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Signs of declining economic security

I will say this, the rhetoric would have been different. No birther stuff. No shouting lie in congress. It would have been along the lines of what we usually see. Things have been over the top concerning Obama. So, while I agree with your that most are not racist, there has been a racist element in all lot this.

That wasn't racist, wtf are you talking about? No one ever questioned Jesse Jackson when he ran.
 
That wasn't racist, wtf are you talking about? No one ever questioned Jesse Jackson when he ran.

Not about birth, but certainly many over the top allegations. Also, Jessie really never came close to winning, so it wasn't so threatening.
 
The challenges related to economic security are, in part, the result of broad forces and developments that have largely reshaped the economic realm. That process is continuing.

A few decades ago, the economic realm was more static. Limitations in flows of trade, capital, and information served as “speed bumps” that tended to dampen the rate at which societies and economies changed. Today, that is no longer the case. Trade liberalization grants access to world-class products in most of the world’s economies. Technological advances and reduction in illiberal capital regimes have made it possible for capital to flow rapidly across national boundaries throughout most of the world where the safety-returns balance is most attractive. Technology has decimated barriers that once impeded the flow of ideas, now allowing societies in much of the world to leverage those ideas in myriad fields in building competitive firms, industries, and economies.

That landscape now requires emphasis on knowledge, flexibility, and continual improvement and innovation. In a growing level of occupations, the need for competence has been replaced by the need for excellence. What one knows today is less important than whether one will know what is needed for tomorrow. Firms increasingly look to their employees not as inputs for production, but as sources of human capital that could allow them to develop difficult- or costly-to-imitate processes that are essential to building sustainable competitive advantages. To gain security, employees increasingly need to adapt and re-adapt their skills and expand their knowledge. Otherwise, their value in the human capital framework can only depreciate relative that of their international counterparts in a dynamic world where the education/skills disparities have been closing fast.

The transition from yesterday’s economy to today’s economy and that of the foreseeable future is not easy. That transition has been made more difficult from a lack of a “big picture” approach in which investment has often been viewed by policy makers as just another discretionary expense. The difference is that a dollar invested yields future returns while a dollar spent on an expense does not.

In 2009, a National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Working Paper asked whether the U.S. is losing its preeminence in higher education. The paper noted that scientific research in Europe and East Asia has been expanding rapidly since the 1980s (not a bad thing). At the same time, it observed that U.S. publication rates since the 1990s had been slowing and that slowdown could not simply be attributed to trends in Europe and East Asia. Instead, the paper revealed that the slowdown resulted from underinvestment in public institutions. The slowdown of funding for research translated into falling research output in public universities, with many of those institutions seeing their research output tumble into the middle- and bottom-40% of their disciplines.

A 2012 NBER Working Paper observed a slowdown in U.S. innovation. The paper attributed that development to demography (aging U.S. population), education (stagnant outcomes), inequality, among other factors. Based on its findings, the paper warned that “future growth in consumption per capita for the bottom 99 percent of the income distribution could fall below 0.5 percent per year for an extended period of decades.” The results of the AP survey offer a hint of that outcome.

There are no quick fixes. Moreover, the President’s planned address on a new "grand bargain" seeks, in part, to emphasize increased funding for community colleges to reduce barriers to opportunity. Unfortunately, the plan as it has been reported, appears poised to fall far short of what is needed.

First, even as community colleges have a role to play, one must look beyond technical training. Their most productive role in a long-term investment strategy might well entail preparing their students for 4-year and advanced degrees. BLS employment data and Census incomes data show that technical training is not where the greatest job and income security lie. The real value added depends more and more on advanced knowledge far more than it does technical training. Second, without an aggressive approach to increase the value added from elementary and secondary educations (knowledge, progress, timely graduation), students will not be academically-ready for college curricula, which also needs to grow more demanding. Third, a national program would need to be sustained with progress informed by critical indicators and be accompanied by an objective process to make adjustments as needed.

