The Reality Between Perceptions of America’s “Flexible” Economy Versus Harsh Economic Realities

If you have been paying attention to political news lately, you will know that two states have been experimenting with a fairly extreme form of Reaganomics.

Yes, there have been extreme experiments in Wisconsin and in Kansas.

Governor Brownback decided to prove that his economic beliefs would work in practice once implemented. To that end, he

The result?

Kansas is facing economic shock right now. Everything is falling apart.

Wisconsin's Governor Scott Walker, a 2016 presidential candidate for the Republicans, also tried some experiments in his home state.

The result?

There have been other experiments, if you will, to implement vastly different economic approaches.

In Minnesota, by contrast, has been going the opposite direction, doing the exact opposite of Kansas and Wisconsin, and the economy there is very strong.

In the city of Seattle, the minimum wage was raised to $15. Economic activity there is booming. Los Angeles also passed a similar raise in minimum wage that will take a few years, and for his part, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is trying to raise the minimum wage in that state to $15. It remains o be seen what the impact of such a hike in minimum wage in those places would be but they are being pursued both to help residents achieve a livable wage, as well as to help stimulate the economy.

The minimum wage in the United States seriously trails the minimum wages of pretty much every other industrialized nation in the world, much like the benefits Americans receive are far behind those enjoyed by citizens of other countries, where more vacation and affordable healthcare and child care, among other things, are generally seen as a right.

Yet, a commonly held belief by too many Americans is that, as the leading superpower of the world (for the moment), things have to be better here, and other countries should be following the American example. It seems unthinkable to many Americans that they should possibly learn something of true value from other countries, and many feel that such programs as those that literally every other advanced or industrialized nation have, which are designed to benefit citizens there, lean too closely to socialism or even communism. Some even automatically equate these with a dictatorship.

These cynics still argue that America's economy is more dynamic and flexible, and benefits those who are very motivated and want to achieve a strong quality of living.

Some have achieved it, but percentage wise, those that have "made it" are increasingly outnumbered by those who are stuck in the mire, and thus, Americans continue to allow the gap between themselves and our quality of life versus the quality of life of other industrialized nations to continue growing, even though statistics, and even real life personal accounts, suggest that Europeans and Japanese and Australians and Canadians, among others, would easily choose their economic systems over what Americans generally tend to believe is their more dynamic and flexible (some would call it "free") economy.

That is why things never seem to change for the better. And until Americans generally educate themselves on these realities, and get past themselves enough to understand that they can indeed learn from the examples of others around the world, it seems nothing can be expected to change anytime soon, either.




Robert Reich: America’s “flexible” economy is making workers’ lives hell by ROBERT REICH, ROBERTREICH.ORG, April 21, 2015:

http://www.salon.com/2015/04/21/robert_reich_americas_flexible_economy_is_making_workers_lives_hell_partner/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

Kansas’s Experiment With Reaganomics Backfires, Results in Deficits, Job Losses, and Education Cuts by James DeVinnie, April 21, 2015:

http://www.occupydemocrats.com/kansass-experiment-with-reaganomics-backfires-results-in-deficits-job-losses-and-education-cuts/