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xSlacker</p>
<p>Any of you remember reading Barbara Ehrenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America? The 10th anniversary edition just came out with an Afterward by the author who argues that the working poors are now worse off. An excerpt of the essay can be found at motherjones.com or at the Tomdispatch</p>
<p>[Tomgram:</a> Barbara Ehrenreich, On Americans (Not) Getting By (Again) | TomDispatch](<a href=“http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175428/tomgram%3A_barbara_ehrenreich%2C_on_americans_(not)_getting_by_(again)/]Tomgram:”>http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175428/tomgram%3A_barbara_ehrenreich%2C_on_americans_(not)_getting_by_(again)/)</p>
<p>I read that book when it came out. Great book. I wouldn’t be surprised if the situation has become worse for lower wage groups. The income inequality in the USA is increasing as the middle class implodes.</p>
<p>I just came back to my original thread! </p>
<p>Yesterday I took my youngest to Iowa State for a visit. She is interested in Agricultural Business (a major not mentioned much here, and that makes sense as only 2% of the American population farms). She was told that there is 100% placement before graduation. Students have 3-4 summer internships before graduation. ISU also offers the largest Ag related job fair in the US.</p>
<p>What will she have to take for 4 years? It’s not easy; Calculus, Science, Accounting, Finance, Economics, Agriculture, Math, and Math! She’s interested, and realizes she will be one of a few females. We also live on a farm.</p>
<p>I loved walking through Carver Hall yesterday, named after George Washington Carver, my hero! Now there’s someone that “rose above”!!</p>
<p>About the disparity between upper and lower class? It tends to expand as the lower class is either not interested in education or is unable to attain it. I see it every day in my classroom. Education is the greatest leveler I can think of!</p>
<p>[George</a> Washington Carver - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_washington_carver]George”>George Washington Carver - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>I know that peopel were fine…when they lived in caves. So, yes, everybody will be fine, if that’s what was asked.<br>
However, if definition of fine is beinge better off than their parents and not only in materialistic ways, than, IMO, it is big NO. We are going backwards very rapidly. But agan it is my opinion, since OP has asked for personal opinions. Some think otherwise, only history can tell, so there is no way to debate it.</p>
<p>BTW, income equality usually lowers everybody’s level of living (which has been proven by history in many countries). It also creates very corrupt and antogonistic society where everybody feels that they better watch their backs or they will be stabbed. So income equality is not a measure of well being of society as a whole. Again, it is my opinion, and I do not like to read and adopt others opinions. I like to base my opinions on my own experiences. What others do and how they reach their conclusions is none of my business.</p>
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<p>I hope you have a lot of experiences! You might need to go down a lot of rocky roads and learn everything the hard way. Kind of sad that you do not value what others have learned. You don’t need to adopt other’s opinions but on a forum like this I think the point it to at least consider them and be open to weighing their value.</p>
<p>Ergo, s/he has no opinion about things that s/he has not experienced him/herself.</p>
<p>No opinions on things s/he has not experienced her/himself? No opinion on war if you have not been to war? No opinions on politics unless you have been a politician? No opinion on a particular college unless you actually went there?</p>
<p>"No opinions on things s/he has not experienced her/himself? "</p>
<p>-Exactly true. Yes, I have experience in war, my grandparents died, my parents were fighting and supporting army. Yes, no opinion on particular college unless I (or my children) actually went there. Others should express their opinion about this particular college, it is not my place to do so. Yes, you undertood me correctly. However, it does not mean that your opinion has to be formed in similar way. You are welcome to borrow other’s opinions or use whatever you want. I am not limiting you, so are you trying to limit me? It might be waste of your precious time. I am considering other’s opinions, I just never borrow them and pretend that they are mine.</p>
<p>This may be a case of pretending to be better than we are.</p>
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<p>Your second response is worded a little bit better, the first sounded a bit offensive…just sayin…</p>
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<p>So do you consider opinions on things you have no experience with? You would just never blindly accept those opinions without personal research on the topic from a non biased and factual point of view. I think that is what most educated people do.</p>
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<p>I don’t believe that! You have no opinion on weather MIT has a more prestigious engineering department than say Cal State Fullerton? (assuming that you or your children did not attend either)</p>
<p>55% of Americans think today’s kids will have a worse life than their parents. </p>
<p>[In</a> U.S., Optimism About Future for Youth Reaches All-Time Low](<a href=“In U.S., Optimism About Future for Youth Reaches All-Time Low”>In U.S., Optimism About Future for Youth Reaches All-Time Low)</p>
