The war Ronald Reagan started against the working class is a resounding success today
By louisehartmann
Who’s screwed? Minimum wage workers. The minimum wage is no longer enough to meet a person’s minimum needs in Michigan according to a new report. The organization – Wider Opportunities for Women – published the report and it finds that a single Michigan resident needs to make more than 12 bucks an hour just to house – clothe – and feed him or herself. The minimum wage in Michigan is well short of that marker – just $7.40. But when you throw children into the equation – the picture is even grimmer.
A mother with two children needs to make about $24 dollars an hour to meet their basic needs – that’s more than three times higher than minimum wage, and that's working a 40-hour week. That means each and every month – someone who’s trying to raise their kids on minimum wage has to forego dinner – or rent – or electricity – or a new pair of shoes just to get by in America – the richest nation on the planet. I guess Republicans will argue they just need to get a credit card.
Looks like the war Ronald Reagan started against the working class 30 years ago is a resounding success today.
Comments
#2
Louise, if cost of living kept pace when the minimum wage law was passed, the hourly minimum wage would be $19.00. Reagan has impoverished the working class of peons.
#3
When you read this article, you must be bending over for BOHICA moment. You will not be experiencing a Sacramental Moment.
http://original.antiwar.com/peter-casey/2011/05/31/where-have-all-the-missiles-gone/
#4
I do not know if Anthony Gregory is conservative or progressive. Is he a patriotic American or not??? He feels Bush's third term is worse than his first two terms. Is he right???
http://original.antiwar.com/anthony-gregory/2011/05/31/worse-than-a-third-bush-term/
#5
Anthony Gregory appears to be more of a conservative. His articles may be slanted to the right and so we will have to discern his thought processes more carefully.
http://independent.org/publications/policy_reports/detail.asp?type=full&id=40
Mr. Gregory needs to be more critical of Bush, the warmonger, for his immoral and wrong wars. We seem to forget that Bush was the first mass murderer and war criminal from his misadventures in Afganistan and Iraq. I would have to say that Obama has carried on the mass murders and war crimes. When a person becomes president or a member of Congress or a Supreme Court Justice as we have currently in the Supreme Court and we see the Mafia rrunning the circus, these persons are willingly selling their soul to Satan and they become one of Satan's loyal disciples.
#6
Why is there no talk of shared sacrifice for American corporations and the American rich?
Reflection of the week: “You who are journalists, writers, citizens, you have the right and duty to say to those you have elected that they must practice mindfulness, calm and deep listening, and loving speech. This is universal thing, taught by all religions.” - Thich Nhat Hanh
#7
There is something in the American psyche that looks upon the killing of God’s children as Magical Moments. We know of Sacramental Moments and BOHICA Moments. The killing of God’s children are Magical Moments.
I want to share with you how to decipher my comments or posts. I look upon my comments falling into a rant and vent mode, an informational mode, my spiritual mode, and my dry sense of humor mode. I believe that whoever reads my comments will have to discern my mode (style) or modus operandi.
#8
"The war Ronald Reagan started against the working class is a resounding success today"
This has to be one of dumbest statements I have read from you.....Minimum wage is for entry level workers NOT MOTHERS WITH TWO OR THREE CHILDREN LIVING ON THEIR OWN!
This is totally ridiculas Red Herring you are trying to foist here. The minimum wage is meant for high school kids on their first job. It has never been meant for anyone raising a family. Ronald Reagan had absolutley nothing to do with this kind of liberal insanity.....
#9
Now I know why the US Census report of poverty identifies the single female head of household as the biggest contributor to poverty with high school dropouts.
#10
In the work for welfare program that started under Clinton many single mothers now work minimum wage jobs to meet the work requirement. They also often travel long distances by bus to reach those jobs. It may be intended for teenagers but that is not what is happening in the real world.
And this did indeed begin under Reagan who raised working class taxes a full 60%! He lowered taxes on people making real money and raised the FICA (Social Security and Medicare) from 9+% to 15.4% (employer and employee combined). If you work for yourself of course you pay the whole thing known as the 'self-employment tax'
He also began the destruction of private pensions in favor of IRAs and 401(k) plans which resulted in a huge transfer of money from individuals to stock brokers and financial advisors. Few have an IRA or 401 plan that comes even close to giving them what even the most measly pension plan did.
