9. (continued from Home page)
1970 - The Lost World -
A first class U.S. Postage Stamp cost 8 cents. Now it is nearly 5 times more or 500% higher.
A nice home cost $25,000. Now it is 5 times more or about 500% higher.
A mid-size new car cost about $3,200. Now it is 5 times higher.
There were many $10,000 to $12,000 a year jobs and most statistics
of average pay was based on single workers and not family averages.
This means there should be plenty of $50,000 to $60,000 jobs for individuals but these jobs are gone. The Post Office
in defending their need to raise prices provide comparisons like those above except one. They do not compare wages while the
Federal Government reports averages based primarily on Family incomes. Family income averages should be $100,00
to $120,000 if compared to the1970s.
10. Trickle down economy did not trickle - Friedman forgets this "flattening" during the Reagan years.
The middle and lower class start taking many more hits. The iron curtain was brought down but so was the middle and lower
class. Capitalism did not have to compete and protect its position in the world against Communism directly and raw pre-emptive
capitalism surfaces using workers as tools instead of workers with human dignity. Social Justice standards
that were upheld for many years dwindled away. A new combo hybrid economic system merged commuism, socialism, totalitartianism
and capticalism sytems into one. We could call it Combo-Capitalism . President Clinton fostered it by sending many of our
technology secrets and high tech know how to China and he accepted Chinese money to help win the presidency. Perhaps
we should preface the Flat World with making all
"isms" one as the Flatline World.
11. Unions busted - In firing the air traffic controllers, Reagan led the way in busting unions.
Unions were arrogant in practice and demands for many years but all workers were better off during these times and not only
union members.
12.
AFL/CIO goes public- This union included public workers. Some say this was wrong to do from the
very beginning. Today, the public workers have taken over the union. The private sector industrial workers
are gone. Most were gone years ago while the unions were still be blamed for the downfall of our economy. The public
workers find and use many ways to protect their status while the private sector jobs go outside the USA. Many so-called public
servants make twice as much money as the people they serve. Some jobs have gone overseas. In India, workers process the welfare
paperwork for Americans on welfare. See more information at
http://tapsearch.com/unions/
13. 1950s Happy Days - Factory jobs were plentiful. I made $1.50 to $2.00 an hour in several factories
while going to college. When I applied for these jobs I was usually alone in the employment office. In comparison, there should
now be plenty of $15.00 to $20.00 an hour factory jobs available. However, if these jobs were available today there would
be hundreds if not thousands standing in line to get them.
As a side note - Back then someone could go on a date for about $10 . This would include gas, food and entertainment.
Concerts or Jazz would cost a bit more but that much more. I used pocket change to pay for the gas. It cost me
about 6 hours of work to go on one date.
Today, it costs over a $100 for the same type of date and most likely it costs most young people about 12 hours
of work to go on one date. The Happy Days are not here again - they gone - they fell off the Flat World of Friedman and his
Free-Trader Globalist friends. In the process, the USA has created a vast new working poor class that finds it very difficult
to jump the void between the bottom level to the vanishing middle class level.
