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What is the top reason for the current US economic problem?

What is te top reason for the current US economic criss?

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Permits ALONE here in San Diego start at $100,000.

An "efficiency" apartment here with a toilet in the room and community showers is $600/mo.

Nearly half of a full time, low wage job.

Cost of living varies, but 25% of gross is "rule of thumb" for budgeting rent.
One of the reasons I finally gave up and left California seven years ago. Even with steady income increases, it never seemed to matter. Always seemed that the best I could hope for was to tread water financially. The best! I was never going to actually gain anything.
 
One of the reasons I finally gave up and left California seven years ago. Even with steady income increases, it never seemed to matter. Always seemed that the best I could hope for was to tread water financially. The best! I was never going to actually gain anything.

What sucks is I've always lived here. Since I was two monts old.

Used to be a pretty quiet military town.

Then the Money found us and its been downhill from there.
 
Permits ALONE here in San Diego start at $100,000.

An "efficiency" apartment here with a toilet in the room and community showers is $600/mo.

Nearly half of a full time, low wage job.

Cost of living varies, but 25% of gross is "rule of thumb" for budgeting rent.

Which is one of the many reasons I wouldn't want to ever live in California.
The place is a cost of living nightmare.
 
Permits ALONE here in San Diego start at $100,000.

An "efficiency" apartment here with a toilet in the room and community showers is $600/mo.

Nearly half of a full time, low wage job.

Cost of living varies, but 25% of gross is "rule of thumb" for budgeting rent.
In HS in the 70's we were taught to allocate 25% of our budget for housing, not counting utilities.
 
FAIL - WAR NOT INCLUDED IN POLL ...

*Author Stephen Glain: $10 Trillion missing from Pentagon since 1991* :* Information Clearing House News

Report: Military Blew $1 Trillion on Weapons Since 9/11 | Mother Jones

The War On Waste - CBS News


"At this point in history when the degree of wealth inequality has reached such staggering proportions that the richest 400 people have the same wealth as the bottom 154,000,000 people, when unemployment and foreclosures rates are high, when tens of millions can’t afford health care and students can’t afford to go to college, those in power are fearful that the people will rise up."

OCCUPY: Infiltration of Political Movements is the Norm, Not the Exception in the United States.

I think you are right that it is a combination of factors, but I would have to say the top reason is the financial deregulation over the last 30 years. Especially the dismantling of the firewall that used to separate investment banks and commercial banks which allowed the creation of banks too big to fail.

Yes - a combination of manipulated factors. As in how long could Bush and the GOP could suppress facts about housing bubbles and the coming banking collapse until he was out of office. According to Tim Geitners Congressional testimony , they knew and I quote - "There were significant problems with the banks," as far back as 2005.

Also - how many markets are being gamed is examined further ...

Libor Is Not the Only Manipulated Economic Number | ZeroHedge

Budget Buster: Pentagon Unable to Account for
 
Yes - a combination of manipulated factors. As in how long could Bush and the GOP could suppress facts about housing bubbles and the coming banking collapse until he was out of office. According to Tim Geitners Congressional testimony , they knew and I quote - "There were significant problems with the banks," as far back as 2005.

Also - how many markets are being gamed is examined further ...

Libor Is Not the Only Manipulated Economic Number | ZeroHedge

Budget Buster: Pentagon Unable to Account for




Yep, if the GOP continues not to compromise on eliminating the Bush tax cuts for the rich, the resulting sequestration that will drastically cut military spending may be a blessing in disguise.
 
Manufacturing is not heading to China.
Robots have displaced Americans, because they're better employees/workers.

sowing_protest.png
 
The current US economic crisis and its' causes are owned lock, stock, and barrel by that brilliant economic tactician, master bloviator, advocate for the 1%, the original talking chimp (97% dna match, he's taller), Republican extraordinaire, GWShiiteForBrains, and his secret recipe, a.k.a. "tax cuts for the wealthy," is about to be recycled by a brand spankin' new scion of wealth and privilege, Mitt Romney. Hot damn, ain't it a shame and there's lots of crimes in there, for sure. Trust the "Mighty Wurlitzer" to keep the spongebrains workin' smoothly.
 
The current US economic crisis and its' causes are owned lock, stock, and barrel by that brilliant economic tactician, master bloviator, advocate for the 1%, the original talking chimp (97% dna match, he's taller), Republican extraordinaire, GWShiiteForBrains, and his secret recipe, a.k.a. "tax cuts for the wealthy," is about to be recycled by a brand spankin' new scion of wealth and privilege, Mitt Romney. Hot damn, ain't it a shame and there's lots of crimes in there, for sure. Trust the "Mighty Wurlitzer" to keep the spongebrains workin' smoothly.

Wrong. The amount of Bush tax cuts is negligible compared to the wealth gap.
 
Wrong. The amount of Bush tax cuts is negligible compared to the wealth gap.

OK, I left out that he started two wars on the credit card, is responsible for the deaths of a million Iraqis, had a VP who profitted handsomely on stock because of the war, lied with true professionalism (can't tell the lie from the truth because if you repeat the lie 1,000 times it automatically becomes the truth), initiated an insurmountable debt bubble problem, but on the positive side, I think he was nice to his mother. Just a Great American icon, don't you think?
 
