Tag Archives: Bernie Sanders

Shrinking Middle Class – Good News?

Share Middle Class Pew

Listen to Bernie and all you hear is that the Middle Class is taking it on the chin.

“One of the major reasons why the middle class is collapsing is because of the greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior on Wall Street.”

True?  Well, the data from Pew in the chart above seems to indicate so.

From 1971 through to 2015, the share of adults living in the Middle Class dropped from 61% to 50%.  That’s 11 points or 16%.

Horrible!

But where are they going?

Well, if you look at the lowest income tier their ratio grew from 16% to 20%.  That’s 4 points and 25%.

The lower tier also grew from 9 to … wait.  It didn’t grow.

So, the Middle Class shrank 11 points since 1971 and only 4 – FOUR – of those points moved to the lowest tier.  Where did the remaining 7 points go?

Well, the higher income tier grew from 10 to 12 points; 25%.   And the highest?  It grew from 4 to 9 points.  The highest tier grew by 5 points; 125%!

Yes – there is a ‘war’ on the Middle Class – but the winners are those folks in the Middle Class!

Bernie Sanders And The Social Contract

Sanders Supporter

The Human Condition.

Liberals forget that the Human Condition is basically base.  At the core of it all, people tend to look after their own self interests.  Greedy?  Maybe.

But generally true and non-controversial.

And we see guys like Bernie Sanders extolling the Social Contract.  That agreement between the Haves [the State?] and the Have Nots that speaks to basic protections for the needy to stave off destitution.

We all know the responsibility of the 1% according to Sanders.  We know what he think ‘their fair share’ is.  But what  of the OTHER side of the contract?  The quid pro quo?  In return for such safety nets, what can society expect from those who seek such protection?

You see, after the 1% provide free food for the birds of the air there is always one Bernie dude that has to ruin the party for everyone and results in the Haves just walking away.

Capitalism – Not Bernie – Reduces Poverty

Global Poverty

With Bernie Sander’s most recent campaign it would be easy to believe that we are poor and getting poorer.  And that the only salvation available to us is to beg government to save us.

Let us never forget – the natural state of man is poverty and the only cure to date, the ONLY condition where the lot of the everyday man has improved, is freer and more open markets:

Despite the recent recession in the West, absolute poverty is continuing to retreat in fast-growing developing countries. The escape from poverty that was once limited to the industrialized countries of the West is also happening in “the rest.”

Unfortunately, many people remain unaware of the dramatic decline in global poverty, let alone the reasons for it.

According to an announcement released this week by the World Bank, “less than 10% of the world’s population will be living in extreme poverty by the end of 2015.”

The bank has “used a new income figure of $1.90 per day to define extreme poverty, up from $1.25. It forecasts that the proportion of the world’s population in this category will fall from 12.8% in 2012 to 9.6%.”

Now, to be sure, 9.6% is still high  – higher than it should/could be.  So whence came you?

Grinding poverty was the norm for most ordinary people throughout human history. As recently as 1980, the World Bank estimated that 50% of the global population lived in absolute poverty.

Even in the most economically advanced parts of the world, life used to be miserable until relatively recently.

At the end of the 18th century, to give one example, France had the fourth highest standard of living of any country in the world, behind the U.S., Great Britain and the Netherlands.

Yet, 10 million of France’s 23 million people relied on some sort of public or private charity to survive, and 3 million were full-time beggars.

All of this occurred, of course, with not a single Commissar in charge of this phenomenal growth.

Cast off the chains of regulation and throw open the doors of the freer market!

Bernie Sanders And Economics

Bernie Sanders

There is no doubt that Bernie Sanders is not alone when it comes to inconsistencies in his world view.  But he’s such an interesting character, at least he honestly identifies as socialist, that it’s impossible not to find humor in his policies.

Bernie feels that certain economic laws apply to conditions while believing, seemingly randomly, that others don’t.

For example, Sanders feels that open trade agreements move work over seas; the idea being that corporations will flow where the less expensive labor exists.  A concept that I whole heatedly agree with – YEAH Bernie!  On the other hand Mr. Sanders does NOT feel that raising the minimum wage will have much the same impact on marginally skilled workers – BOO Bernie!

All this came to mind when I discovered Mr. Sanders’ objection to open borders:

“What they are talking about is completely opening up the border,” Sanders responded. “That was the question. Should we have a completely open border so that anyone can come in the United States of America? If that were to happen, which I strongly disagree with, there is no question in my mind that that would substantially lower wages in this country.”

Good for Bernie.  He’s right, of course, that allowing unskilled workers in from our neighbors to the south to bid on and compete for jobs will reduce the rate at which employers will need to pay.  Further, it will erode the most marginal, the less educated and least skilled, workers.  So yeah, he’s right – and I’m surprised.

Further, Mr. Sanders continues and is able to point out exactly who those folks might be:

“When you have 36-percent of Hispanic kids in this country who can’t find jobs and you bring a lot of unskilled workers in the country what do you think happens to that 36-percent of kids of today who are unemployed? 51% of African-American kids [are unemployed],” Sanders said.

“I frankly do not believe we should be bringing in significant numbers of unskilled workers to compete with those kids,” Sanders made clear.

In addition to pointing out that Bernie is right, I would also like to point out two other facts.  One – Bernie is supporting an unpopular position because he cares about the folks most in need.  He gets the fact that it won’t be high tech jobs impacted.  Two – Bernie is supporting a position because he CARES about the people most likely to be impacted.  This is a very similar situation that conservatives find themselves in when we offer support for lower taxes, reduced government dependency programs and oppose the minimum wage.