Class and family in the US and A.

[meus_ovatio]

I've been musing about something. Beware, for I have mused and you are now subject to its consequences! Something came up with got me thinking about family and how class continuity can effect politics. For instance, anecdote-wise, about 3/4ths of those I know are worse off than their parents than their parents were at their age. The rest are either

Comments

[underlankers]

They entail the clash of the Baby Boomer generation that contributed nothing whatsoever beyond shouting angrily and Woodstock and the smaller generations being screwed over by the seniors so they can keep their free welfare nets and young peoples' lots simply don't matter. The two interests are directly contradictory to each other and as Medicare and its like are currently defined the Baby Boomers will wreck the system unless some significant reforms are made of the very sort the same spoiled whining brats of the 1960s don't want because it might hurt them are made so this will last in the long term. US society is greying and what meets the interests of the selfish old people who make up the Tea Party is not what meets the interests of either young people or the long-term interest of the USA as either state or empire.

[paedraggaidin]

Oooh I wonder if Baby Boomers would like some ointment for that terrible burn.

But seriously, agreed.

[pastorlenny]

Not only are you making sense, but your prose is almost fully coherent!

[underlankers]

The fully coherent version is that the Baby Boomers don't want to give up what to them is rightfully theirs, but if they keep it the USA can't keep going as it is. Unfortunately their case to not alter the way things are is a perfectly valid one, however the interests of the USA mandate a complete overhaul of the Social Security/Medicare system of the currently politically unfeasible sort.

[meus_ovatio]

I agree that the cultural split was greater in the 60s, but that was more over ideology than class. The 20th century was one long drawn out ideological battle, but the hippies were never a separate class of people, economically speaking.

[telemann]

OWS, for instance, was never terribly popular that I ever saw

Moreover, there is evidence that the movement produced a respectable shift in public opinion and the public dialogue. Gallup reported in April that 57% of Americans believed that money and wealth should be more evenly distributed (a figure that has been relatively stable since the mid-eighties), but a CBS/New York Times poll in late October reported the figure at 66%.

Frank Luntz isn't denying the impact of OWS movement.

[montecristo]

Empire leads to faction. Faction creates polarization. Social disintegration destroys trade and community relationships. Disintegrating trade and community relationships disrupts the economy and introduces more irrationality into the production system. The disintegrating economy cannot sustain the empire and it collapses in the face of one or more internal or external stressors. This is not an unfamiliar pattern.

[ddstory]

Hey, welcome back!

[montecristo]

Hey, thanks! That's a nice icon you have there. Is it new?

[ddstory]

Kind of old really, but rarely used.

[enders_shadow]

You need to come to terms with the fact that wages for workers have remained stagnant, in terms of real spending power, since about the 70's.

So while part of you making less than you father is a choice about which job field to go into, there's also the problem of ALL wages going down or remaining stagnant, in terms of real spending power/

[enders_shadow]

Pick up a copy of The Looting of America by Les Leopold

It is true, and I hope when you see the evidence you will be willing to accept the reality of the problem.

Productivity went up, wages didn't which meant those who reaped the rewards of productivity earned more and more money.

This is one reason OWS exists.

[devil_ad_vocate]

Counting down to the "it's the _____ generation's fault": 4, 3, 2, 1....

[paedraggaidin]

It's the Greatest, with their silly big band music and lack of hip hop and warrin' an' fightin' and total inability to use the Internet!!

[pastorlenny]

Cab Calloway was the first hip-hop artist.