Comments for Robert Samuelson Wants the Government to Stop Trying to Help People Into the Middle Class at http://www.cepr.net , comment 1 to 13 out of 13 comments http://www.cepr.net Tue, 21 May 2013 14:35:26 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/robert-samuelson-wants-the-government-to-stop-trying-to-help-people-into-the-middle-class#comment-19148 The best quality and service to make everything designer Givenchy Bag. You can ensure that you get the best designer labels, examines the use of materials and processes in which they were made. Handbags are definitely created carefully so that every detail has been designed as desired. You can guarantee that designer bags will never let you down. Givenchy Shoes http://www.givenchyonline.com - ann Wed, 26 Sep 2012 16:11:44 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/robert-samuelson-wants-the-government-to-stop-trying-to-help-people-into-the-middle-class#comment-19106 I was not interested in parsing Mr. Samuelson's perceived political agenda as much as I was pleased that he called attention to why that term, "The American Dream", has been bankrupted - "It's a slogan that shouldn't survive -- but will endure precisely because it's an exercise in make-believe." Enabling the utopian vision of that expression is a good thing as long as we accept that it can only be exercised within responsible government budget management that is unfortunately for us, unattainable in the current atmosphere of hyper-partisanship in congress and a subject more worthy of debate. - CRS Tue, 25 Sep 2012 06:15:01 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/robert-samuelson-wants-the-government-to-stop-trying-to-help-people-into-the-middle-class#comment-19083 not very long. does samuelson really believe that the housing bubble was all caused by people getting into homes with mortgages they couldn't afford? he knows that the decline in home equity & the millions of underwater homes were caused by the bundling of loans into CDOs, CLOs, & CDs. they came about mostly as a repeal of glass-steagall which led to the securitization by wallstreet. samuelson is very aware of all this, he simply doesn't want to pay higher taxes or see any regulation & reenactments that remove the gravy train for the very well off. you cannot bring back the manufacturing jobs that have been lost because of automation & outsourcing, particularly when new free trade agreements such as the tran-pacific agreement will soon go through spelling the end of environmental safeguards, & the final removal of any union power in the united states. strange that issues like this aren't even discussed in the corporate media, but not surprising. the difference between obama & romney is simple. romney will accelerate the pace of moving money from the poor & middle class to the very wealthy. obama will still be a reverse robin hood, just at a slower pace. - mel in oregon Mon, 24 Sep 2012 09:09:19 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/robert-samuelson-wants-the-government-to-stop-trying-to-help-people-into-the-middle-class#comment-19082 "[quote]That would reduce the cost of health care, legal services . . . ." [/quote] Since we now have a glut of lawyers, why haven't the cost of legal services come down in any appreciable way? Or have they? - matthew Mon, 24 Sep 2012 08:47:43 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/robert-samuelson-wants-the-government-to-stop-trying-to-help-people-into-the-middle-class#comment-19081 Rachel, I assume you were refering to the data here, [url]http://www.collegiatetimes.com/databases/salaries/university-of-california-davis-2008[/url]. But if you look at the position info, the "insiders" who are making big salaries are almost entirely in the Med school, with a few lawyers and business school profs in the mix and almost no one in the humanities or social sciences. The high salaries aren't the result of anything endogenous to academia, but rather a reflection of the cartel pricing of doctors and lawyers that Dean so often laments. - David M Mon, 24 Sep 2012 06:50:38 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/robert-samuelson-wants-the-government-to-stop-trying-to-help-people-into-the-middle-class#comment-19079 Nassim Saba. I would have written the sentence as this: "... the special low tax status that the financial industry enjoys, and which allows it to grow as parasite on the rest of the economy. - Ethan Mon, 24 Sep 2012 05:08:19 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/robert-samuelson-wants-the-government-to-stop-trying-to-help-people-into-the-middle-class#comment-19075 [b]Rachel[/b] wrote, [quote]Has the cost of college risen so rapidly recently because the cost of college lecturers has been rising?