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America divided – this concept increasingly graces political discourse in the U.S., pitting left against right, conservative thought against the liberal agenda. But for decades, Americans have been rearranging along another divide, one just as stark if not far more significant – a chasm once bridged by a flourishing middle class.
Peter Temin, Professor Emeritus of Economics at MIT, believes the ongoing death of “middle America” has sparked the emergence of two countries within one, the hallmark of developing nations. In his new book, The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy, Temin paints a bleak picture where one country has a bounty of resources and power, and the other toils day after day with minimal access to the long-coveted American dream.
In his view, the United States is shifting toward an economic and political makeup more similar to developing nations than the wealthy, economically stable nation it has long been. Temin applied W. Arthur Lewis’s economic model – designed to understand the workings of developing countries – to the United States in an effort to document how inequality has grown in America.
The 2017 World Economic Forum had the answer: "The people who have not benefited from globalization need to try harder to emulate those who have succeeded," and, "'People have to take more ownership of upgrading themselves on a continuous basis.'"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 23 2017, @06:28PM (7 children)
What is the source of authority for the USA's Constitution if not by delegation from mostly Joe Blow average people like you or I?
If I alone do not have the authority to demand half of all your production, then neither can I delegate that same task to anyone else. (If you disagree, please feel free to respond showing your willingness to send me half your income.)
Therefore any claims to taxation authority in the Constitution is void as it has zero legitimacy and its only source of power is identical to that of an armed mugger, as well as being the exact moral equivalent: criminal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 23 2017, @07:29PM (6 children)
I usually don't argue with toddlers, but I'll make an exception this time: taxes are the price you pay for your fancy society. If you don't quite understand that concept, then I'm afraid you'll never get a nice green sticker to put on your suspenders for the day from the teacher.
Now off you go, go play somewhere where you can't hurt yourself.
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Tuesday May 23 2017, @09:26PM
Hmmm, sounds to me like you haven't argued with anyone else other than toddlers with that shoddy an argument. The obvious rebuttal here is that sure, you can pay taxes for a fancy society. You can also pay taxes for a thoroughly corrupt, bankrupt society. Don't expect people to be respectful of paying taxes, when their taxes go to destructive or blighted purposes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 23 2017, @09:59PM
Invalid ad hominem aside, you are equating "fancy society" with slavery. Are you perchance pining for the olden days of your family's southern cotton plantations?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 24 2017, @02:59AM (3 children)
Looks like the toddlers have a pretty good vocabulary, sadly they definitely don't get a sticker. Maybe we should cram them into the time machine and send them back to China during the revolutionary days for a "vacation" in a re-education camp. Maybe then they'll appreciate the taxation method of promoting the good / general welfare.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 24 2017, @04:54AM (2 children)
If there's no authority delegated to the Constitution to demand taxes (regardless of the words written, such authority cannot be delegated to it because normal people like you and I have no such authority to give), there's no authority for other forms of slavery such as your Chinese re-education camps.
Taxation doesn't produce "good / general welfare" - all it produces is resources taken from another via force. Muggers do that. Do you view muggers as producing "good / general welfare" for anyone but themselves?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 24 2017, @12:23PM (1 child)
False equivalency goes no where.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 24 2017, @03:59PM
That's exactly my point: neither those that pay mere lip service to the Constitution nor the document itself are synonymous with authority.
The Constitution was not created in a vacuum nor by the master slave-holder for all humans within the Colonial borders - it was produced by ordinary people who could only delegate powers they themselves already possessed. A collection of delegated powers can not exceed those of its source.