the deficit, as receipts are up by billions of dollars per year. . America has a spending problem, not an income problem. And who does the budget for America? The U S House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker, controlled by your darling Democrats. Hmmmm.