Report Card for Donald Trump

[Eric the Green]

(12-30-2016, 05:44 PM)SomeGuy Wrote:

Quote:A big reason the Rust Belt is hurting so much is that the good-paying jobs are simply no longer there for folks who are on the shorter end of the stick intellectually, and one of the big issues with the Obama Recovery is that most of the new jobs were lower-pay service industry jobs that did not not pay as much as the old jobs. We are already seeing the process I'm talking about beginning to unfold now, this is WHY it's getting talked about in progressive circles. Hell, even some on the Right like the idea of a Universal Basic Income, because they see what's coming.

I am aware that the Rust Belt is hurting (hence the name), indeed, most of the country outside a few metro areas is in a slow-motion state of collapse.  It does not follow from there that automation is the sole cause of this, and that this automation will inevitably eliminate all jobs in the near future, and that therefore there is no reason to rethink past policies or make the least effort to accommodate the concerns raised so prominently in the past election.

I do understand why it is comfortable for shocked yuppies to think so, though.

If one of the "concerns raised so prominently in the past election" is immigration, then the proper concern is that the issue was raised at all (so prominently), and not the concern itself. If the concern is trade, then yes both Sanders and Trump raised the issue, and it should be accommodated in a sensible way. The TPP's defeat has been a good start.

The "past policies" in place today are based on the trickle-down/neo-liberal theory, and therefore THAT's what needs to be changed. And that includes more income support for those unemployed by automation as well as by outsourcing, AND better trade policies, instead of knocking public support by claiming it is theft from taxpayers (neo-liberal dogma).