The need to raise taxes...

[papasmerf]

No matter how you slice it...........The best was to increase tax revenue is to get more people employed in higher paying jobs.

 

[fuji]

No. The idea of economic progress is that you can achieve more with the same amount of input (cost). It's worth pointing out here that real progress according to some estimations has been abysmal for the last generation or two.

Sure, and worker productivity has risen. However consumption -- and the expected "standard" of living -- has risen much more than that.

 

[onthebottom]

You were an obvious lucky fluke......
Many in Ohio are not faring as well.......

It’s grim in Ohio as voters cite economy

Clinton, Obama tailor messages to job climate
By Jerry Zremski
Updated: 02/28/08 6:54 AM

ZANESVILLE, Ohio — At 28, Crystal Young is a college graduate, a full-time worker at the local Dollar General, a part-time clerk at the Sheetz convenience store, and just the kind of person Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is counting on in Tuesday’s Ohio primary.

“I work two jobs, and I can’t afford health care,” said Young, who can’t find a better job in this Jamestown-size community in the foothills of Appalachia despite her psychology degree from Ohio University at Zanesville. “I voted for Bill [Clinton], and things were a lot better when he was president, so I think they will be if Hillary gets elected.”

You’ll find plenty of voters like Young in this beaten-down state, which has lost 200,000 manufacturing jobs — a quarter of what it had — since the turn of the decade. [more]

Friends don't let friends get liberal arts degrees - the come with a name tag.

OTB

 

[frasier]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aJgDrnQK.6_Y

Hey DQ still think we need to let our elected officials raise more taxes....??

 

[Meister]

So long as consumption is larger than production America as a whole is living beyond its means; this despite it producing more per person than it ever has before.



Fundamentally the trade imbalance is because Americans consume more than they produce.

By producing more you are including hair dressers, appliance repair guy.... These services actually do not produce anything they are pure consumption even though it is part of the GDP. And here is the diff. If we actually exported some goods and services (or reduce imports) we could balance the books and consume more.

 

[Meister]

Wrong. Total productivity per hour worked in the US has risen which means that US workers are now employed in jobs that produce more per hour than they used to be. You can cite all the anecdotes you like, but the macro data is there plain for all to see.

If it's true that skilled trades are now doing less productive jobs in the past (which is not in evidence from one anecdote, btw) then what has happened is that the jobs have shifted away from that sector of the economy entire, to some other sector which has even higher productivity.

Anecdotes? Have you checked out the wholesale plant closures in Windsor, Michigan, Penn, Ohio.. over the last 5 years? Without a doubt these skilled labourors have not found equivalent paying jobs. There is only so many insurance salesmen and real estate agents the economy can handle.

 

[cypherpunk]

Sure, and worker productivity has risen. However consumption -- and the expected "standard" of living -- has risen much more than that.

It's not a matter of expectation. The fact is that life today is very similar to life one generation ago. Can you think of a breakthrough like the transistor, the printing press, or electricity that we've seen in the last 30 years? Genetics is the closest we've come and that's still a ways off.

 

[onthebottom]

The computer and internet don't make the cut, eh.

LOL

Yeah, Microsoft, Oracle, Yahoo, E-bay, Amazon, google.... and dare I say TERB.

What a fool.

OTB

 

[cypherpunk]

The computer and internet don't make the cut, eh.

The computer and Internet both existed a generation ago. While ubiquitous computing and Internet access is a milestone, it's not the printing press or electricity. It's not even close.

 

[cypherpunk]

Access to information is nearly equal to the
speed of light for us earthlings.

And what has it done for you? Can you honestly say it's more on par with the printing press than the mail service or telegraph?

 

[cypherpunk]

I live and die by info.

In what way?

 

[fuji]

It's not a matter of expectation. The fact is that life today is very similar to life one generation ago.

All those things seem a little off topic to me. There are some really simple facts here: Consumption has risen by more than productivity has. That inevitably leads to some sort of debt somewhere--perhaps personal, perhaps national, but somewhere.

Maybe you're objecting to the explanation I gave to it--expectations or whatever. Perhaps you have a better explanation for it.

At the end of the day this is some basic truth: If you consume more than you make you are borrowing.

 

[onthebottom]

And what has it done for you? Can you honestly say it's more on par with the printing press than the mail service or telegraph?

We now have a globally connected supply chain and ubiquitous information about prices - just as an example.

You really don't have a clue here.

OTB