If news reports are accurate, what is being proposed is largely yet another minimalist “plan du jour.” The description suggests that it is largely tactical and reactive. Instead, the nation needs an economic and investment strategy that is coherent, proactive, and strategic. The strategy needs to address how the nation will dramatically expand its pool of knowledge workers in particular, and broaden its pool of human capital in general.

To be sure, government can’t do everything, nor should it. Much of what is required will depend on the private sector. Indeed, the private sector should largely handle technical training. Government should focus its investments on developing high-skilled labor where overall returns would be maximized.

In that context, government needs to give much greater attention to the future value its investments can yield. All expenditures are not created equal. A coherent, proactive, and strategic framework can help it do so. A tactical and reactive approach will likely continue to yield low returns at high cost with little tangible contribution toward addressing the nation’s big challenges.
 
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There is no Bush hatred in my comments,
only facts. Under Bush the economy got worse than when Clinton was president. Just as with Obama, the economy has gotten worse than Bush. I've criticzed Obama plenty.

The average "Obama" voter is no different than the average "GOP" voter. Both sides think "their" guys are the solution. They aren't, they are the problem.

Wrong....the Clinton economy was a economy based on bubbles as he set the stage for the Sub-Prime Collapse through his corrupt appointments and his mandates that lowered standards that had been in place for decades.

Trust me, you have no bussines critiquing the average voter in this Country let alone the average GOP voter.

All you've got is a opinion based on a talking points and I have yet to see you post any evidence to the contrary.
 
Not about birth, but certainly many over the top allegations. Also, Jessie really never came close to winning, so it wasn't so threatening.

Come on, if it was a racist tactic, it would have been used immediately whether he was winning or not. Anyway, I don't racism in this. The guy came out of nowhere with a tiny resume compared to most presidential candidates. If it weren't for the fawning of the press he may never had made it. He was up against Hillary you know?
 
Come on, if it was a racist tactic, it would have been used immediately whether he was winning or not. Anyway, I don't racism in this. The guy came out of nowhere with a tiny resume compared to most presidential candidates. If it weren't for the fawning of the press he may never had made it. He was up against Hillary you know?

That's flawed logic. As success becomes move evident, the need to ratchet it up becomes more desperate. That's how birther silliness comes about.
 
I will say this, the rhetoric would have been different. No birther stuff. No shouting lie in congress. It would have been along the lines of what we usually see. Things have been over the top concerning Obama. So, while I agree with your that most are not racist, there has been a racist element in all lot this.

Oh I definitely think the birther stuff would have been there regardless of color. The right was like a dog after a juicy piece of meat on that one. Even McCain was getting accused of that and he's white. I don't think race has played into Obama's ridicule (outside of the whole half-white half-black thing).

And yes, of course, there is some racism comments by some but not the majority.
 
Wrong....the Clinton economy was a economy based on bubbles as he set the stage for the Sub-Prime Collapse through his corrupt appointments and his mandates that lowered standards that had been in place for decades.

Ah yes, and Bush ran rosey budgets right? Gimme a break.

Trust me, you have no bussines critiquing the average voter in this Country let alone the average GOP voter.

And you do?

All you've got is a opinion based on a talking points and I have yet to see you post any evidence to the contrary.

No, I have facts. Facts that you hate because you worhipped Bush and the right. Fact is, you think your side is the solution and YOU are part of the problem along with the Dems and Reps.
 
The challenges related to economic security are, in part, the result of broad forces and developments that have largely reshaped the economic realm. That process is continuing.

A few decades ago, the economic realm was more static. Limitations in flows of trade, capital, and information served as “speed bumps” that tended to dampen the rate at which societies and economies changed. Today, that is no longer the case. Trade liberalization grants access to world-class products in most of the world’s economies. Technological advances and reduction in illiberal capital regimes have made it possible for capital to flow rapidly across national boundaries throughout most of the world where the safety-returns balance is most attractive. Technology has decimated barriers that once impeded the flow of ideas, now allowing societies in much of the world to leverage those ideas in myriad fields in building competitive firms, industries, and economies.

