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posted by martyb on Tuesday May 23 2017, @09:16AM   Printer-friendly
from the declasse' dept.

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.'"


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  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 23 2017, @03:52PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 23 2017, @03:52PM (#514326)

    I'd rather emigrate anywhere in Northern Europe, thank you. I will happily pay a lot more tax, maybe even for a lower monthly pay, driving a small instead of a 3000cc sedan, in exchange for not having to pay for any school - from elementary till University - and free healthcare.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 23 2017, @05:20PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 23 2017, @05:20PM (#514391)

    Its not free, you do have to pay for it. The government basically has an insurance monopoly to which you are forced to pay. The reason healthcare in the US is so expensive is largely because of the fact that that American pays for all development costs for drugs, Europe gets it all for free because it has collective barganing. Also, high legal cost in the US due to lack of tort reform. Americans should be able to buy drugs from canada and get their entire co-pay discounted as the co-pay would be the difference between the canada cost and the US cost, which would help distribute drug develoment costs to other countries, It also needs tort reform . This would go a long way to reducing costs in the US. If people also exercise, dont drink or smoke, dont have sex outside of wedlock, and keep their weight down it should be big insurance discounts. People should pay what it costs to insure that person. This would be huge for getting health care costs low and would make it much more affordable in the US. Then you could cover the remaining population who cannot afford insurance more cheaply. The lower cost of health care in Europe being due to single payer is mainly an illusion created by multiple factors unrelated to government single payer. Many of these system also DO NOT work well, it looks good on paper but in fact it isnt so great in reality.,

  • (Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday May 23 2017, @10:40PM

    by Arik (4543) on Tuesday May 23 2017, @10:40PM (#514553) Journal
    Remember that you only get free* school if your test scores are phenomenal and/or you are ok with going into a field no one else wants to get stuck with. And the healthcare is only free if you can afford to wait your turn to receive it.

    The idea that these things are or can be free is a delusion. There are unavoidable costs involved in providing both education and healthcare, of pretty much any nature or quality. This means they have to be paid for and rationed. If not by market means then by others.

    *Using 'free' in this post to mean gratis not libre, all the way through.
    --
    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?