Opinions/Editorials
See other Opinions/Editorials Articles
Title: American Mojo: Lost and Found
Source:
Amazon.com
URL Source: [None]
Published: Sep 6, 2015
Author: , Peter D. Kiernan
Post Date: 2015-09-06 16:24:06 by tpaine
Keywords: None
Views: 4009
Comments: 15
Ii 19 Customer Reviews Description Released: Jun 23, 2015. 464 pages. In American Mojo: Lost and Found, Peter D. Kiernan, award-winning author of New York Times bestseller Becoming China’s Bitch, focuses on America’s greatest challenge—and opportunity—restoring the middle class to its full promise and potential. Our educated, skilled and motivated middle class was the cornerstone of America’s postwar economic might, but the country’s dynamic core has struggled and changed dramatically through the last three decades. Kiernan’s extensively researched story, told through individual histories, shows how the middle class flourished under unique circumstances following World War II; and details how our middle class has been rocked and shaped by events abroad as much as at home. By excluding too many Americans, the middle class we reverently recall was fractured from the beginning. What emerges through his storytelling is a picture of middle class decline and opportunity that is fuller, more moving and profound, and ultimately more useful in terms of charting a path forward than other examinations. His unique global perspective is a vital ingredient in charting the way ahead. This new frontier thesis shows that middle class greatness is again within our grasp—if we take some powerful medicine and seize the global opportunity. America possesses the skills and talent the world needs. Americans must embrace what brought our middle class to prominence in the first place—our American Mojo—before it is too late and other countries steal the march. All that is at stake is the soul of our nation. Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought See All 19 Reviews Average: 4.1 out of 5 5 star 10 4 star 4 3 star 3 2 star 1 1 star 1 See All 19 Customer Reviews Customer Reviews Most Helpful Customer Reviews 16 of 16 people found this review helpful: Enthralling, Clear and Constructive--A Realistic Blueprint June 17, 2015 by Peter Hillman "(budding enthusiast)" Amazon Verified Purchase This timely, fresh and engaging book is the one everybody running for President will wish s/he could have written. It takes an author unencumbered by political ambition, but with a wealth of hands- on corporate, world and philanthropic experience, to give us this essential reading, now. It takes an unfettered private citizen, not enmeshed in academia or governmental/think tank agendas and revolving doors, to home in on what's Read more 10 of 10 people found this review helpful: LET'S NOT HAVE HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF July 1, 2015 by Robin Leigh Morgan "MG/YA Romance Author" I received a hardcover edition of this book through a http://GoodReads.com giveaway and the following is my honest opinion for it. This book is a far cry from the myriad of genres of fiction books and memoirs I’ve reviewed to date. It’s not the type of book readers can read right through without taking any sort of break; they need to absorb each one chapter one at a time to reap the greatest benefits this book has to offer them. Read more 8 of 8 people found this review helpful: Solid Compass Direction July 12, 2015 by F. J. West "Bing West" This is an account of how to thread the needle between liberals who want to regulate a redistribution of a fixed economic pie and conservatives who believe less regulation will increase the size of the pie. Both claim their preferred path increases the income of the middle class, elastic by any definition. The author argues for less regulation and increased government incentives for mostly export-related expansionism that will incentivize our dynamic middle class to exert its inherent mojo...
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: tpaine (#0)
From your cited article: --- Unions signed their own death warrants by insisting on mandatory membership. Forcing workers to join a union is an unamerican tactic. -- I have no problem with voluntary union memberships...
Yes, high wage is un-American.
Forcing workers to join a union is an unamerican tactic. -- I have no problem with voluntary union memberships.. Dream on that you can achieve and hold high wages by forced membership unions. Such unions destroy themselves with corrupt leadership and monopoly tactics.