That landscape now requires emphasis on knowledge, flexibility, and continual improvement and innovation. In a growing level of occupations, the need for competence has been replaced by the need for excellence. What one knows today is less important than whether one will know what is needed for tomorrow. Firms increasingly look to their employees not as inputs for production, but as sources of human capital that could allow them to develop difficult- or costly-to-imitate processes that are essential to building sustainable competitive advantages. To gain security, employees increasingly need to adapt and re-adapt their skills and expand their knowledge. Otherwise, their value in the human capital framework can only depreciate relative that of their international counterparts in a dynamic world where the education/skills disparities have been closing fast.

The transition from yesterday’s economy to today’s economy and that of the foreseeable future is not easy. That transition has been made more difficult from a lack of a “big picture” approach in which investment has often been viewed by policy makers as just another discretionary expense. The difference is that a dollar invested yields future returns while a dollar spent on an expense does not.

In 2009, a National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Working Paper asked whether the U.S. is losing its preeminence in higher education. The paper noted that scientific research in Europe and East Asia has been expanding rapidly since the 1980s (not a bad thing). At the same time, it observed that U.S. publication rates since the 1990s had been slowing and that slowdown could not simply be attributed to trends in Europe and East Asia. Instead, the paper revealed that the slowdown resulted from underinvestment in public institutions. The slowdown of funding for research translated into falling research output in public universities, with many of those institutions seeing their research output tumble into the middle- and bottom-40% of their disciplines.

A 2012 NBER Working Paper observed a slowdown in U.S. innovation. The paper attributed that development to demography (aging U.S. population), education (stagnant outcomes), inequality, among other factors. Based on its findings, the paper warned that “future growth in consumption per capita for the bottom 99 percent of the income distribution could fall below 0.5 percent per year for an extended period of decades.” The results of the AP survey offer a hint of that outcome.

There are no quick fixes. Moreover, the President’s planned address on a new "grand bargain" seeks, in part, to emphasize increased funding for community colleges to reduce barriers to opportunity. Unfortunately, the plan as it has been reported, appears poised to fall far short of what is needed.

First, even as community colleges have a role to play, one must look beyond technical training. Their most productive role in a long-term investment strategy might well entail preparing their students for 4-year and advanced degrees. BLS employment data and Census incomes data show that technical training is not where the greatest job and income security lie. The real value added depends more and more on advanced knowledge far more than it does technical training. Second, without an aggressive approach to increase the value added from elementary and secondary educations (knowledge, progress, timely graduation), students will not be academically-ready for college curricula, which also needs to grow more demanding. Third, a national program would need to be sustained with progress informed by critical indicators and be accompanied by an objective process to make adjustments as needed.

If news reports are accurate, what is being proposed is largely yet another minimalist “plan du jour.” The description suggests that it is largely tactical and reactive. Instead, the nation needs an economic and investment strategy that is coherent, proactive, and strategic. The strategy needs to address how the nation will dramatically expand its pool of knowledge workers in particular, and broaden its pool of human capital in general.

To be sure, government can’t do everything, nor should it. Much of what is required will depend on the private sector. Indeed, the private sector should largely handle technical training. Government should focus its investments on developing high-skilled labor where overall returns would be maximized.

In that context, government needs to give much greater attention to the future value its investments can yield. All expenditures are not created equal. A coherent, proactive, and strategic framework can help it do so. A tactical and reactive approach will likely continue to yield low returns at high cost with little tangible contribution toward addressing the nation’s big challenges.

International corporations as monopolizing conglomerations have reshaped the world's demographic and economic landscape, eliminating middle class wage earners by shifting production, and increasing technology and global trade for profit. Governments have essentially gone along with this evolving process. The job market has created more high paying positions with certain skill sets and more low wage, labor positions, resulting from a growing poverty class without resources for education or training. Even if they had more education it would not guarantee an increase of positions at higher levels if the jobs don't exist.

