But no matter who is President, globalization will mean that incomes in the US will fall. There may be better times, but no good times. We are at the end of the time when we could realistically expect our children to have it better than we.

Any government program which is cut, whether it be a social services program, air quality, worker benefits, any program which is cut for budgetary reasons will stay cut.

We could cut the defense budget in half with no degradation to the security of the US and help things for a while. But that would be fought by every lobby there is. Somehow that would be seen as “unpatriotic”, even if we cut it in half we would be spending 5 times as much as all the other countries in the world combined (or thereabouts). As Mark Twain said, “Patriotism is usually the refuge of the scoundrel. He is the man who talks the loudest.”

Nope, it’s not Obama’s fault. It is the globalization folks, and is probably irresistable. Follow the money.

And the lowest unemployment figure ever was shortly after the Clinton Administration?

Sure, It all depends on how you interpret the data, doesn’t it? Another factor you didn’t mention: Back in those wonderful 50s and 60s, most women were homemakers and did not work. We have pretty much integrated women fully into the workforce, so it is not surprising unemployment percentages are higher. That is one of the great social accomplishments of human history, as far as I’m concerned, even if we still have “a long way to go”.

Statistics are like experimental data, open to interpretation depending on the operative theoretical paradigm in place.

As you point out, there is a great “leveling” process going on around the world as more nations leave the Third World for the First one. And yes, it isn’t going to be as cushy in our country for some industries as it was, but new industries and services will come along. Most of the planet is still hiring people to do things that were invented in the United States. How many of today’s jobs didn’t even exist 20 years ago?

I suspect what is at the root of it is structural, and there really isn’t much we can do to stop it. What we should be doing is to mitigate the social damage it is causing, and controlling the rate of the decline. At the root, this is not primarily an ideologically correctable problem.

America was striving towards a Gaussian distribution of wealth, with relatively large middle class, and shrinking populations at the high and low end. That historical trend was initiated by Capitalist economic ideas in the 17th and 18th century, and seems to have been spreading world-wide. It is now showing signs of slowing or reversing in this country. However, on a global stage, America’s loss is now the world’s gain. Real middle classes are arising all over the planet, and that is a good thing.

There may not be much we can do to stop this, but there is much we can do to keep small elitist groups from manipulating it for their own private benenfit and profit.

But we need to get it through our heads, the office jobs and the white collar salaries are NOT coming back. Suburbia, station wagons and cheap oil are gone forever. The last half of the 20th century is in our past, like free land on the Frontier.

It’s not the end of the world, just a new one. And if you average it out over all 7 billion of us, it’s probably a better one.

It’s pretty simple, and ugly too. Conservatives want Obama removed from office. In their eyes, if they don’t succeed they won’t get a second chance to roll back Obama’s changes.

Obamacare and other regulations (which liberals don’t pay attention to) are a good portion of the source of our economy’s stagnation.

As far as government jobs go, I don’t see why the public sector shouldn’t suffer the same loses we have.

But Scarborough has been making a lot of sense lately (I watch his show a lot). Is he veering to the Left, am I veering to the Right, or has what is now considered the Center drifted off toward out and out loonybin fundowacko fascism?

By the way, what’s the story with that dizzy blonde that co-hosts the show with him? I think Joe is showing great restraint by not slapping her around a bit.