Very interesting. Often debt is presented as a solution to economic difficulties.

short term, temporary, debt might be a useful tool, but long term it is very destructive...
 
Manufacturing is not heading to China.
Robots have displaced Americans, because they're better employees/workers.

I was reading about this 30 years ago....Business Week, IIRC. article was about a major appliances plant that was mostly automated. Master computer could be switched from washers one week to dryers next week, according to demand.
 
Our economy doesn't provide any other options. There are, for example, no "cheap" residences in any substantial sense, whether you are renting or mortgaging.

Why no cheap residences? Simply because the availabilty of cheap loans pushed up demand for residences, hence the price hikes.
 
Cheap overseas labor is the main reason, but of course many of the above are contributors also. Just look at the label of anything you pick up in a department store. Items made here are in the minority, in fact, hard to find. I think if a "made in America" store was opened, it would attract a lot of shoppers, and do well.
 
How 1984'ish.

Big Brotherhood is watching you! If the UN is granted control over the Internet, we'll be required to do an Apology Tour before we can post anywhere. And why shouldn't they rule our minds? After all, this is called the World Wide web.
 
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OK, I left out that he started two wars on the credit card, is responsible for the deaths of a million Iraqis, had a VP who profitted handsomely on stock because of the war, lied with true professionalism (can't tell the lie from the truth because if you repeat the lie 1,000 times it automatically becomes the truth), initiated an insurmountable debt bubble problem, but on the positive side, I think he was nice to his mother. Just a Great American icon, don't you think?

"Including human capital such as skills, the United Nations estimated the total wealth of the United States in 2008 to be $118 trillion"

The top 10% owning 50% of the wealth is 60 trillion dollars. The Bush tax cuts aren't even 1 trillion, and the claim that Iraq/Afghanistan costs trillions is a load of ****.

It is a load of **** because adding the cost of the entire Defense budget to a war is idiotic, that same money would have been spent on Defense with or without war; the only thing that's different is medical costs and building infrastructure for the camel jockeys, which is about 1 trillion. The US military isn't losing ships, planes and entire divisions of soldiers worth of equipment to enemy fire in these pathetic wars, it only loses lives.

So that's 2 trillion, still doesn't come close to the 60 trillion wealth gap.
 
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Cheap overseas labor is the main reason, but of course many of the above are contributors also. Just look at the label of anything you pick up in a department store. Items made here are in the minority, in fact, hard to find. I think if a "made in America" store was opened, it would attract a lot of shoppers, and do well.

It's been done and hasn't worked.
People really don't give a crap where their products are made.

Why does this myth that, overseas jobs have killed American manufacturing, continue to persist?
Manufacturing output has steadily increased on the past decades.
Robots and automation are replacing people, welcome to future.

manufacturing-for-web-PNG26.png
 
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It's been done and hasn't worked.
People really don't give a crap where their products are made.

Why does this myth that, overseas jobs have killed American manufacturing, continue to persist?
Manufacturing output has steadily increased on the past decades.
Robots and automation are replacing people, welcome to future.

manufacturing-for-web-PNG26.png

automation considerably reduced the low skill manufacturing jobs that don't require much education first.....
computers are now displacing knowledge/information type jobs.
Things are gonna keep getting harder, it will take more brainpower to get and hold a good paying job. I got my kids believing, next up is to convince the grandkids... I tell them to educate and train for a job that a computer can't do, or can't do without supervision....
 
It's been done and hasn't worked.
People really don't give a crap where their products are made.

Why does this myth that, overseas jobs have killed American manufacturing, continue to persist?
Manufacturing output has steadily increased on the past decades.
Robots and automation are replacing people, welcome to future.

manufacturing-for-web-PNG26.png

"Domo Arrigato, Mr. Roboto, Domo arrigato Mr. Roboto...
...
with parts made in Japan...
I am the modern man...
...
my heart is human...
my blood is boiling...
my brain by IBM...."
 
automation considerably reduced the low skill manufacturing jobs that don't require much education first.....
computers are now displacing knowledge/information type jobs.
Things are gonna keep getting harder, it will take more brainpower to get and hold a good paying job. I got my kids believing, next up is to convince the grandkids... I tell them to educate and train for a job that a computer can't do, or can't do without supervision....

The new economy is reliant on brain power.
 
De-regulation
Repeal of Glass Stegal
"Free trade"
NAFTA
Outsourcing
Busting of union power
 
De-regulation
Repeal of Glass Stegal
"Free trade"
NAFTA
Outsourcing
Busting of union power



Amen! And those are the same policies the GOP have said they will continue. If a dog bites you once, its his fault. If a dog bites you twice, its your fault.
 
It's been done and hasn't worked.
People really don't give a crap where their products are made.

Why does this myth that, overseas jobs have killed American manufacturing, continue to persist?
Manufacturing output has steadily increased on the past decades.
Robots and automation are replacing people, welcome to future.

manufacturing-for-web-PNG26.png
It's easy to show "gains" over time if you don't adjust for inflation. Adjust that for inflation and try again or show where that's been corrected for inflation.



Ed:
Note: I'm pretty sure the raw data from Uncle Sam is NOT corrected for inflation.
 
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