He also changed the capital gains taxes to favor big investors tying up large sums of money.
If wages had been allowed to increase with inflation there would be no tax shortfalls today, as taxes are a percentage of wages and fall mainly on the working and middle classes.
Yes, it began under Reagan.
#11
Historically, it's the 1907 Harriman-Fleming vs American Independence, G.H. Walker & Company, Transfer Agent/Federal Reserve scheme which won the War! The plan took 100 years of financial scheming, 1907-2007, just when Marcus Schrenker starting going a little bit nuts. Just before Goldman Sachs sacked.
Reagan had AD but his actor's reflexes could still perform a script. He didn't know enough to plan the crashes and crazy entanglement of arguments and inexplicable failures which have halted our social progress.
Remember the chain of people through Prescott Bush who hired Nixon and then Reagan and will keep going till they raise the Devil himself. Reagan cancelled numerous Kennedy Executive Orders investigating irregularities of the Florida East Coast Railroad with similar things of that nature. Remember the assassination threw the General Dynamics/Boeing investigation off for ten years 'til no one knew what to do about it. Remember the Kennedy-era CIA acted without Presidential orders. Who is GD and Boeing and the miscreant CIA faction, except The Carlyle Group! Oh WA WA.
Reagan wasn't brilliant or sinister enough to have been more than a pawn in what has been in the works since the Corporation of Foreign Bondholders organized in London in 1868. That is what aimed at and has fueled the rise of an American working poor class, with enhanced techniques for brainwashing an American Idol worshiping nation of senseless, body-dysmorphic, uneducated addicts.
We have been sterilized, used to test LSD and diseases against our knowledge at the hands of the 1907 Eugenic Society! How far will they go with their foolproof bunkers stocked for the long haul?
We might spend more time beating the bushes for the real troublemakers. In which case, a little water- boarding might be deemed fair and legal.
XXXXX
#12
Thankfully it looks like the American capacity to dominate the rest of the world for purposes of economic exploitation will be brought undone by bankruptcy. It is a pity so many innocent civilians have lost their lives in countries from Afghanistan to Chile to Guatemala to Indonesia in the process of bringing this to pass.
#13
Ronald Reagan has everything to do with the conservative insanity of trickle down, you know , the big fat lie about giving all the loot to the so called job creators, so we commoners might beneifit from minimum wage enslavement. The blog has everything to do with economic reality!
#14
Web You can not blame Libs for this one. You are ignoring actual events of GOP history . 1981 Reaganomics trickle down / deregulation of ruling class aka Big Banks, Wall ST- energy- airlines and trucking industries and more started us o n the long path to the Bush Cheney 2008 global crash / edge of deep depression / TARP . Pushed along by the GOP congress - that W had for 6 yrs and Goldman FED's wealth favoring policies, con judges, 3 huge GOP Unfunded corp / billionaire tax cuts -giant tax loopholes & OIL SUbsides. on backs of our kids education, low- mid income seniors, Pell Grants, head start , school lunches, the poor who spent all their cash - then had to go on Medicaid. Even the disabled was cut as Fla GOP Gov cut funding for the disabled- yes even kids. Bush lied us into Iraq - had NO clue how to get out of a 7 yr long war . So they just dumped all their failures on a new Pres Crash - panic - near depression. - low paying jobs - Bush even gave cuts to Co that sent jobs overseas. and kept war cost off budget . Keep watching Fox and you will remain ill informed .
