Poor Rich?
boo hoo, they’re so poor. That’s always the fucking story with those damned filthy rich, always with their hands out. About time for a new story, late stage capitalists.
Always has, always will be.
More to the point, having kids is probably the best chance I have to transmit my culture and values to another human being (for their place and time). Given that I’m privileged enough to be in the North American middle class and thus can afford kids - and by virtue of choosing the right country to be born in, they’re pretty much guaranteed a life of massive privilege, why wouldn’t I?
Sure things will be rough, but they’ll likely always be part of the global 1%. It’d pretty hard to feel I was doing them a disservice by creating them.
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you always have government protection. whether you like it or not, the value of our money derives from both the market and the laws that support that market. ( private property, policing, military, racketeering laws, the fdic, and on and on. )
nothing can run on the gold standard anymore. to get any sizable world markets you need fiat currency, debt, and regulation.
the question is only what kind of regulation ( aka protection ) do you want.
our current rules tilt us towards huge wealth disparities. money as speech is part of that. so are barriers to entry like the patents you mention. so are the monolithic scale of the markets themselves.
chop up the banks. institute meaningful financial transaction, luxury, and estate taxes. create a simplified but progressive tax code. hunt down folks using real estate to launder money ( mr. president ). then use that money to pay for public healthcare, public education, renewable energy infrastructure.
most of the stuff is obvious. but nobody with money or power wants to stop the gravy train.
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America is the world’s first poor rich country
Hah, that’s a funny thing to call this modern day fiefdom
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cough Unless you live in the northern US, you are currently living in a region that will become uninhabitable.
Ain’t nobody gonna trade with you mad max types.
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Or for the thirty or so percent of the population who are not so lucky to have anything close to a median income.
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Considering that the Frenchperson would have more disposable income, I don’t see why that would be so at all. The whole point of the article is that people in Europe live better than people in America and enjoy a higher standard of living, with more time off, better benefits, a better social safety net, and a more comfortable budget with more room for frivolities.
The shibboleth that a European style safety net requires a higher level of taxation is a canard peddled by the right wing in order to ensure that changing the North American system remains unimaginable. The rich in Europe pay higher taxes, yes. So do the corporations. Regular people? Not so much, especially if you factor in health insurance costs.
But the other half of the equation is that the parasites that suck up so much of the North American economy (health care, banks and investment houses, the military industrial complex, etc) are not nearly so fat and bloated in Europe.
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Watching you from Ye Olde Europe, it is literally amazing to read the byzantine denial theories some commenters are offering.
Guys: you can’t afford health care, you have a death-by-firearm risk comparable to a war zone, you have zero housing and job security, you have the highest rate of imprisoned population in the world, your civil servants are a general death threat and you are “governed” by a full-on sociopath supported by a court of criminals. Frankly, you are the trashy reality show entertainment of the world. The sooner you realize it, the higher the hope you will start getting your act together again.
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Exactly. Fat people never made revolution. Nor those who had plenty of entertainment.
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So does Cory just have a template he copies and pastes from for his ten posts a day on this topic?
Unfortunately, this particular topic generates a lot of original material every day. Every goddamn, dog-eat-dog day.
Speaking of canines, enjoy this puppy GIF:
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Therein lies the stark difference between those two measures. Once upon a time, at that level of income, it was quite likely that you would eventually accumulate that level of wealth. But in today’s climate, you’ll never be able to amass anywhere near that amount of wealth from that income. Even at 2 or 3 times that level of income, it would take a great deal of luck to get to that level of wealth - it is strictly possible as long as no one in the family ever needs health care or dentistry, your cars never break down, you never lose a job, and you have a good family safety net in a relatively low cost-of-living area, etc. But that’s all luck.
That global 1% income in many parts of the U.S. is just a paycheck-to-paycheck level, barely paying the rents (rent and basic utilities, food), leaving nothing for healthcare, transportation, or emergencies, never mind education, getting ahead, or saving for the future. Any or all of that has to be borrowed on compounding interest (assuming again that you’re lucky enough to have the credit). And if at any time you can’t afford that, you suddenly slide straight down the chute from 1% directly to destitute, do not pass Go, do not collect $200.
While most or all of us may indeed be in the global 1% of income-earners, it’s still quite a bad situation compared to the 1% in other countries. It’s pretty dismal and precarious even compared to the 50%+ in more developed rich countries.
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Late stage capitalism. We are so fucked. Hey everybody! 
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Bread & circuses.
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The point of the term isn’t that there’s income equality, but that America is in the unique place where many of us “make” a lot of money: we have a solid income, and goods in general are very cheap, yet despite that those people are struggling. It’s a “poor rich” country because we enjoy a 3rd world standard of living on 1st world incomes.
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Perhaps they might if you threw in a nice bottle red, some runny cheese and a few crusty baguettes.
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They do have credit ratings, but the consequences they suffer from a bad one, or bankruptcy, are not quite like what an individual suffers.
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There’s no paradox. We have an extractive economy. Actually, worse than extractive because there’s fear now that leaving a shitty job would only lead to something worse; fewer benefits, fewer hours, status as an independent contractor and not an employee.
And this state reflects the lust the powers that be and our corrupted pols have had since the 1980s, at least: Turning a wealthy democracy into a third world shithole because there’s even more money in that kind of state for our “elite” and nothing’s more important to them than getting a few more pennies.
I mean MAGA.
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