The reactive minimalist “plan du jour” is typical of the upper echelon to cover the problem with a band aid because they're not interested in spending their profits on what they consider to be a charitable redistribution. They need to consider a long term plan towards improving future profitability from a stronger base. This can only be accomplished, by as you say a more proactive course of addressing the structural flaws of our current economic and financial system with a coordinated effort from government and corporate cooperation.

The problem isn't a lack of money but rather a lack of sustainable growth. The biggest harbinger towards job creation and growth has been a limited amount of natural resources and emerging technologies replacing needs for humans in production, skilled labor, retail and all forms of involvement. We need a new model that compassionately includes the lower classes into a world where information and mechanical technology begin to replace a majority of working positions. Everything from medical to transportation is becoming automated and it's easy to envision a future where eventually human needs are almost completely supplied by machines.
 
Oh I definitely think the birther stuff would have been there regardless of color. The right was like a dog after a juicy piece of meat on that one. Even McCain was getting accused of that and he's white. I don't think race has played into Obama's ridicule (outside of the whole half-white half-black thing).

And yes, of course, there is some racism comments by some but not the majority.

No, McCain got an after thought as a rebuttal. His issue was there long ago, and never an issue at all. He kind of proves the point.
 
In high school I had a teacher that regularly discussed economics before class started, and when we discussed the future of labor in the United States he told us to expect that each of us would average about five to seven careers throughout our working careers. Gone was the job security of our parents and grandparents who had a reasonable expectation that they would work at a single employer their whole lives and enjoy the job security that came with it.

Those discussions took place in 1999. To act as if this trend is something that has happened over the last few years, rather than the last three or four decades, is foolish.

As for the article, I am not surprised at all of the findings. With the emphasis on capital over the recent decades, labor is no longer that important when companies can have laborers in developing nations build their products at a fraction of the price of their American counterparts. Along with the prevalence of robotics, the manpower necessary to manufacture goods is drastically less than what was needed in post World War II America.

In order to better compete in the global market education is now the key to prosperity. Now no longer does a college degree guarantee success, but in order to do well one must have a post-undergraduate work. Unfortunately, this means that blue collar workers of the future will become something of a perpetual underclass with little chance of upward mobility. It is sad, but that is capitalism for you.

My goodness, you sound like you came straight out of Ayn Rand's Anthem. If you had your way, half brains would be the scientists and we would still be using candles instead of electricity because it is more "labor intensive."

Just like the agrarian farm society became a thing of the past, so too will the "blue collar" manufacturing society. That's capitalism, it sure is. And you can thank capitalism for not having to go outside in the blistering summer to grow your family's dinner for tonight.
 
My goodness, you sound like you came straight out of Ayn Rand's Anthem. If you had your way, half brains would be the scientists and we would still be using candles instead of electricity because it is more "labor intensive."

Just like the agrarian farm society became a thing of the past, so too will the "blue collar" manufacturing society. That's capitalism, it sure is. And you can thank capitalism for not having to go outside in the blistering summer to grow your family's dinner for tonight.

Perhaps. But knowing how something happens is more intelligent than just saying I hate the president, whoever that may be at the moment.
 
I will say this, the rhetoric would have been different. No birther stuff. No shouting lie in congress. It would have been along the lines of what we usually see. Things have been over the top concerning Obama. So, while I agree with your that most are not racist, there has been a racist element in all lot this.

There is always going to be some sort of racist element to the actions of a few. Doesn't mean that racism is the underlying theme of the matter. The people who disagree with Obama would still disagree with Obama if he were white. I'm sure there would be a select few who might be a little more behaved about it if that were true. Then again, perhaps Obama would've been a different president if he were white. Its hard to say.
 
Perhaps. But knowing how something happens is more intelligent than just saying I hate the president, whoever that may be at the moment.

I fail to see how this is on topic of my response. Unless it was a compliment. In that case thank you.
 
There is always going to be some sort of racist element to the actions of a few. Doesn't mean that racism is the underlying theme of the matter. The people who disagree with Obama would still disagree with Obama if he were white. I'm sure there would be a select few who might be a little more behaved about it if that were true. Then again, perhaps Obama would've been a different president if he were white. Its hard to say.

