The only thing most people seem to remember from school about economics is that protectionism helped lead to the Great Depression. It is a lot more complicated than that and we are living in a global economy that has treated USA like a frickin’ cash cow. The only people that got rich have been those with $ to but in the Obama stock market propped up by QE. Savers and poor were left out in the cold, jobs shipped out of the country. I am old enough to remember when we switched to a consumer economy where chespmcrao from overseas was GREAT if you had a job and a credit card. Personal debt has destroyed many of us on so many levels, and loss of jobs has destroyed the working class. We need a healthy working class as much as we need a healthy middle class. >>750706
Exactly right. Our economy has been screwed over by the globalist mentality making housing too expensive and forcing people into the stock market as the only game in town. Hopefully, rising interest rates will allow more diversification andnhelp out the poor and the young to be able to afford a decent house.
People have always depended on home ownership to be able to afford to retire. I’m retired but if I didn’t own my home, there is no way. I’d be working until I died of old age. At a certain point, it isn’t what you make, it is how much you spend. Home ownership makes ALL the difference when you are on a budget. Night and day on quality of life and you don’t need a fancy place. You just need to not have to spend spend several thousand a month just to have a roof over your head. I bought my first house in the Carter years. OMG, look it up if you want to know how high interest rates were. I’d never want that. But the house was cheap as a result. >>750931
Illegal immigration used to be guys that came over the border to work low wage jobs, often seasonal, and then they went back home. Everything changed when they started bringing their families over, en mass, getting benefits and having anchor babies. It is an entirely new dynamic. The democrats keep trying to float the narrative of the old days - that illegals do the work Americans won’t, that they are good for the economy. It is crap. All that changed when social programs, translators, our justice system, and public schools had to start spending money to provide services for whole families.
That would be CEO’s of big corporations, largely publicly traded who can afford such ridiculous salaries and packages. And when interest rates are low, everyone with two dimes is forced into the stock market because property costs go up. Savers are just screwed. I recall my dad, a small business owner, who made decisions not just to make money but to take care of his employees. Modern big corporations are beholden to shareholders who are investors. It comes down to profit due to their fiduciary duties. This is a problem, IMO.