Don't forget about Reagan refusing to raise the minimum wage for 8 years and Bush for 2 years. It has never caught up with housing inflation, and today does not come close to providing a living wage. Demand $10.00 an hour. Also, we now have a service economy. Who uses the most services? - the rich. Services do not normally have a sales tax - at least not in Texas. The working poor do not use services. And they pay a sales tax on everything they buy. Is this fair? Tax services. Pay the workers better wages for their work. This will create demand for more goods and services. That will create the need for more jobs and a better economy.

Don't forget about Reagan refusing to raise the minimum wage for 8 years and Bush for 2 years. It has never caught up with housing inflation, and today does not come close to providing a living wage. Demand $10.00 an hour. Also, we now have a service economy. Who uses the most services? - the rich. Services do not normally have a sales tax - at least not in Texas. The working poor do not use services. And they pay a sales tax on everything they buy. Is this fair? Tax services.

I agree with most of your analysis. But, having graduated from Flint, Northern in 1971, I know you were nearby, I have a slight variation.
I am sure you remember the oil embargo and the devastation that had on the economy. Probably you know about double digit unemployment and inflation in the 1970s. Flint felt the brunt of that.
Jobs were not easy or plentiful. So if I were going to pick a date/time, it would be when the powers that be decided to wage war in Vietnam and not ask voters to pay for it. That crippling of the U.S. treasury took at least a decade to play out.
I think the last time "jobs were plentiful," jobs that paid well, was in the early 60's .
I remember reading the Flint Voice, you were there.

Might be worth noting here that Reagan himself was a union man. The only President ever to a member of a labor union.

I am at a loss on how to fix the mess we have gotten ourselves into. We accepted lies without question and we ignored the money trail. Now we are faced with a bloody revolution to run the corruption out of Government To do this we must shut down the flow of money to political candidates and change funding laws and
the Supreme law that has allowed huge amounts of money that cannot be tracked
to corrupt our politics and Government at a sickening pace. It is enough to make you puke.

Read what?

This is not an isolated problem of the USA. Global problems must be dealt globally. Internationalism is the only way.

Some of our things like Iraq and Afghanistan started under Carter and also deregulation. The outsoutrcing drove most of it and the Stepford Presidents have been stepping in each others footsteps ever since. I wouldn't count on the two sided coin party or a third party to change anything. The multi-national brave new world mono-cultural order without borders for the world's rich vampire entitled classes and their enablers in profiteering and status climbing are in control.
But we are also in the 21st century not the 20th centry ideological insane asylum.
We are racing as the human race towrd the limits of our finite and tiny jewel of life called Earth for the first time in human history and the necessity of doing without wasted resources on wars of destruction and reconstruction profiteeering, without the population growth economics, and without poisoning the planet we live on. The demands of climate change and the necessity of more resources directed toward redundancy in basic survival systems will require something way beyond the western colonial model of rape and plunder of the global village.
We need a Declaration of Interdependence and an elimination of massive accumulation of wealth and power for a few. And we must have some basic localization for cutoff supply lines and the end of just in time timing for disaster recovery as well as rapid response basing for instant relief operation. Just say die is not good enough

I theorized in the 3 Coming False Flags that Elite will pick a fight with China way before we accept a 3rd world status.

Anglo American Empire

http://leapingrealeyes.blogspot.com/2011/08/anglo-american-empire.html

I hope you're right, and we're going to see Wisconsin-style mass agitation in the coming 6 months. But I never underestimate the power of the American electorate to keep itself cowed and uninformed. The most likely outcome--of which I see precious little prediction -- is going to be far uglier and harder to control than peaceful demonstrations. There are millions of people dropping from the middle class to the working class, and the working class to the poor. When unemployment benefits run out, food stamps and welfare are cut, and the doubled-up almost homeless are finally forced out in the street, there is every likelihood that the unrest will turn violent and completely unpredictable. You can't have this extraordinary shift in income inequality without major blowback. It will be no Arab Spring. it will be an American winter.

Want to take Action ? DO IT NOW

Thanks Michael for the great information - my frustration with you is that information is not nearly enough for change to happen. When are you going to get past theory and rhetoric and actually propose and suggest actions for Americans to take? You are uniquely positioned to lead people, but you're no better than a college professor. COME ON! Throw the suffering Americans a bone. Personally I like civil disobedience - how about something outrageous like dig up Reagan's grace and deface it. That'll get someone's attention.

