Another excellent article. The elites figured out how to make more money for themselves and the only drawback is they decimated the American working class, creating communities of crime and addiction. Prosecute those who off-shored our jobs for treason!
I think this conversation requires a beer or two, and a couple of hours to spare! Agree with a lot of what you say, some of it, not so much :). On the economics/business side, Keynesian economic theory has been dying since the 60s. No economist wants to go back there. Going back to an isolationist trade policy doesn't help anyone. Open trade with neighbors is good policy and has been around as sound policy for centuries (Ricardo - for example). The US is the most powerful country in the world because we accept free trade (in principal). No isolationist country can succeed (see North Korea). We have terrible social guard rails that can easily fix much of these issues of wealth inequality that you rightly bring up. The tax code is poorly designed and allows the wealthy to pay little to no taxes legally. Switching to a consumption (sales tax) fixes much of that problem almost immediately. We need much better safety nets at the bottom - Federal minimum wages haven't changed in forever. Access to daycare, medical care, better pension plans, can easily decrease poverty rates quickly. Child poverty was cut in half with COVID/pandemic funding. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/us/politics/covid-poverty-aid-programs.html It's not rocket science.
Urban ghettos are another tax code problem. In the US we give tax deductions to the middle class to purchase homes, mostly driving up the cost of homes. It makes no sense. There was a great article a month or so ago (I think in the NYT) that talked about giving tax breaks for housing to the poor instead. Build inexpensive housing and have rent subsidies. Take care of the place and you get to stay.
On ghettos, if you haven't read, "Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets", I highly recommend it!
Policing is a bad model, poorly implemented in many cases. If you haven't read Malcolm Gladwell's book, "Talking to Strangers" yet, I'll buy you a copy. And of course, violent crime is way down in the US, which almost no one talks about. You've got me thinking deeply about social justice :). I just bought a couple of books from Franklin Zimring, an academic out of Berkeley looking at crime. "The City That Became Safe" talks about the 40% decline in crime from 1991 to 2000 - Well after Keynes was gone :) and specifically about the incredible turn around in NYC. In the end, we really don''t have all the answers but it's not free trade related.
As to your solutions, I largely agree with your vision. We need to look at it holistically, with a broad social net and get to the underlying root causes. The focus should be on eliminating poverty, access to education and health care for everyone to start. Rethink incarceration and let millions out of jail and expunge records for petty crime. Heavy handed, misguided policing doesn't help anyone. Police forces should be working much more closely with academics to find solutions, test ideas - tossing bad ones and implementing new ones.
Anyway, my response is too long and not detailed enough or completely thought through! Hopefully more conversations to follow - I'm learning a lot!
Another excellent article. The elites figured out how to make more money for themselves and the only drawback is they decimated the American working class, creating communities of crime and addiction. Prosecute those who off-shored our jobs for treason!
You said what we all are thinking!
Shame those who normalise crime - https://www.crashoutmedia.com/p/the-worlds-most-famous-narco-wife
Your cleverest article. The wit helped lubricate the points.
I am so so very happy to hear your feedback on it. Hooray! Thank you for being here. :-)
You have a lot to say here!
I think this conversation requires a beer or two, and a couple of hours to spare! Agree with a lot of what you say, some of it, not so much :). On the economics/business side, Keynesian economic theory has been dying since the 60s. No economist wants to go back there. Going back to an isolationist trade policy doesn't help anyone. Open trade with neighbors is good policy and has been around as sound policy for centuries (Ricardo - for example). The US is the most powerful country in the world because we accept free trade (in principal). No isolationist country can succeed (see North Korea). We have terrible social guard rails that can easily fix much of these issues of wealth inequality that you rightly bring up. The tax code is poorly designed and allows the wealthy to pay little to no taxes legally. Switching to a consumption (sales tax) fixes much of that problem almost immediately. We need much better safety nets at the bottom - Federal minimum wages haven't changed in forever. Access to daycare, medical care, better pension plans, can easily decrease poverty rates quickly. Child poverty was cut in half with COVID/pandemic funding. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/us/politics/covid-poverty-aid-programs.html It's not rocket science.
Urban ghettos are another tax code problem. In the US we give tax deductions to the middle class to purchase homes, mostly driving up the cost of homes. It makes no sense. There was a great article a month or so ago (I think in the NYT) that talked about giving tax breaks for housing to the poor instead. Build inexpensive housing and have rent subsidies. Take care of the place and you get to stay.
On ghettos, if you haven't read, "Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets", I highly recommend it!
Policing is a bad model, poorly implemented in many cases. If you haven't read Malcolm Gladwell's book, "Talking to Strangers" yet, I'll buy you a copy. And of course, violent crime is way down in the US, which almost no one talks about. You've got me thinking deeply about social justice :). I just bought a couple of books from Franklin Zimring, an academic out of Berkeley looking at crime. "The City That Became Safe" talks about the 40% decline in crime from 1991 to 2000 - Well after Keynes was gone :) and specifically about the incredible turn around in NYC. In the end, we really don''t have all the answers but it's not free trade related.
As to your solutions, I largely agree with your vision. We need to look at it holistically, with a broad social net and get to the underlying root causes. The focus should be on eliminating poverty, access to education and health care for everyone to start. Rethink incarceration and let millions out of jail and expunge records for petty crime. Heavy handed, misguided policing doesn't help anyone. Police forces should be working much more closely with academics to find solutions, test ideas - tossing bad ones and implementing new ones.
Anyway, my response is too long and not detailed enough or completely thought through! Hopefully more conversations to follow - I'm learning a lot!