|
Boone Co. Iowa | In the 1920s we had the Rockefeller and a Carnegie’s. Lots of innovations, but ownership and thus wealth was at the top.
1930s depression. 1945 WWII and in the U.S. everyone pitched in. Men went to war, women went to the factory.
After the war, the country needed to rebuild. Government paid for a lot of education, and some women stayed in workforce. Very high income tax rates on the richest wealth and income. Incentivized unions and good wages for labor and manufacturing.
Staring with Nixon and then Reagan, drastically moved to cut government, attack unions, and drastically dropped the tax rates on the highest incomes.
Low tax rates on the wealthy and high incomes started the decline in the middle class.
If you want a healthy middle class, raise the tax rates on the wealthy incomes.
Otherwise, we get the haves and have-nots. Wealth accumulates wealth.
A strong democracy, with educated voters, transparent capitalism, tax rates that incentivize the sharing (not hoarding) of wealth is a choice. U.S. has been choosing have and have-nots since Reagan and the 1980s. Outsourcing manufacturing is a choice, when you have low tax rates on the wealthy.
Making education extremely expensive works in the favor of the wealthy. Making ownership (home, land, any asset that appreciates) expensive works in favor of the wealthy.
Our system is designed to make sure that landowners own 2+ homes and spend winters in warm climates.
Renters gonna struggle. If you don’t think the struggle is pretty hard I don’t know what to say.
I am shocked at the decisions 20 and 30 year olds are making with their purchases. Farmers with paid for land or machinery can handle a lot of debt. Labor and salaried professionals cannot.
Farmers with highly subsidized crop insurance, ARC/PLC payments and bridge loans from the government are very very much on easy street. But, even with all that, some are gonna go broke.
All comes down to ratio of ownership v. what you are renting/paying for. And if you are renting a lot and have a lot of machinery debt, $4 corn and $10 beans, even with the government handouts, make farming a losing (or extremely tough) proposition.
Selling an appreciating asset in inflationary times doesn’t really make sense to me, unless you can replace with another appreciating investment.
| |
|
K shaped economy
