Originally Posted by Obama
Will we accept an economy where only a few of us do spectacularly well? Or will we commit ourselves to an economy that generates rising incomes and chances for everyone who makes the effort? (Applause.)
Obama gave his State of the Union Address recently. The State of the Union Address is essentially the first indicator we get of the topics that will be contested in the election. Obama focussed his address on
income inequality. The rich have been getting richer, and at the expense of everyone else. The top 1% of Americans haven't earned as high a share of national income since 1928. The last decade has been great for the top percentages, but for the middle class, it's been described as a 'lost decade'. Why?
From an article on Bloomburg, Jeff Greene blames globalisation.
“My greatest worry for our country is that globalization and the exponential growth of technology which have destroyed millions of jobs already, will undoubtedly eliminate millions and millions more jobs during the next several years,” he said. “Many manufacturing jobs that we lost will come back to the U.S., but most will be filled by robots and software.”
Krugman, from the NY Times, while recognising the impact of globalisation on income inequality, points to other issues;
Competition from emerging-economy exports has surely been a factor depressing wages in wealthier nations, although probably not the dominant force. More important, soaring incomes at the top were achieved, in large part, by squeezing those below: by cutting wages, slashing benefits, crushing unions, and diverting a rising share of national resources to financial wheeling and dealing.
Greene also talks about how the perception of middle class isn't in line with the realities of middle class. We're operating on post-war - early 70s (the golden age) understanding of what it means to be middle class, when the middle class (and everyone else) was doing far better off.
“America’s lifestyle expectations are far too high and need to be adjusted so we have less things and a smaller, better existence,” Greene said in an interview today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “We need to reinvent our whole system of life."
Election topics are picked based on data from polls and focus groups. You get a bunch of people in a room (/poll loads of people), ask them to come up with a list of what's important to them, and then you construct your campaigns based around what the big issues to people are. Evidently, people are starting to get sick of this ever-increasing economic inequality in their country. Good. It's an issue that's been ignored for far too long. No matter how disingenous the politicians' intentions are, at least the issue will finally be discussed. Far too often bipartisan failures are swept under the rug - it doesn't do anyone any good bringing them up.
Last edited by Ele; Feb 9, 2015 at 06:42 AM.