#15
ABSOLUTELY
#16
meant too add Reagan ended Free education @ U of C Reagan sold guns to iran then lied about it for months These are facts. Bush chose crook Enrons Ken Lay to advise him on energy industry ! same Ken Lay who wiped out his workers life savings- froze their savings plan while Lay sold out and made millions. Reagan Bush GOP deregulation made that possible. .McCain pal / finance advisor !! former Sen Phil Gramm helped push thru the Enron loophole ( google that ) so Gramm and his lobbyist wife made 900 K off that slimy deal Thats what Reaganomics Bush GOP deregulation brought to the USA Greenspan Rubin Sommers pushed hard for Free but not fair markets and trade They convinced Clinton to pass NAFTA bad decision but Clointon also left a huge surplus and millions of new jobs for Bush in Jan 2001 . Bush Cheny Rice ignored 2-3 strong CIA warnings about a coming AL quada attack. CIA 's Tenet told Bush- Rice that ' ALL signs were falshing red ' All ignored . CIA warned BUSH admin on Aug 6 2001 "BIN laden determined to HIT INSIDE THE US ' FOX / GOP / will not tell you these facts
#17
The reason there is no talk about such is that the majority fail to recognize that we are now in a fascist state. This country meets all the criteria of fascism and was puncuated by US Supreme Court rulings. The media won't touch this. I hear often on this show how the Republicans call everything "socialism" to throw fear into everyone. Yet, the Progressives (really a laughable term) are too cowardly to stand up and call what the Republicans are doing "fascism". Is the GOP the only one capable of "talking points"? It certainly seems so. Fascism is the truth whether you believe it or not. Republicans and Corporate America are too corrupt to govern. Democrats and Progressives are too cowardly to govern. Re-read the definition of fascism and then take a look at what is going on in this country. If you can't come to the same conclusion, then God help you.
#18
Liberals need to talk about the fundamentals. The minimum wage is intended to prevent employers from exploiting workers. A pure capitalist system decides wages purely on supply and demand. In terms of wages, there is nothing magical about the market that demands that this price point will be high enough to support life in the long term. It only needs to be enough to keep the worker alive while they are working.
This is, in fact, why we have Medicare and Social Security. These are not government spending. They are transfer payments intended to make sure that employers (in the aggregate) pay enough that workers can survive not just while they are working but when they are unable to work (because of disability or reaching retirement age). They are a form of minimum wage.
Someone above said that the minimum wage was designed for entry-level workers. Well, that just speaks to the stupidity of Congress. What we need is a living wage. It should be illegal to pay someone a wage that's insufficient for their long-term survival (and that of their child). Because if you don't have that then employers are free to exploit workers. They can employ them until they get sick or old and then just discard them to their death or off-load them on their families. Right now they just externalize the costs by offloading them on society. When a company (I’m thinking of a very large company) pays its workers so little that they qualify for food stamps then they are offloading their costs on society.
But a more fundamental problem, Thom, is that we can't support even a minimum wage in this country without an international minimum wage. As long as employers can use wage arbitrage to make a profit they will and they will continue to export jobs overseas, leaving the U.S. economy impoverished.
Right now, as a result of unrestricted globalization there are 1.4 million Americans out of work. This is the difference in the average unemployment rate before and after industrial capacity peaked in this country (multiplied by the work force). Our unemployment rate is 0.9% higher than it was before globalization.
And wages have stagnated as a result. Real wages for production workers (in other words, leaving out the stock brokers and other non-productive workers that kick up the national average) is down about 8% since the 1970s. But worker productivity is up 80%. Prior to the 1970s (and for decades) productivity and wages rose together. Since we opted for unrestricted globalization, they have separated. That's one reason that income disparity in this country has grown so much over the past few decades.
Congress should demand an international minimum wage and instruct the President to renegotiate each trade deal so that products coming into this country meet those new standards. That IMW should be set high enough to make it attractive for companies to move production capacity back to the U.S.
Wealth comes from production. Production turns resources into a product that has a higher utility than the resources going into it. Production is where wealth comes from. We have systematically exported our wealth-producing jobs. An economy cannot survive if it does that. Wealth-distributing jobs are valuable, but they are only valuable if they distribute wealth that has already been created. When you push wealth-producing jobs out of a country you impoverish it. That is what "free trade" has done. In effect, free trade isn't free. It costs us our wealth-producing jobs.
But Congress will only act if the people demand it. And for that to happen, they must be educated. I appreciate you being part of the education process.
Ronald Reagan is a convenient name to attach to what we're seeing. But I have a better name. I call these people "The Bandits". I call them The Bandits because they are looting the U.S. to line their own pockets. And, while Reagan set in motion some of the worst policies we've seen, he is not to blame any more than any other sap that sells out is to blame. The persons to blame are The Bandits, the people behind his policies that invented them to enrich themselves at the public's expense and suck the lifeblood out of our economy.