Mostly I agree, but the silliness with Obama has been worse than I recall. Even Bush, who actually did really crappy ****, didn't see this kind of over the top hyperbole. So, I think it should be examined. Just throwing it off out of hand seems wishful thinking.
 
I fail to see how this is on topic of my response. Unless it was a compliment. In that case thank you.

Not a compliment. The poster you responded to explained the issues we face today started in the past. This is reasonable to explain. That it is a by product of capitalism may be true. But the causes are still the causes, and examining them is more helpful that wrongly blaming presidents.
 
Mostly I agree, but the silliness with Obama has been worse than I recall. Even Bush, who actually did really crappy ****, didn't see this kind of over the top hyperbole. So, I think it should be examined. Just throwing it off out of hand seems wishful thinking.

No?

ringobushitler17.jpg
 
Not a compliment. The poster you responded to explained the issues we face today started in the past. This is reasonable to explain. That it is a by product of capitalism may be true. But the causes are still the causes, and examining them is more helpful that wrongly blaming presidents.

Causes are still causes, but comments like "that's capitalism for you" implies that such causes are the root problem, rather then the problems merely being a temporary side effect.

Not to mention, his analysis is only sufficient in its incompleteness. His examples and support lack context and seem to imply a static trend without any consideration for changing circumstances. For instance, he mentions about how cheap overseas labor has undermined the American worker. A fair point, except instead of expanding on it, he merely accepts this as a final, static conclusion. It does not seem to occur to him to take into consideration that wages are rising quite rapidly in many of these low income nations. The best evidence for this is in the explosion of the population of the global middle class, which is set to reach just a hair under 5 billion people by 2030, a 272% increase. As the world becomes increasingly wealthier, the supply of cheap labor begins to shrink to the point where jobs in the US, with its technological advantage and an abundance of cheap domestic gas, will become increasingly competitive. Evidence of this is already emerging if one just opens up his/her horizons a bit. Point is, he is taking a 2D view in a 3D world.
 
Not even close. And Bush had to start two wars to get that. His post election was pretty good considering.

Since when was hyperbole not hyperbole? There are plenty of policy issues that many conservatives disagree with Obama about. I don't understand why people act as if you could never disagree with the guy or his policies.
 
Was this the change you liberal progressives were waiting for? Was this the plan? All this talk, and excuse making for a failed liberal agenda of bringing all boats down in the name of "fairness" is bull****! We are NOT better off with Obama in office! We are NOT recovering under his administration, because that was never the plan. We are in decline, ushered in, and sped up by this progressive trash in the WH for the purpose of bringing this country down, because he can't stand what our place in the world was.

Don't agree with me? I couldn't care less! IF all you want to do is attack, then do us all a favor and don't post in this thread. If you want to discuss the conclusion of the AP report, then I am listening.

It's kinda tough to put the blame of less economic security solely on the Obama administration when Congress won't even pass the kind of laws that President Obama would want in order to deal with it.

So Congress is just as much to blame as President Obama is.
 
It's kinda tough to put the blame of less economic security solely on the Obama administration when Congress won't even pass the kind of laws that President Obama would want in order to deal with it.

So Congress is just as much to blame as President Obama is.


LOL.

He had a two year free run controlling both houses of congress and of course the White House. The American voter said no to his unchecked ideas. Had he pushed for proven successful ideas his first two years as president, he might still control both houses. Instead, he pushed for proven failed ideas and got them through with flying colors. He cooked his own goose his first two years and the only thing preventing additional damage is the House.
 
LOL.

He had a two year free run controlling both houses of congress and of course the White House. The American voter said no to his unchecked ideas. Had he pushed for proven successful ideas his first two years as president, he might still control both houses. Instead, he pushed for proven failed ideas and got them through with flying colors. He cooked his own goose his first two years and the only thing preventing additional damage is the House.

And yet he was elected to a second term by the people as well.

And all three branches of government are responsible for the well-being of the United States - not just one.
 
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