A War on the Poor

nytimes.com

8 points·d4vlx··5 comments

It's called class struggle. In the US the rich win the class struggle largely because those in the middle (a.k.a. middle class) considers themselves not yet rich rather than not yet poor.

With the persistent difficulties the middle and lower class have faced since the financial meltdown I wonder how long this will be the dominant mindset. It seems strongest among the boomers and weakest among people under 35.

That fact that most Americans seem to put the welfare business and the rich ahead of themselves is hard for me to get my head around.

This might be too political but after seeing another article on basic income I'm curious what other people on HN think about the politics and economic ideas behind the politics.

I'm the biggest proponent of basic income, but the US has serious divides along racial and socioeconomic lines that I don't see being resolved in our lifetimes. This will probably prevent any sort of basic income from being implemented.

In any other modern, western democracy, basic income is a no-brainer. The majority of the EU is already discussing exactly such a motion, and the safety net of most developed European nations is unfathomable to Americans.

In conclusion, there's no point in waiting a century in hopes that the USA's crippling structural issues will be solved. Move onto greener pastures like Germany, where you can have that future right now. In Germany, captains of industry are lobbying for basic income as we speak [1].

1. http://www.goethe.de/ges/pok/zdk/en4387190.htm

That is quite a pessimistic assessment but I have to say I agree with it. I have been watching American politics closely for several years now and have little hope that any significant solutions the the widening income/wealth gap will come from there.

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