<p>This is the lowest since 1983, when this poll started.</p>
<p>With the flattening of the world and the availability of technology to readily transfer most tasks to any location, it is a dilema for a rich society to keep the standard of living for its mediocre citizens from being averaged down to those abroad. The ones at the top will always do well; but how do you keep the average white collar worker from suffering the fate that was dealt to the blues decades ago. The answer isn’t with multinationals whose loyalty is strictly to themselves. It’ll be interesting to see who succeeds in solving this problem, or are we destined to be in a flow that gradually averages us down?</p>
<p>[Most</a> Outrageously Expensive Pets - Manage Your Life on Shine](<a href=“http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/life/most-outrageously-expensive-pets-2520606/]Most”>http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/life/most-outrageously-expensive-pets-2520606/)</p>
<p>sell this to china</p>
<p>My post concerns what I want for my kid directly (btw- look for a gov. recall effort as soon as legal). I worked hard and moved into the upper middle class echelons. But we live in a middle class, blue collar town. This means that the schools my son attended reflected the wealth of the area. For my son to have quality amenities the whole area had to afford them. To have public libraries, parks and other daily amenities they have to be affordable to the general population. The quality of life is dependent on the blue collar workers earning enough to afford the taxes to pay for them.</p>
<p>“No man is an island…” also applys to a society. It doesn’t matter how rich you are if the roads and city services are poor. Travel by car on poorly maintained roads or notice the lack of upkeep in those places you can afford to visit if the general population can’t afford them. Much is public. Think about the National Parks- without a strong tax base they won’t be funded to be enjoyed. It is also a lot more comfortable to have people around you who can afford to do things. Perhaps our parents’ generation spent our children’s future on us- they overspent their means, or we did/are.</p>
<p>btw- “ALL our children” means more than just mine and yours, to me it means all of those in our country. Growing up too rich for subsidized hot lunch but too poor to pay for it I know how lucky I was that the good schools and other services were there for me. My fear is that we have forgotten this as a nation in the search for personal wealth. I would happily pay more in taxes I can afford to keep the area’s services as they were a few years ago before cutbacks.</p>
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<p>Well, then do so – cut a check to the state or local or federal governments (or all three) in whatever amount you deem appropriate. Forcing everyone to pay more whether they share your views or not is another matter. But certainly nothing stops you from padding your tax payment next April.</p>
<p>We live in a city where the property taxes on our home (much smaller than the one we moved from in another part of the country) are $14,000 annually. Our roads are unpaved. Sewer and garbage collections are expensive. The public schools are mediocre. What is going on here in NJ is that a court loaded with liberal judges decreed that non-poor towns must pay extra property taxes to support schools in disadvantaged communities. This has been in place quite some time now and the extra funds to the disadvantaged communities have not moved the needle at all in terms of student performance or graduation rates. In fact, there have been a multitude of controversies over the funds getting spent nefariously to build fancy schools that are dysfunctional, overpriced and oftentimes never finished.</p>
<p>The infrastructure is indeed important and I also miss the days of my youth when roads were in much better condition, etc. But taxing intensively does not always yield the results you’re looking for. It does tend to spawn a lot of government agencies though.</p>
<p>The other issue with tax proceeds, of course, is that so many government pensions contain automatic cost of living adjustments. This does not exist in the private sector, btw. Consequently, with life expectancies increasing so dramatically, we have many public sector retirees like my FIL (a high school teacher) who retired 28 years ago with an annual pension of $26K that has mushroomed into an annual pension of $82K. Getting some reforms to government pensions is critical.</p>
<p>So in terms of my kids’ futures – I don’t think increasing taxes are the answer. I’d lean toward the opposite view, actually.</p>
<p>Sewhappy, so what proportion of your property tax is siphoned off by the “liberal judges” ruling? How could schools be built “nefariously”? How long has this been implemented that you could conclude that improvement “needle” has not been “moved at all” ? I can’t imagine how anyone can continue to live on a pension of 26K. An increase to 82K after 28 years does not seem overly generous, and what number would you think is fair?</p>
<p>padad,</p>
<p>Are you familiar with private industry pensions? Somehow those in the private sector manage to live with no cola increases. And my FIL also collects SS, medicare and income from a 529 type state vehicle. House was paid off decades ago. I believe he sends a lot of money to Democratic Party. Other than that, have no idea what he does with it.</p>
<p>Regarding NJ property taxes, I’m a newbie here. Just going by what I read in our left-leaning local paper – the Herald Tribune. This is a blue state wherein the tax madness reached such a level it elected Christie. Trust me, it is crazy here.</p>