[/quote] I don't know for sure, but my conjecture is that college costs are rising rapidly because (apart from declining state support) colleges behave like a collectibles market: the supply is fixed, at least in the medium run. Thus, as demand increases, price will increase, regardless of the actual costs of "servicing" the "good". Same thing as with land or any other asset that produces economic rents. - liberal Mon, 24 Sep 2012 04:10:19 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/robert-samuelson-wants-the-government-to-stop-trying-to-help-people-into-the-middle-class#comment-19074 There is no reason to assume that tax policy is irrelevant. If financiers and CEO's could only take home a few hundred $K/year instead of many millions their objectives might be very different, oriented toward the long- instead of the short-term. Maybe the big gamblers would be forced to gamble in casinos instead of running corporations and banks. - skeptonomist Mon, 24 Sep 2012 03:48:52 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/robert-samuelson-wants-the-government-to-stop-trying-to-help-people-into-the-middle-class#comment-19073 "The government could have eliminated the special low tax status that the financial industry enjoys, thereby allowing it to grow as parasite on the rest of the economy. It is also the source of many of the highest incomes in the country." Also there is a danger of others honestly quoting you with malintent. I am sure smart readers can read this sentence one and get the intended meaning, but pedants like me get stuck. So, a bit o nit-picking. The correct sentence would be much more powerful at the first read than when corrected in the mind. I think I understand the meaning, but it suggests that by eliminating the special low tax it would allow the financial industry to grow... I believe the intended meaning is "thereby NOT allowing it to grow...". That is, while the tax was in place, it did grow parasitically. - Nassim Sabba Mon, 24 Sep 2012 03:43:48 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/robert-samuelson-wants-the-government-to-stop-trying-to-help-people-into-the-middle-class#comment-19071 Has the cost of college risen so rapidly recently because the cost of college lecturers has been rising? Let's look at UC Davis, where he highest paid professor receives $796 k. An associate dean receives $400 k. Many other professors are making over $300 k. Lecturers' salaries are not in this vicinity. According to one source, they average $47 k. So competition in supply seems to bring down the salaries of lecturers, without having much impact on the insiders, and without much benefit to students. There are many barriers we need to worry about here, besides the barriers to international trade. (I mention UC Davis, because Dean recently was on the radio to discuss social inequality. His fellow radio-guest was from UC Davis. In my humble opinion, this person gave evidence of being seriously overpaid, and a burden on the poor students and tax-payers who are obliged to pay this person's extremely comfortable salary. Needless to say, this person raised no inconvenient doubts about professors' salaries, or doctors' or lawyers'.) - Rachel Mon, 24 Sep 2012 03:39:30 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/robert-samuelson-wants-the-government-to-stop-trying-to-help-people-into-the-middle-class#comment-19069 Again Dean misses the 800 lb gorilla: land rent. - liberal Mon, 24 Sep 2012 02:39:11 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/robert-samuelson-wants-the-government-to-stop-trying-to-help-people-into-the-middle-class#comment-19068 [quote]In short the government could have done a lot to improve the plight of lower income people just by not pursuing the policies that have worsened their plight.[/quote] Baker just doesn't appreciate how brilliant Samuelson really is, who knows if the government helps everyone then effectively it helps no one in relative terms, which would put the lie to Samuelson's claims that the American Dream for only the middle and lower class is disconnected from nasty facts and choices, because it's disconnected for the upper class as well. If Samuelson was forced to admit the government redistributes income upward as well as downward, and through the private sector no less, he would be forced as well to admit that two wrongs make a right ... a far right that is, that lies through its teeth about the big government it despises and depends on heavily at the same time, so much that it swamps dependence on government by the lesser classes. Disconnected by nasty facts and choices indeed. Samuelson has far more fear that the upper class will be forced to compete for a living than any notion of excessive government, for which he endorses more of for the haves than what he rejects for the have nots. - Last Mover Mon, 24 Sep 2012 02:30:39 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/robert-samuelson-wants-the-government-to-stop-trying-to-help-people-into-the-middle-class#comment-19066 Suck it poor people - Richard Mon, 24 Sep 2012 01:19:38 +0100