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Well...That's Not Shitty At All.
 

Disincentivy's picture
VC
(Gorilla, 713
 
Points)
 on 8/24/12 at 12:30pm
remote-control.jpg

The past 60 years harbored the invention and mass production of the three most valued and loved products by men: The remote control, the microwave, and the birth-control pill. There were also lesser useful inventions like the Jet airliners, industrial robots, and communication satellites. Most importantly, however, the computer mouse was invented so we can all make fun of today’s consultants. (We have Douglas Englebart to thank for that.)

As always, the census bureau, taking the role of the party pooper, posted some information about the Annual Change in Mean Family Income from 1950 to 2010, by quintile and the top five percent. There is no mention of the one percent in order to protect their delicate souls and swollen wallets.

Here is the graph, take a look at it, go ahead; it doesn’t bite but I can’t promise you anything less than an instant stroke.


http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/busine...

Things were going swell for the commoners in the 50’s and 60’s but come the 70’s when Nixon dictated we were to be a Keynesian economy, everyone suffered. Even the mustard puke colored five percenters. To make matters worse, the man who has caused me several panic attacks in my sleep, otherwise known as Ronald Reagan, relied heavily on voodoo and was completely sure that his 1981 endearing speech would take the already clusterfuck deep economy to prosperity. He was right. He was indeed very right that the richer you had been, the richer you would become. If you were poor, bitch you done!

Although I am compelled to write hateful and vengeful and profanity laden essays about America’s dumbest Texan, G.W.Bush, I will refrain, because I vowed to remain silent until I get my chance of meeting him in person and show him what my six inch heels feel like in his eye sockets. America’s glitter studded mythical creature and unintelligent alien extraordinaire, Bush, had a plan. The plan was to dig a hole in the ground, stuff the economy in it, cover the hole back, pee on it, poop on it, then get a dinosaur to stomp on it until it is seven layers deep. I have to give him props. It totally worked.

Fortunately, I haven’t lived long enough to have grounds for comparison. I, along with my entire generation of new(ish) work force just know the suffering, we don’t know the prosperity of the 50’s and 60’s, thus, we might be detached from the state of our economy.

The only solution to our suffering is to become the one percent. Or just be Buddhists and abandon life’s pleasures and desires for material possessions. Or rob a bank and seek refuge with a Nigerian prince. Or print money.

P.S: Someone needs to tell the Bureau those 5 shades of green and the shade of second day leftover curry is NOT ok.
P.S.S: The Atlantic has written a piece about this here

I may not be on the Jedi Council, but I sure am great with the Force.

See my WSO blog posts

Tags:

Comments

bonks's picture

Ms. Disincentivy, what you've

CO
(Orangutan, 316
 
Points)
 on 8/24/12 at 1:18pm

Ms. Disincentivy, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent paragraph were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone on this board is now dumber for having read it. I award you no SB, and may God have mercy on your soul.

Nothing short of everything will really do.

Ron Paul's picture

Disincentivy: Bush, had a

 
Points)
 on 8/24/12 at 1:20pm
Disincentivy:

Bush, had a plan. The plan was to dig a hole in the ground, stuff the economy in it, cover the hole back, pee on it, poop on it, then get a dinosaur to stomp on it until it is seven layers deep. I have to give him props. It totally worked.

How do you recommend we un-poop on the economy and the middle/lower classes?

harvardbrah's picture

end the fed

(Chimp, 13
 
Points)
 on 8/24/12 at 1:25pm

end the fed

UFOinsider's picture

Ron Paul: How do you

O
(Human, 10,349
 
Points)
 on 8/24/12 at 1:34pm
Ron Paul:

How do you recommend we un-poop on the economy and the middle/lower classes?

Is this to be in bulleted or essay format?

Or is the solution....wait, wait, wait....I got it! VOTE FOR ANOTHER REPUBLICAN!!!!!!! YES! That's the solution! They did this, now it's their job to fix it? Only THEY can do this. #endsarcasm

Seriously: bullets or essay?

YOU JUST GOT TROLLED
http://www.troll.me/images/red-foreman322/dont-you...

seabird's picture

Ron

PE
(King Kong, 1,494
 
Points)
 on 8/24/12 at 1:35pm
Ron Paul:
Disincentivy:

Bush, had a plan. The plan was to dig a hole in the ground, stuff the economy in it, cover the hole back, pee on it, poop on it, then get a dinosaur to stomp on it until it is seven layers deep. I have to give him props. It totally worked.

