From President Obama's speech today in Boca Raton:
"We've got to ask ourselves a central fundamental question as a Nation: What do we have to do to make sure that America is a place where if you work hard, if you're responsible, that that hard work and that responsibility pays off? And the reason it's important to ask this question right now is that there are alternative theories, there's a debate going on in this country right now; can we succeed as a nation, where a shrinking number of people are doing really really well but a growing number are struggling to get by? Or are we better off when everybody gets a fair shot? And everybody does a fair share? And everybody plays by the same set of rules? That's what the debate in America is about right now. This is not just another run of the mill gabfest in Washington. This is the defining issue of our time, this is a make or break moment for the middle class, and everybody who's aspiring to get into the middle class."
I'd say this is indeed a defining moment for our country. I don't believe however that we're addressing the right, or legitimate, issue. The President is playing the class card in a big way, and he believes he has the data to support the position that the middle class has sat idle for decades, while the rich got richer... But here's the thing, when we consider the median household, as opposed to the median tax unit, and count the various forms of compensation, the middle class has done pretty well over the past 40 years... Here's a snippet from Cafehayek.com... If this issue troubles you, I highly recommend you take a listen to Russ Roberts' interview with Cornell University'sRichard Burkhauser...
The Great Distortion
by RUSS ROBERTS on APRIL 9, 2012
in PODCAST, STANDARD OF LIVING
This week
I would suggest that the median household income growth would in-fact be significantly larger if things like the explosive growth of college tuition, energy (consider gasoline & propane, for example) and regulation didn't exist!
ReplyDeleteThe interesting thing is that these latter costs are all directly due to the introduction of new Federal departments/programs to include the Department of Education with all of its out of control and unregulated student loan programs that have more than anything skyrocketed tuition and left huge student debts because of the "easy money," Energy's bankrolling of "emerging" yet extremely well-developed world wide programs such as solar and wind while simultaneously crippling our cheapest (and in-country) resources of coal and oil, and regulatory pieces of the Dept of Agriculture, EPA, etc. You can't tell me that the estimated near $1 trillion overall regulatory compliance tab for our nation's agribusiness isn't negatively impacting the median household growth for small farmers!