Party realignment ending or just starting?

[Kinser79]

(05-25-2016, 06:42 AM)Mikebert Wrote: Lind didn't say anything about S&H generations.  I have read a bit of Lind's stuff over the years. He is a keen political analyst.  The idea that American has seen three different republics that roughly correspond to the saecula is his.  Considering he has written on the country's economic development and has been concerned about economics and how working people have not had an economy that works for them his piece was remarkably short on economics.  He basically says that the realignment around the culture wars is what matters and economics is irrelevant.

Again not the same article I read then. He seems to assume that the very same generations that were the back bone of the parties in the Mid 20th centuries are going to be magically replaced. It is the very absence of even contemplating generations and their archetypes that is the flaw here.

Quote:I already said the Republicans offer nothing, Trump is the best of a bad bunch.

The Establishment ones certainly don't.
 

Quote:If you dislike what Sanders has to offer so much, why did you bother to vote for him?

Two reasons:

1. Florida is a closed primary state and I'm still registered as a democrat.
2. He's not Shillary.

In all honesty I didn't expect Sanders to be as successful as he has been.
 

Quote:This is of a great concern for the capitalists, the financial elite, and the 1% in general, or to use Sander's shorthand "the billionaire class".  So now you are on their side?

Losing reserve status is the concern for everyone. Inflation, particularly hyperinflation, disproportionately harms the poor.
 

Quote:If higher wages from a higher minimum wage will just drive what jobs that remain to be automated, then higher wages from labor supply restrictions will do the same thing.  Ditto for trade restrictions.

Yes but it will be because of market forces acting in their own way.
 

Quote:In actuality a higher minimum wage will increase wages at the bottom.

In many jobs where all one really needs is a pulse the minimum wage actually acts as a maximum wage.

Quote: So when immigrants increase the supply of labor they also increase economic demand and hence the demand for labor.

In my work as a Marxist, I can tell you how many immigrants operate in this country. They defer their own demand to send remittances to their home countries. So while immigrants might increase demand it is not substantial enough to increase the demand for labor to compensate for their increasing its supply.

Quote:Trade restriction should have a more directly beneficial effect, which I why I have been calling for a tariff for years. The impact is also a lot smaller that you think and will probably have zero impact on 90% of workers other than slightly lower living standards  from higher prices.  It will help the minority of workers in industries affected by outsourcing.  There is good data on that.

One you assume that outsourcing occurs to a minority of workers--indeed the vast majority of workers jobs can be outsourced now. Tell me, last time you called customer service did you speak to an American? I'm willing to bet you instead spoke to someone who couldn't properly pronounce the word "wood". The /oo/ sound isn't present in Hindi and Indians have a particular difficulty in pronouncing it.

Quote:I am not sure a tariff is really such a good policy, but I think talking about a tariff is a very good idea, because it scares the pants off the economic elite.  And THAT is an unalloyed good thing.  And Trump sure has been talking about it.

A tariff to deal with dumping, currency manipulation, and to raise general revenue should be a net positive. Furthermore having rising prices for many consumer goods should result in the opening of production facilities to make those goods.

It should also be noted that just about every other country has tariffs on our goods--especially China. That it scares the economic elite is a nice side-effect but that is all it is.

Quote:America had higher wages than elsewhere in the world in colonial times, and ever since.  They still are higher here than in Europe.

Precisely which is why the "Americans just can't compete" line of argumentation is bull. However, during those times the US also maintained economic protection for vital industries. Industries that we need for national security as well as economic security. A policy of protectionism was maintained from the Washington administration to the Ford administration and once those were started to be removed (culminating in the Washington Consensus since the 1990s) economic conditions for the working people of the country have deteriorated and rapidly.
 

Quote:Are you really unaware of the massive amount of immigration in late 19th century and the working class native-born Americans had opposed mass immigration since the 1850's for the same reasons as today?  Westward expansion had been a relief value in the early part of the 19th century before immigration became much of an issue. In the later parts of the 19th century, the incoming immigrants stayed in the Eastern cities: 
[quote]
But the law did not provide the new beginning for urban slum dwellers that some had hoped; few such families had the resources to start farming, even on free land.

I have studied history. In the later half of the 19th century it was the native born working class that spread west.
 

Kinser Wrote:How does foreign competition affect Walmart, our largest employer?  Or restaurant, hospitality or healthcare workers?  The vast majority of US workers do not work in fields susceptible to foreign competition.  You work in one of these fields.  Are you so happy with your compensation that a union is unnecessary? 

No. That being said, unionization is not realistic for hospitality workers. Healthcare workers might be unionized, but only if there is a union worthwhile joining. Most unions are not.

All of that being said, you're forgetting that hospitality and healthcare both are wealth consumptive industries, that is they consume wealth already created. In short for there to be demand for restaurant dinners and nurses that come to your house when you're old and decrepit, there needs to either be new wealth generated (through manufacturing) or one is left consuming wealth that has already been created (which quite frankly won't support the boomers as large as a generation as they are).

Quote:So you have no complaints about you pay or working conditions? 

Naturally I would always take more money. Most of my complaints regarding pay has to do with being salaried instead of hourly. As for my working conditions, I've worked worse places.

Quote:You could just use libertarian, which is the modern word for classical liberal.

I would prefer Classical Liberal. Many libertarians argue only against the state, I argue against all forms of authoritarianism reguardless from where it comes.