- Considering a question about the role of government: do Americans and their elected representatives actually want a much smaller government? (Spoiler: not really.)
- Highlighting a New York Times piece listing 14 potential causes of income slump: but what about full employment?
- Laying out the flaws in Gov. Romney’s tax plan: there is not enough revenue in the base broadeners to offset the losses from the rate cuts.
- Outlining some very useful pieces on the Medicare dust up.
- Analyzing the Pew Research Center’s new report on the decline of the middle class.
- Explaining why adjusting income for family size isn’t necessarily correct.
Music: a rare Tuesday musical interlude, starring Lee Morgan circa 1967.
Bonus: a video breakdown of going over the fiscal cliff (and back?), featuring Thelma & Louise.
I believe that the decline in middle-class income is largely due to increasing automation. This will start to impact more highly skilled workers as well. In fact, any knowledge-based occupation is fair game for increasing automation and robotization. For example, it may be possible for a computer to analyze body scans. Before that, it would be quite easy for a doctor in say, India to analyze the scan at a fraction of the cost. This increasing automation will disconnect a large proportion of the population from an opportunity to earn a living.