How do you recommend we un-poop on the economy and the middle/lower classes?

Chili, lemon, water and maple syrup based diet. Or conversely, drink a liter of salt water and hold it down.

“...all truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”

- Schopenhauer

UFOinsider's picture

seabird: Ron

O
(Human, 10,349
 
Points)
 on 8/24/12 at 1:38pm
seabird:
Ron Paul:
Disincentivy:

Bush, had a plan. The plan was to dig a hole in the ground, stuff the economy in it, cover the hole back, pee on it, poop on it, then get a dinosaur to stomp on it until it is seven layers deep. I have to give him props. It totally worked.

How do you recommend we un-poop on the economy and the middle/lower classes?

Chili, lemon, water and maple syrup based diet. Or conversely, drink a liter of salt water and hold it down.

Is prune juice not preftigious enough to get the job done? Or should both be used in conjunction?

YOU JUST GOT TROLLED
http://www.troll.me/images/red-foreman322/dont-you...

seabird's picture

Pff I guess prune juice is

PE
(King Kong, 1,494
 
Points)
 on 8/24/12 at 1:42pm

Pff I guess prune juice is prestigious... if youre trying to shit your brains out... at Jefferies.

“...all truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”

- Schopenhauer

Ron Paul's picture

UFOinsider: Ron Paul: How

 
Points)
 on 8/24/12 at 1:42pm
UFOinsider:
Ron Paul:

How do you recommend we un-poop on the economy and the middle/lower classes?

Is this to be in bulleted or essay format?

Or is the solution....wait, wait, wait....I got it! VOTE FOR ANOTHER REPUBLICAN!!!!!!! YES! That's the solution! They did this, now it's their job to fix it? Only THEY can do this. #endsarcasm

Seriously: bullets or essay?

UFO you can't take the test for other people, that's cheating! Dis has to answer on her (his? hope not...) own.

But of course feel free to chime in UFO, with all the moderate center-left force you can muster.

UFOinsider's picture

Ron Paul: UFOinsider: Ron

O
(Human, 10,349
 
Points)
 on 8/24/12 at 1:48pm
Ron Paul:
UFOinsider:
Ron Paul:

How do you recommend we un-poop on the economy and the middle/lower classes?

Is this to be in bulleted or essay format?

Or is the solution....wait, wait, wait....I got it! VOTE FOR ANOTHER REPUBLICAN!!!!!!! YES! That's the solution! They did this, now it's their job to fix it? Only THEY can do this. #endsarcasm

Seriously: bullets or essay?

UFO you can't take the test for other people, that's cheating! Dis has to answer on her (his? hope not...) own.

But of course feel free to chime in UFO, with all the moderate center-left force you can muster.

Ok, I'll back off.

UFO OUT

YOU JUST GOT TROLLED
http://www.troll.me/images/red-foreman322/dont-you...

blastoise's picture

what the fuck is up with the

O
 
Points)
 on 8/24/12 at 1:56pm

what the fuck is up with the cussing, chill out OP

Edmundo Braverman's picture

UFOinsider: Is prune juice

ST
(Human, 14,409
 
Points)
 on 8/24/12 at 2:08pm
UFOinsider:

Is prune juice not preftigious enough to get the job done? Or should both be used in conjunction?

seabird:

Pff I guess prune juice is prestigious... if youre trying to shit your brains out... at Jefferies.

Whole lotta WIN in these two comments...

The Man's picture

OP, I don't know if this was

(Monkey, 44
 
Points)
 on 8/24/12 at 2:33pm

OP, I don't know if this was your intent or not, but you didn't say anything of substance in your entire piece.

dwight schrute's picture

So the combined efforts of

(Gorilla, 673
 
Points)
 on 8/24/12 at 2:35pm

So the combined efforts of reagan waving his wand followed by bush jr. defecating has had such resonating effects that it explains macroeconomic trends for 60 years?

For future reference, Europe and Japan were covered in heaping piles of rubble and ruin after WWII while the rest of the world was either a backwater shithole (economically speaking) or suffering some communist autocrat. The US, on the contrary, saw it's industrial capacity increase during the war. Following this, billions of dollars in war bonds were repaid back into the private sector economy. Essentially, the US worker had no or little serious competition and was benefiting from a transfer of wealth.

