Just how stupid is junior ?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ Jan 17 2007, 10:00 AM) [snapback]376850[/snapback]</div>

There was a time when a rising stock market was linked to rising wages and standard of living of workers. This has changed. Now the stock market is rising, but workers' buying power is dropping, the number of people (especially children) living in poverty is increasing, and an ever-growing number of people find themselves having to work two or even three jobs, at increasing numbers of hours per week, just to get buy, and those who finally cannot make it are swelling the numbers of homeless. More and more people cannot afford routine health care and so are forced to go to emergency rooms.

"Good" and "bad" are relative terms. The economy today is excellent for the very rich, bad for the middle class, and dreadful for the working poor. Corporate profits are up, but the spread between top-level and bottom-level wages is greater than it has ever been, resulting in dire financial problems for the people at the bottom.

If all you care about are corporate profits and the lifestyle of the rich, the economy is better than it has ever been. If you have a shred of human compassion for the working poor, the economy is dreadful. And if you look at the figures for savings rates, personal and national debt, and the fiscal irresponsibility of a government that borrows money for present expenses (as opposed to investing in infrastructure, which is the one area where debt financing can be justified) then there's good reason to be worried about the future.

My personal take: The economy is in dreadful shape, in spite of the rising stock market, high corporate profits, and my own exorbitant income.

As for the thread title:

How stupid is Junior? Stupid enough to appeal to nearly half the voting public, and in our quasi-democratic system, that's good enough to get elected.

 

So what happened to all that money that as supposed to "trickle down" from the corporate profits and the rich by giving them tax breaks and subsidies?

Didn't that work?