But we are going to see a change in this because the economy's had it. People kept up their lifestyles by selling off their assets. They sold off their stakes in the savings and loans. They sold off their stocks and bonds. They sold off their houses. They've nearly sold off their pensions. There are no more deep pockets to pick. So, the ride is over for The Bandits. And now the workers are going to have to clean up the mess. When the money's all gone we are going to have to depend on the workers to earn it all back. And that's going to come with power. Workers will have power because there is no place else to turn now, except to workers, to pay the bills.
The thing to do is to get in on that wave early. We’ll see which politicians are smart enough to do that.
#19
I think the D part is a reflection of your own mirror! The MW is TOO high according to the repugs and neo-cons! In fact, they want to eliminate the MW so they can then pay comparable wages paid in China and Indonesia - $1.00-2.00 and hour!!
The MW was fought for by the WORKING poor in this country because 3.00 an hour just does not cut it with trying to make a living here in the US. The MW is NOT meant to be for high-school kids (who should be learning by the way), but for the barest minimum wage having to be paid to entry level workers in ALL entry level lower paying jobs! Why you don't know this is way beyond me.
I see some pretty dumb responses on this blog but this has to be the dumbest! And if you don't like the name calling, practice it yourself.
#20
You're right, in that the minimum wage is intended for the high school employee or entry level worker. The problem today is that companies don't give raises to employees to help them get to the point where they are making a decent wage. Corporate America puts no value in the working class anymore; this is the shame of what's happened in our country. I work with people in retail merchandising who haven't seen a raise in their pay in 8-10 years. Must of these folks make around $10/hour, and do this kind of work because it is first shift work. These folks work hard everyday, and deserve to make a better wage than what they do.
Competition among the food brokers they work for is why we've gotten to this point. This is why regulation within industries and worker unions originated in the first place; because it's too easy to for a corporate executive to get greedy and do whatever it takes to make sure he has his, at the expense of whoever (which 9 times out of 10 is the working class).
The larger the Corp., the more regulation we need.
#21
I have worked at every job you never want to do. In these jobs you always start at minimum then as you stay you get alittle more each year until you are replaced by another guy who is paid minimum again. This is the way of business in America, not the image we see of high paid jobs with benefits. So I went to college.
I am also a disabled Veteran who has to fight the policies just to keep my rating where it is, and yet each day I am hurting worse then the day before due to the many injuries which happened in the Army.
I have also been out of work for over two years due to an injury which happened over twenty five years ago on duty and took that long to catch up with me.
Before I stopped working I was making $15/hr and most of that went for insurance, food, gas, rent. Now I receive $600 month just in food stamps, free insurance, disability pay only covers rent. So in order to make it worth my while to work again, I must be paid at least $25/hr or whats the point? Two college degrees, graduated at the top of my class, honorably discharged, no crimes, yet to get hired at that pay grade is a pipe dream.
#22
Who campaigns saying "We must take our country back" It's always a white candidate. You can figure out who they want to take it back from.
#23
Sound and light:
So, you need to make $4,300 a month or it is not worth it so you just sit home and accept $600 in food stamps? That makes no sense at all.
BTW, after working for a company a number of years, as you have stated, no new-higher who only commands minimum wage should be able to replace you on the job you are doing. If that is the case, then you need to look at yourself and the value you are delivering to your employer. It is your responsibility to educate yourself, improve your abilities and capabilities, and improve. If you have what it takes for two college degrees, it is only you, and your 'let the government take care of me' mentality that is the problem. We have a whole country full of entitlement folks and they are bankrupting our great country.....
#24
Reagan has a legacy so distorted by the Conservative idolization of him that we may never have a clear picture of the real man behind the television. Did he rid the world of commie scum? Check out my portrait of The Gipper in commemoration of his 100th birthday at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/02/happy-100th-gipper.html
#25
Based on the grammar and spelling of your reply,you proved our liberal point explicitly. Yes, those non life sustaining living wages are meant for entry level part time kids in high school. Yes those wages are not meant for someone trying to take care of his/her family. That doesn't mean that those people I mentioned don't get those lousy wages anyway. What Reagan did was kill our labor movement which significantly buoyed labor's wages and kept them up to date over the years. If you crack a book once in a while you would understand the relationship explicitly.
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