Fast forward to Nixon's Keynesian decree and Europe and Japan had recovered to prewar levels. By the time of dubya, most of the rest of the world had industrialized, a couple billion more people were now part of the global economy, and the skill-less jobs were now automated. Of course the lower percentiles were never going to retain their ideal position atop the world economy.

Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art - Andy Warhol

Ravenous's picture

Disincentivy: The only

HF
(King Kong, 1,347
 
Points)
 on 8/24/12 at 3:01pm
Disincentivy:

The only solution to our suffering is to become the one percent.

Some things stay remarkably consistent throughout history.

Ravenous's picture

dwight schrute: So the

HF
(King Kong, 1,347
 
Points)
 on 8/24/12 at 3:05pm
dwight schrute:

So the combined efforts of reagan waving his wand followed by bush jr. defecating has had such resonating effects that it explains macroeconomic trends for 60 years?

For future reference, Europe and Japan were covered in heaping piles of rubble and ruin after WWII while the rest of the world was either a backwater shithole (economically speaking) or suffering some communist autocrat. The US, on the contrary, saw it's industrial capacity increase during the war. Following this, billions of dollars in war bonds were repaid back into the private sector economy. Essentially, the US worker had no or little serious competition and was benefiting from a transfer of wealth.

Fast forward to Nixon's Keynesian decree and Europe and Japan had recovered to prewar levels. By the time of dubya, most of the rest of the world had industrialized, a couple billion more people were now part of the global economy, and the skill-less jobs were now automated. Of course the lower percentiles were never going to retain their ideal position atop the world economy.

I was also wondering how much of the chart can be attributed to the impact of outsourcing. There were lots of blue collar jobs that people in the lower quintiles could make a pretty good living on during the 1950s-1970s. A lot of those were outsourced by the government on both sides. What you're left with is an economy dedicated to the knowledge worker, and those workers are in pretty short supply for high-end work (high paying jobs), so of course their incomes rose more than everyone else (who were largely facing wage pressure).

I'm not saying that's the sole cause. It's a factor.

But this chart is not simply reflective of Bush and Reagan (both of which scare the shit out of me for different reasons) either.

Disincentivy's picture

bonks: Ms. Disincentivy, what

VC
(Gorilla, 713
 
Points)
 on 8/24/12 at 3:24pm

I may not be on the Jedi Council, but I sure am great with the Force.

See my WSO blog posts

dwight schrute's picture

Ravenous: I was also

(Gorilla, 673
 
Points)
 on 8/24/12 at 3:26pm

Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art - Andy Warhol

Disincentivy's picture

Ron

VC
(Gorilla, 713
 
Points)
 on 8/24/12 at 3:33pm

I may not be on the Jedi Council, but I sure am great with the Force.

See my WSO blog posts

Ron Paul's picture

Disincentivy: Ron

 
Points)
 on 8/24/12 at 4:25pm
donkeymoney's picture

Well, certainly there could

EN
(Monkey, 40
 
Points)
 on 8/24/12 at 4:39pm

-No comment-

donkeymoney's picture

Double post.

EN
(Monkey, 40
 
Points)
 on 8/31/12 at 6:05pm

-No comment-

slotmouth's picture

I blame the drop in the

O
(Monkey, 38
 
Points)
 on 8/24/12 at 7:40pm
UFOinsider's picture

slotmouth: I blame the drop

O
(Human, 10,349
 
Points)
 on 8/24/12 at 9:14pm

YOU JUST GOT TROLLED
http://www.troll.me/images/red-foreman322/dont-you...

Disincentivy's picture

dwight schrute: Ravenous: I

VC
(Gorilla, 713
 
Points)
 on 8/25/12 at 11:45am

I may not be on the Jedi Council, but I sure am great with the Force.

See my WSO blog posts

Disincentivy's picture

donkeymoney: Well, certainly

VC
(Gorilla, 713
 
Points)
 on 8/25/12 at 11:50am

I may not be on the Jedi Council, but I sure am great with the Force.

See my WSO blog posts

Bondarb's picture

The drop in the low-end has

HF
(Neanderthal, 2,286
 
Points)
 on 8/25/12 at 5:38pm
GS's picture

FYI , US industrial output

ST
 
Points)
 on 8/25/12 at 5:48pm

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