Here's my approach to Revolution (That does not require guns!)
(1) Live within your means. Stop spending more than you have. Throw your Credit Cards in the back of your sock drawer.
(2) Trash your Credit Score. Stop paying your credit card bill. The only thing they can threaten you with is lowering your credit score - which you don't need since we won't be needing loans and credit to live on.
(3) Get off the Republicrat stupor. Democrats are millionaires, get over it. Stop expecting the "government" to bail you out. The hole in this Titanic is way too big - even for well-wishing politicians to fix. And drop the "Voting Is American" crap. You don't dissolve government by 'voting'.
(4) Get sober. Stop (or at least reduce) your drinking and drugs to a level where you are capable of distinguishing BS from reality. Stop watching TV. Here's a shocker - MSNBC and CNN are just as full of sh*t as FOX. And Public Radio is not far behind.
(5) You can't do it alone. We can't work 60 Hr weeks to survive AND change our country. Form Community! Start considering extended family living, broaden your community. Become aware of who the movers and shakers are in your community. In the 60's and 70's me and my community of friends all lived together - 1 or 2 per bedroom. Six of us shared one car, and I can tell you - my standard of living was a lot higher then.
(6) Boycott big banks. Get your money into a local bank or credit union today! Sell all your stocks and bonds and either buy gold, or better yet, invest in a local business.

Michael Moore, are you listening? You can use this letter as a standard format for your rantings.

Cheers
Blingo in Colorado

Without considering the past, I'd say that today, there are not enough ways that money via employment can be distributed among the people in the US. Whether or not there are wealthy people in this country, the fact is that automation has greatly reduced jobs (and, in many cases, the skills needed to maintain the jobs that are left), and international competition for jobs (which lowers wages) further cuts the number of available US jobs. That said, I believe one solution is to reduce the standard workweek of 5 days to 4 or even 3 and thereby increase hiring.Other reforms are also needed. Healthcare, for instance, needs to get out of the control of insurance companies, healthcare hotels (hospital chains), and degree mill doctors (i.e., those who insist that only medical doctors rule in healthcare). We could adopt a European model where drug dispensing and the related initial diagnosis be left to drug store personnel. Even without socialized medicine, that would save a lot of money and lead to a healthier society.Next, I would like to see the public sector pick up dental care and have schools stress dental care as they are now beginning to address diet (BTW, if you are chained to a chair for the majority of the day, you will become fat unless you confine your eating to 600 calories a day. The recommended 1,500 to 2,000 calories will make you fat if all movement is confined to chairs and cars. Speaking of cutting costs, the judiciary and prison system are way out of line, but I digress.IMHO, the bottom line is not the past and how good or bad it was, but the future and how we creatively deal with issues to meet our goals. Don't blame your daddy and mommy. Get on with your life as it stands now and make it and all things that surround it as fantastic as possible.

The problem is that in this country unions don't care about the business, and they don't care about the worker - they only care about preserving the union. As a result, businesses universally dislike unions, and even members become ambivalent about them.If unions would demand excellence from their workers, people would be proud again to be in a union, and businesses and government would want union labor. Instead, unions protect the worst worker - not for the workers sake, but for their own - at the expense of the enterprise they are supposed to serve.Maybe Mr. Moore should focus on making unions relevant, rather than complaining about the tea party, Reagan, and the rich.

All true. I'm one of the ones now old enough to remember when my high school boyfriend, whose parents came over on the boat from Poland, and his brother were able to go to college from money earned by his Father, who worked a union job in a tool factory. His Mother did not work outside the home. This was in the late '60's-early 70's. And he wasn't the only one. Lots of my friend's parents were blue collar and their children were able to go to college and earn more than their parents did. Then everything went overseas. Cheap labor. Cheap labor still. If you want made in USA, you'll have to be willing to pay a lot more for everything from clothing to toys. That means no new pairs of shoes every week, and only one barbie for the kid. That means no continual retail therapy and buying sprees. Live more simply, like in the past. Huge cultural change--are you all up to it?

America has become the frog that was slowly boiled a live in oil and never realized it until it was too late.

The PATCO firing was more of a coup de grace than a turning point. Unions had been getting weaker and weaker throughout the 70s. They were settling for less and sometimes taking cuts. When Chrysler was about to go under, around the mid 70s, and its stock was down to around $6-7 per share (the only time I ever considered buying stock, but didn't because I knew I'd be screwing some working stiff somewhere if I did), if I recall, workers agreed to take cuts in order to keep their jobs. Then, the feds required workers to sacrifice even more as a condition of the bailout (funny how that works...).

Truth is, the labor movement began seriously losing power with passage of Taft-Hartley in the late 40s. I remember hearing, as a kid of presidents invoking Taft-Hartley regularly during the late 50s and early 60, seemingly any time a big union went on strike.

Sorry Michael Moore, but I take anything you say with a huge grain of salt these days.

the day society was lost and the economy was born