Back around 1988 I started feeling the effect of "salary erosion": my take-home pay was reduced by increased costs such as higher medical insurance premiums and higher co-pay. And then my work hours increased from the traditional 9-5 to 8 hours a day NOT counting lunch or breaks, and the occasional mandatory unpaid overtime.
I felt the war on the middle class intensify as the banks started squeezing me with 20-30% credit card interest rates (when they borrow money at under 1% and pay maybe 1-2% to accounts). I don't own a home so I have no other way to borrow money. Rich people don't care, they have other ways to borrow money if necessary, the the poor folks just don't have the money at all.
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dancing_serpent
It's the top 0.5 to 5%, not 20%
Date: 2011-02-25 05:05 am (UTC)I felt the war on the middle class intensify as the banks started squeezing me with 20-30% credit card interest rates (when they borrow money at under 1% and pay maybe 1-2% to accounts). I don't own a home so I have no other way to borrow money. Rich people don't care, they have other ways to borrow money if necessary, the the poor folks just don't have the money at all.
Where do you get 20%? The Robert Reich article says 5% and it's really more like 0.5%
And that leads to one of my "standard rants". As a stockholder, I read the stockholder reports. They ALWAYS claim that the president/CEO and board members don't just deserve high pay and outrageous bonuses but they've deluded themselves into believing that such compensation is essential for retaining talent. The article kinda agrees with me: they're not worth retaining since THEY CAUSED THE ECONOMIC PROBLEMS and they'll continue the problems as long as they're overpaid and unaccountable for their actions. What about retaining the talent of all the teachers, firemen and other essential services who are being fired and having their unions busted? School vouchers and "pay to spray" is really a step backwards from what our gov't and society was providing equally and fairly to everyone. Even teachers' and professors' tenure is being busted: the online comic Piled Higher & Deeper noted how universities used Katrina as a way to "downsize" by eliminating entire departments and nullifying contractual obligations such as tenure.
more to follow ...