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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: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 23 2017, @01:36PM (6 children)
Nobody has ever said they shouldn't have to adapt at all. Most everyone would agree they should begin learning english, and absolutely everyone agrees they have to follow the local laws and obey the constitution. Those are pretty much all they need, unless you're just one of those butthurt people who wonders "why can't they just be more like meeeeee" while forgetting how this country literally came into being.
The US is not a white christian country, that is just the myth propagated by the old school elites that has helped prop up their power for generations. The general population is finally becoming a true melting pot, with many ethnicities now making up every social strata. Which social strata are still holding out? The extremely wealthy, though that is shifting slightly, and the political figure heads. Those are still stuck around the turn of the century, but they're in process of changing.
Since you're such a proponent of mental adaptation then you should be doing some sweat lodge vision quests and honoring mother earth. Oh wait, you'll have some "weasel words" to get out of that logic.
Damn dude, you are one ignorant little shit. Beheadings by narcoterrorists is a direct result of the USA's war on drugs. Your superiority complex is showing, and it is fucking ugly. "Intelligence filter"??? Lawl, stoopid is as stoopid admits to. You're not actually stupid, but you're definitely stoopid. I don't think the IQ test is capable of ranking narrow mindedness... hmmm, maybe they'll fix that so you "get it".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 23 2017, @03:24PM
you'll have some "weasel words"
Uphold the dominant paradigm.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday May 23 2017, @03:37PM (4 children)
Uh, no? I mean that would be a nice story if it were true. Also see below
We're getting into German WWII era "big lie" area now. So humor me, the signers of the constitution were what, secret crypto-japanese? Or BSG Cylons?
You may not like it. You may be working as hard as you can to change it. But it is, what it is.
Its hard to take you seriously AC, but there's a tiny pearl of wisdom in there and you're right about that. Being an impoverished subsistence peasant farmer is not that much fun even without the narco's running (ruining) the country. I agree AC the narcos are caused by the US federal government misguided drug policy. The peasant farmer thing, however, is entirely their fault. Unless you're going to invent some crazy narrative.
No, we conquered them and wiped the natives out. Just like whats happening today in Europe or the southern united states. Although most of my ancestors arrived at a time where mental adaptation meant learning English and becoming American, which ... we did, but apparently that's not allowed anymore.
(Score: 1) by i286NiNJA on Tuesday May 23 2017, @04:57PM
No most of the founding fathers were not really christians. Just as today we have to sort of play along or face the wrath of the stone age zealots. Many of them mock christianity in their private writing and many of them who are true believers are yet still a different breed than the sort of people who call themselves christians in modern america.
Being a peasant farmer is not anyone's fault when they're spending 19 hours a day farming and they know little else in their lives.
Also most americans do want immigrants to have a reasonable baseline level of adaptation. Maybe there are a few insane dreadlocked unbathed liberals somewhere that you've used to convince yourself that there is some large group of americans who want people coming here shitting in the streets and having cow menstruation slushies but the only place such people exist in great numbers is in your imagination alongside the pink convertible cadillac welfare queen with 20 kids.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 24 2017, @03:34AM (2 children)
Wow, so rather than concede a point you promote genocide. QED motherfucker, you need help.
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Wednesday May 24 2017, @11:46AM (1 child)
Stating a fact does not imply endorsement.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 24 2017, @12:40PM
You're correct there, he did not outright endorse genocide but it was tacit endorsement of such a solution followed by proof of his xenophobic instability:
There is no genocide occurring in either of those places, and every single immigrant family has adapted to US lifestyles by the 2nd or 3rd generation. Thus the melting pot. But that doesn't fit the crazy narrative he has chosen to believe.