Such unions destroy themselves with corrupt leadership and monopoly tactics. "How do you explain what's happening in Germany -- where they have strong unions, high wages, good benefits, and high quality, profitable manufacturing?" [...] In the private sector, unionization fell to an abysmal 6.6%, down from a peak of 35% during the 1950s. Most Americans yawned at this news. On one level that’s understandable. After all, most Americans aren’t in a union. It’s a vicious cycle: as unions decline, fewer people see their fates as bound up with unions, which just accelerates the decline. But on another level, America’s non-reaction is striking. We remain in the wake of the Great Recession. Inequality and wealth concentration are at levels not seen since just before the Great Depression. [...] First, the fact is that when unions are stronger the economy as a whole does better. Unions restore demand to an economy by raising wages for their members and putting more purchasing power to work, enabling more hiring. On the flip side, when labor is weak and capital unconstrained, corporations hoard, hiring slows, and inequality deepens. Thus we have today both record highs in corporate profits and record lows in wages. [...] This country has gotten to today’s level of inequality because, ironically, those who work for a living think like atomized individuals while those who hire for a living organize collectively to rig policy in their favor. Today’s 97-year low is the result of decades of efforts to squeeze unions and disperse their power. [...] when companies pay their employees enough to live, the employees will rely less on government assistance and participate more in economic life. Precisely the same case can be made for unions. Consider that workers at non-unionized Walmart constitute in many states the largest bloc of food stamp and Medicaid recipients. [...] == Readers comment: A question for the union opponents here (who have argued that you have to compete with low wage states and countries with a race to the bottom): How do you explain what's happening in Germany -- where they have strong unions, high wages, good benefits, and high quality, profitable manufacturing? http://ideas.time.com/2013/01/29/viewpoint-why-the-decline-of-unions-is-your-problem-too/
Such unions destroy themselves with corrupt leadership and monopoly tactics. You must be referring to the Auto workers as the prime example. They've lost 1/2 the membership they had 10 years ago cause their contracts got to be too expensive. A great many of those jobs they lost ended up in a foreign country were the workers get paid a fraction of what they "used to be paid here". But the head honchos in the Union still benefit from those jobs leaving, they still get money from phucking their own "brethren" out of their jobs... Some of them lost their retirements/healthcare that were supposed to be guaranteed, can you say Delphi??? Union dues take up anywhere from 6-12% of their gross pay making it just your normal everyday average take home pay job. The money from dues get used to support corrupt people, like the ones who are ruining the country. (The ones who want to take us back to the good old European oligarchy days)... Did I miss anything those were just right off the top of my head, I've seen it happen where I live so I doubt it's any different anywhere else. Corrupt people are corrupt people no matter where you go!!! What is the solution? Lowering wages to the lowest common level. There is no reason why people of oriental race like Chines, Japanese or Vietnamese cannot be as productive or even more productive than white or non-white Americans. But the question is who will be buying all these products if wages are reduced to minimum as it must happen if there is no bargaining power on the side of surplus workers. When purchasing power is low, the demand is low and the factories are idle - economy contracts. Could you stop posting this annoying picture? Please.
Why does everybody want to have the government artificially manipulate wages?? It doesn't work... Right now I know Union guys that haven't had a pay raise in the last 4 years, you know why??? The market/economy can't handle it... And why is the market/economy phucked up?? The politicians the Union dues go to (as campaign contributions) have it phucked up, thru artificially manipulating it!!! And do you know the reason why the politicians and Union bosses want the minimum wage raised??? Because a lot of the Union contracts are tied to it, and right now that's the only way the Union people will get a pay raise (and the politicians want more campaign contributions from them)... So they do it artificially and it will cause more of them to lose their jobs... But that doesn't matter to the Union bosses or the politicians cause they'll just raise the dues on the ones who are still working... I know people who are non union in the same job/skill the Union guys are in and they make more money and have better retirements (better diversification). Why is this you say? Well it has to do with the workers themselves they are smarter, have better skills and gumption. It's cheaper to pay one guy than it is to pay 3 stupid ones to take his place, plain pure and simple... If you know your job you can be paid accordingly if you don't then sign up to be a Union guy and really get screwed!!! I can't help it my picture describes damn near every politician and world leader there is. A pig is a pig is a pig no matter how you dress it or how much makeup you put on it, it's still a phucking pig!!! I can't help it (and don't really care) that the pigs and their supporters are offended!!! Perhaps. But I have seen it TOO MANY times. It is like hearing the same sound again and again and again.
Ok I'll do something different...
How's this???
Go to 'setup' and turn off the 'tag line' box. Shazzam --- you won't see it anymore.
I will use bozo filter
Bozos use that filter, imo...
#2. To: A Pole (#1)
The fact that many of today’s college graduates have the same standard of living as the lowest-skilled workers of the 1960s proves that attitude is wrong, wrong, wrong. If we want to restore what we’ve traditionally thought of as the middle class, we have to stop thinking of ourselves as middle class, no matter how much we earn, or what we do to earn it. “Working class” should be defined by your relationship to your employer, not whether you perform physical labor. Unless you own the business, you’re working class.
"The smartest people I ever met were guys who ran cranes in the mill,” Oil Can Eddie once said. ---- They were smart enough, at least, to get their fair share of the company’s profits. ----- Edward McClelland is the author of "Nothin' But Blue Skies: The Heyday, Hard Times and Hopes of America's Industrial Heartland."
#3. To: tpaine (#2)
Forcing workers to join a union is an unamerican tactic.
#4. To: A Pole (#3)
Yes, high wage is un-American.
#5. To: tpaine (#4)
Dream on that you can achieve and hold high wages by forced membership unions.
#6. To: tpaine, A Pole (#4)
Dream on that you can achieve and hold high wages by forced membership unions.
“Let me see which pig "DON'T" I want to vote for, the one with or without lipstick??" Hmmmmm...
#7. To: CZ82 (#6)
(Edited)
A great many of those jobs they lost ended up in a foreign country were the workers get paid a fraction of what they "used to be paid here".
#8. To: A Pole (#7)
What is the solution? Lowering wages to the lowest common level.
“Let me see which pig "DON'T" I want to vote for, the one with or without lipstick??" Hmmmmm...
#9. To: A Pole (#7)
“Let me see which pig "DON'T" I want to vote for, the one with or without lipstick??" Hmmmmm...
#10. To: CZ82 (#6)
I can't help it my picture describes damn near every politician and world leader there is.
#11. To: A Pole (#10)
“Let me see which pig "DON'T" I want to vote for, the one with or without lipstick??" Hmmmmm...
#12. To: All (#11)
#13. To: A Pole (#10)
I have seen it TOO MANY times
#14. To: tpaine (#13)
#15. To: A Pole (#14)
I will use bozo filter
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]