quote:

ORIGINAL: Marini

Honestly, if I were able to speak to the Donald, for a few minutes in Trump Tower, I would ask him not to forget the Middle Class.
The Middle class as a whole has been losing gains, and has faced tremendous hurdles the last 20 years, or even longer.

The Middle Class is the silent majority, and often the backbone of this country.

I would ask that he get someone that lets the silent majority be heard, and to see some policies and initiatives that are aimed to help the middle class.

Many are being ushered in to meet with the Donald, and we really don't know what the end result will be.

It continues to be the best of times and the worst of times.
Hang on to your hats in 2017, it looks like it is going to be a bumpy road.

quote:

ORIGINAL: bounty44

john stossel did a segment not long ago, or maybe it was a piece of his I read, on globalization in terms of what it meant for prices of products. you leave the reading off convinced it ultimately better than "buy American." maybe i'll see if I can find it.

meantime, the most impressive thing ive seen trump do so far, visitor wise, is have a dozen or so leaders in the tech industry come to his home to talk about how to preserve and increase jobs in America in that industry.

quote:

ORIGINAL: DaddySatyr


The argument for globalization has been: "Countries that trade together don't war with each other". I guess that's probably an accurate statement, but neither do countries that engage in diplomacy with each other.

quote:

ORIGINAL: DaddySatyr


I only saw the beginning of this, going by in the scroll, on the other side (obviously). Normally, I click on the "preview" over there and wait until the forum page loads enough to take me to the actual post.

A lot of times, because of the nature of these specific forums, I see who the poster is, realize it's someone I have on hide and just "X out".

I decided to open this post and read it and I have to admit: I'm glad I did.

I agree with this post almost 100%, but I think there are some missing parts and I'd like to address those.

The middle class is absolutely the backbone of this country. As is the case in any country of which I'm aware, if the middle class is stagnating, the country, on the whole, is as well. When the middle class is disappearing, the country is, essentially dying.

While I don't have specific numbers (I am sure that any legitimate ones would back me up), I believe that the middle class has been dying a very slow death since the early 90s. To be very clear about my position: I believe it started when our march toward globalism started under King George I (Bush XLI).

Since this is (literally) a massive issue, I think it needs to be re-examined vís-à-vís the disappearance of the middle class and we need to (as a country) re-evaluate our stance on the bigger issue, first.

Globalism/free trade has worked out very well for the huge corporations and for countries who depend upon us so much that they have stopped funding their own military because we have been called into conflicts by them which don't concern our true national interests, but that term has been expanded to mean: Well, it's good for our trading partners so, it's in our "national interest". That's crap.

The argument for globalization has been: "Countries that trade together don't war with each other". I guess that's probably an accurate statement, but neither do countries that engage in diplomacy with each other.

My last sentence to the side, I think there are times when war becomes a necessity and "artificially" avoiding it for the sake of "free trade" is a huge mistake unless you think nations in the Middle East didn't help to fund Al Qaeda/ISIS.

Then, there's the only sentence in the quoted post with which I can kind of claim to disagree:

quote:


Many are being ushered in to meet with the Donald, and we really don't know what the end result will be.

Based upon the sentence that appeared appeared before that one in the quoted post, I'm wondering if you meant "Many" to mean "Many members of the middle class ..."? I'm not sure you did and I'm not trying to put words in your mouth, but I believe that that is part of the issue.

I am not naive enough to believe that President-Elect Trump knows how much a gallon of milk costs. I think Kanye West (God help us all) might be the closest representative of the "middle class" that's gotten into the "ivory tower" and he hasn't been "Middle" class in quite some time.

President-Elect Trump would have to just "open a phone book" (do we even have those, anymore?) and invite you or me or any "John/Jane Q. Citizen" up to the tower to be able to have even the faintest clues about "Middle" class.

I do believe that he understands the relationship between the loss of the "Middle class" and the invasion of illegal immigrants to which we've been exposed. So, I have a sliver of hope, but not much.

Lastly, I'd like to find another way to say "Middle class". The inclusion of the word "class" almost suggests a caste system or the systems of monarchy that we left behind in Europe. How about "Middle Income" and "Upper Income"? I know plenty of people that earn a lot more than I do that seem to have almost a reciprocal lack of actual "class". I don't know. I've just always found that designation offensive and it feeds into the idea of "class warfare" so often pushed by the communists/socialists of the world.



Michael

quote:

ORIGINAL: Marini

Honestly, if I were able to speak to the Donald, for a few minutes in Trump Tower, I would ask him not to forget the Middle Class.
The Middle class as a whole has been losing gains, and has faced tremendous hurdles the last 20 years, or even longer.

The Middle Class is the silent majority, and often the backbone of this country.

I would ask that he get someone that lets the silent majority be heard, and to see some policies and initiatives that are aimed to help the middle class.

Many are being ushered in to meet with the Donald, and we really don't know what the end result will be.

It continues to be the best of times and the worst of times.
Hang on to your hats in 2017, it looks like it is going to be a bumpy road.