Discussion for article #246565
If we have to have a billionaire running for President, I would much prefer Warren over the one who is running. He has forgotten more about the economy and business than Trump ever knew or will know.
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The economy is just fine. The problem is that average Americans are being squeezed between stagnant wages and increasing cost for things like housing and a college education; and all the while being asked why they can’t work for $3/day like the Chinese. The workers, the people who actually create the wealth should get the chance to achieve their full potential and get a reasonable part of the wealth they create. The masters of the universe on Wall Street could care less about both, they’re just fine, thank you.
I keep wondering whether a leader will appear who can solve this trainwreck peacefully, or will we decend into an American version of the French revolution.
Bernie Sanders sees this problem, Hillary Clinton does not.
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Why do you say Hillary Clinton does not? From her very first speech of this campaign she made this situation a core part of her campaign, even using language very close to that of Elizabeth Warren. So where do you get your facts on this?
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[Wealthy] “babies being born in America today are the luckiest”.
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While it’s better to be wealthy, of course, the median baby born in the US today will live better and longer than 99.99% of all the humans who ever lived. In terms of health and comfort, the average Joe lives better than royalty did a few hundred years ago. The negativity is waaayy overdone and if you claim to be a progressive you should consider that the more such negativity becomes pervasive, the more that helps the right wing, particularly a certain candidate with bad hair, whose rallying cry is “Everything sucks, and I’m gonna fix it” (as if everyone lived in splendor in some past era).
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Merely reacting to Mr. Buffett’s lack of perspective. Of course I agree with your points and have expressed them here many times (a favorite being, if the US is such a disaster explain the 5 robotic US craft exiting the Solar System…) as the right bangs the disaster gong. But, can one really quibble with the vast economic and social rift in America during these post Reagan years of corporate rape?
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I could cite Piketty to the effect that inequality is more or less inevitable barring world wars and their mass slaughter and that given that choice I prefer inequality. That’s not to say there aren’t things that can be done at the margin, but their effect will be limited (that isn’t a reason not to do them, but it is a reason not to have overblown expectations).
The other point is that vast numbers of people in China, India, Latin America, etc. have vastly improved their lives in the last 35 years. If the price of that is that the US stagnates at 1980 living standards (which were hardly meager) is that not a large net plus for humanity? That can’t just be waved away IMO.
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You missed Warren’s point. There will always be business blibs but we will be fine as long as we keep the safety nets in place. He’s talking about soc. Sec., medicare, medicaid, obamacare, unemployment… That means improving and tweaking them as we go. He also is a strong supporter of Hillary, having held a fund raiser for her and publicly endorsed.
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I think you miss @Condew´s point
When Warren says:
¨The babies being born in America today are the luckiest crop in history."
That´s clearly not true for the kids of the underclass in America. A lot of them would be better off being born in Japan, Denmark, Sweden, France, etc… And we rate 26th in infant mortality; I guess the ones that die aren´t so lucky to be born here, no?
Oh, and Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor under Clinton, just endorsed Sanders. It´s stirring. You should read it 
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ETA: our own government says that we rank 57th out of 224 countries in the world in terms of low infant mortality. We´re ahead of Russia, but behind Belarus. But people should really just stop complaining, amirite?
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Perhaps. Certainly human history and current events can’t be denied but I disagree that accomplishment occurs in a limited elite “margin” but rather limps along if at all via widespread and routinely crushed unrealistic overblown expectations…armies of stymied Michelangelos rather than a single lucky one…and, without fear of seeming a Pollyanna, maybe one day several of those will collide with a few lessening inevitabilities…
The babies being born today are better off.
what do you mean? we are already not living financially as well as our parents, or as healthily.
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That is ridiculous. They both see the problem, and unless we get the Senate back and lazy dems vote in 2018, neither one will get any of their agenda done.
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That depends on how fast climate change is happening. I doubt their lives will be better if their air isn’t fit to breathe and don’t forget the lack of water which is becoming a real problem even though there is little coverage on the seriousness of the issue
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All very true. And very cold. But unfortunately the vast sucking from the top is insatiable and will not stop. The financial recession showed Wall Street will undermine their own existence in the never ending demand for more - more - more wealth. They are basically financial suicide bombers, so when they self destruct, we will not be able to avoid it - and they will take us with them.
The Donald is not a solution to anything and especially not to a real problem. In my opinion, on the TPM boards there appears to be two primary mindsets, some think there is a real problem, and others think not. In fact, your argument that everything is so much better than ever, where have I heard that before, oh that’s right, it’s been often voiced by Republicans who say we don’t need this excessive form of government and want to cut social safety nets. “Hey, you have a TV and a refrigerator. Why aren’t you happy?”
As Buffet has said, we are on the cusp of another economic revolution - people will not remain farmers.
“He assured shareholders that Berkshire’s businesses will adapt just as the company did when its original Berkshire Hathaway textile operation failed.”
Buffett is looking out for Berkshire Hathaway investors. My question - what happened to the hard-working American textile workers (farmers, manufacturing workers, insurance agents who will lose their jobs due to driverless cars)?! What jobs will be available in our society for those that are not the exceptional, and who will look out for them?! Or does anyone even care anymore?
If I remember there was a Radical Centrist that ran for President on “It’s the economy stupid.” Oh the irony.
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JCS, that report was from a year and a half ago. Do you really think that we´ve gone from 26th in the world to 1st in low infant mortality in that time? How, when we haven´t even gotten adequate health care for 10s of millions, not to mention all the other risk factors to babies associated with being born poor in this country?
Out safety net is necessary, but not nearly sufficient.
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Chammy.
You need to get the Northeast Republicans to vote for Hillary. Lazy Dems don’t vote for Northeast Republicans (those liberal on social policies but conservative on financial and foriegn policy issues).
Yeah. You poor people should be happy living in a country where your babies die at such an alarming rate that it pulls the richest country down to 26th?* But look, you poor: you have Penicillin, and even Louis XIV didn´t have that!
That´s like Bill O´Reilly saying that the American poor aren´t really poor, ´cos they have refrigerators!
Louis XIV didn´t have one of those either!
- Actually, according to the CIA Factbook, we´re 57th in the world. Hey, at least we´re ahead of Russia! USA! USA!
Though we´re behind Belarus.
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Plus he’s a decent person.
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