Friday, April 21, 2017

Lynn Parramore — America is Regressing into a Developing Nation for Most People

A new book by economist Peter Temin finds that the U.S. is no longer one country, but dividing into two separate economic and political worlds.
You’ve probably heard the news that the celebrated post-WW II beating heart of America known as the middle class has gone from “burdened,” to “squeezed” to “dying.” But you might have heard less about what exactly is emerging in its place.

In a new book, The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy, Peter Temin, Professor Emeritus of Economics at MIT, draws a portrait of the new reality in a way that is frighteningly, indelibly clear: America is not one country anymore. It is becoming two, each with vastly different resources, expectations, and fates....
The US begins to resemble Latin America as the American Dream fades into memory for many Americans.
Along with Thomas Piketty, whose Capital in the Twenty-First Century examines historical and modern inequality, Temin’s book has provided a giant red flag, illustrating a trajectory that will continue to accelerate as long as the 20 percent in the FTE sector are permitted to operate a country within America’s borders solely for themselves at the expense of the majority. Without a robust middle class, America is not only reverting to developing-country status, it is increasingly ripe for serious social turmoil that has not been seen in generations....
Expect increased sales of The Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf.

INET
America is Regressing into a Developing Nation for Most People
Lynn Parramore 

15 comments:

Noah Way said...

Welcome to the Banana Republic of Capitalistan!

Matt Franko said...

Yeah when all the people from the "developing nations" move in to the US then isn't it interesting that US starts to take on the characteristics of a "developing nation" .... hmmmm funny how that works...

Matt Franko said...

Can't wait to see the changes when all the Venezuelans have to come here.... better start stocking up on the toilet paper now....

Tom Hickey said...

Yeah when all the people from the "developing nations" move in to the US then isn't it interesting that US starts to take on the characteristics of a "developing nation" .... hmmmm funny how that works...

I thought it was about 11 to 12 million. That's 80% of the US population?

Schofield said...

Sooner, however, or maybe much later the Keynes/Minsky's idea market capitalist economies need circuit-regulators will become conventional wisdom. Something has to give, the self-equilibrating economy idea can't go on for ever the social immune system which runs on the basis of the need to be mindful of the needs of others will assert itself. Either that or we'll trash the planet making it uninhabitable!

Matt Franko said...

"About one-fourth of the 42.4 million foreign-born people living in the United States are illegal immigrants – this amounts to roughly 10.5 million, according to the study by Center for Immigration Studies."
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/10/now-we-know-how-many-illegal-aliens-really-in-u-s/#0hDCzy03dj7B17Su.99

42 million foreign born ... the 10m are just the illegals Tom...

Why the purpose of this thing from INET?

It's just like jamming in 100s of $B of reserves into the banking system in a short period, there is going to be short term instability until adjustments can be made....

Is this some big revelation?

You could have 0% unemployment and then bring in 42m unemployed people and then these people would go "hey! We have a lot of unemployed!!! Neoliberal conspiracy!!!"

Do they know how stupid they look? I guess not...

Matt Franko said...

Tom,

Think back to WW1 military aviation... remember they started to shoot the guns through the propeller path for better accuracy...

Do you think maybe that these INET people think the reason that they never shot off their own propellers was because they weren't aiming at them?

Six said...

I had no idea that immigration to the US was a recent phenomenon, Matt.

Tom Hickey said...

Other than the native Americans, Americans are all foreign-born or descendants of those who were. What does length of time have to do with it for those legally here.

As I thought, nothing. Many of the foreign born are not only here legally but have become US citizens.

"Foreign born" is something I expect to see on an Alt Right site.

Noah Way said...

Matt is blaming immigrants instead of Friedman ...

The US is a banana republic because it treats its citizens the same way United Fruit treated people it had colonized.

Tom Hickey said...

The US is a banana republic because it treats its citizens the same way United Fruit treated people it had colonized.

This is exactly what we are now seeing. The core is also being "colonized" as the working populations of the core countries are being forced to compete with the working populations of the periphery.

See the Powell memo.

Six said...

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/pdfs/by_decade/decade_line_chart.pdf

Noah Way said...

@SIX

Exactly. Waves of immigration are nothing new, the country is built on immigration. Based on population size (76m in 1900) immigration was proportionally about 3 times higher.

Matt Franko said...

"Waves of immigration"

Probably lines up with when the US found new strikes of gold/silver...

Peter Pan said...

...lines up with the riffraff fleeing Europe...