Jim

Well it's not like the upper income brackets have been starving lately with reduction in the marginal tax level and the reduction in long-term investment/dividend taxes - so I would argue that it's not even a wash, the upper income brackets have won on both ends - stuffing it to workers who are responsible for the increase in productivity, pocketing the profits, and bribing the pols to reduce their taxes.

This is a key issue. Productivity being driven by the workers but profit being held by the minority. That is not a productive model. Well, unless you are lucky enough to be in the upper echelons.

Then the liberals you clearly can't read. I didn't say it was the liberals' fault. I said it was the fault of the pols who betrayed them. You sound retarded dude, let's leave it at that. That's not an adequate retort.

No doubt that there is some mobility through the minimum pay band, and yes, there are some drag effects of offering a wholistic approach to minimum wage standards. But, for instance, to agure as the WSJ did a few years back that 90% of the minimum wage earners move up the scale easily - well that one was debunked quickly enough - ignores that a significant group is stuck down there - some though their own bad choices, some by the luck of birth. So while I agree that the goal just can't be to solve poverty issues by setting minimum wage standards, there is a component of a moral fairness imperitive here.

The people making $8 an hour are at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder, you dumbass. Is paying them $5 going to make them better off? It would be easy to argue that at $8/hr folks are well below their worth even at a marginal productivity level. Secondly - throwing in the worth of health care coverage is kinda of a curve ball given the rising cost of medical coverage out of proportion to other items and the diminishing access to care for the same dollar cost now compared to say 15-20 years ago. The nibbling around the edges is turing into large gaps in the safety net.

Hmmm. First it was the nutjobs fault Then the liberals And finally the pols along with blah, blah We could try for global warming as an encore. And what is the solution here?

The late/great DM - humor Alpine Bolivia Ski - Shuksan Scenic, Trail to Chaupi Orco

THAT looks like a very interesting route. Great job folks and thanks for the trip report.

You mean that the 21% of registered voter public who voted in the nutjobs in 2010 got what they wanted? And who's fault is that? Seriously - a proposed to solution to any of these crisis, any solution instead of the constant hand wringing.

Weird, 'cos the Dem's ran the whole show for 2 years, and got Jack Shit done. Oh, I ain't arguing against that, but the tea baggers really are taking lack of wherewithal to new heights.

Of course there is the minor problem in that the RF's own one house of Congress with a good complement of tea baggers who are pushing much of the non-compromise position. And guess what - they were voted in; so the public gets what they want again.

...... Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which found that the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: · Raised economic output by up to 3.5 percent. · Decreased the nation’s unemployment rate by up to 1.9 percentage points. · Increased the number of employed Americans by up to 3.5 million. · Increased jobs by up to 5 million than otherwise would have been created.

I don't know who Reason's Spokesman is these days, I think that position might have fallen under the budget ax, but the piece seemed reasonable to me. ditto

2-3 person tent. Black stuff sack with two small snow fluke anchors. Possibly from guided party. Picked it up and brought it over to the Paradise visitor's center.

I'm going to invest in these: http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/22/chinas-latest-craze-dyeing-pets-to-look-like-other-wild-animals/

Just stand still!!

I'd say on close examination that most folks would say Bernie is right on. The catch, of couse, is that he is one guy in the Senate and that any meaningful change is going come from that august body but by a demand from the public. Now, if you two can tell me how you are significantly contributing to this effort with time and energy I might take more seriously the endless stream of emergency posting. Otherwise, yea, you need to get out.

And I'd take the bet that nothing much will happen because folks, for whatever reason, don't want to get involved. Including resident hand wringers. Unless endless posting on the webs counts. Seriously. Get out in the hills and clear the cobwebs.

I'm betting, however, that you both accomplished the same regarding making the world a better place over the weekend. Who is in a better place is up for debate I suppose.

Trip: Mt. Rainer - Frying Pan Glacier Date: 6/26/2011 Trip Report: Went up to the Frying Pan with friends. A handful of skiers and some climbers were about. The skiing is great right now. The full northwest experience Better than the stairmaster! This is one of my favorite skis in the spring - a great moderate ski with some good steeper pitches for options towards the bottom. One note - watch out for those cracks around the rocks skier center towards the last steep slope. Only saw one slot way up high - 10k. Gear Notes: Lightweight gear is in order Approach Notes: Snow within 0.25 mi of trailhead but we hiked in and skied out.

Good to get out, eh? Frying Pan Glacier

Excellent! Good job Dad!

You don't, and that's the point. No shit. JayB illustrates a specific point A with a graph. Resident hand waver brings up Points C, D, M, Q, and R - w/o any reference to anything. Other than proving another hair fire it's vacant. Cheers - going home to pack up the skis for the weekend BC trip.

just dumping data as you usually do is meaningless. Your new plot like the previous ones isn't addressing the increasing disparity in access to higher education between low and high income families that was discussed. The advantage in educated population we had relative to other nations is not only long gone, but is likely bound to get worse now that the middle class is broke, can't borrow anymore (which as you know helped many over the last few decades to get a college education) and now that your types refuse to fund public education appropriately. I am not very familiar with trade schools but I suspect that a greater fraction of the pop in Europe goes to trade schools than in the US and I don't think trade schools are post high school edu in Europe. As I already said, trade schools can be a reasonable option if they lead to stable and living wage work, which is increasingly doubtful in the little paradise you guys created. Now, I'll admit I've been dealing with log-log data and pivot tables all day, so maybe I'm missing something in my ability to decipher a simple bar chart. But HTF did you get 1) income disparity/lack of access, 2)middle class well-being trend data, 3)inaccessabiliy to credit, 4)borrowing trends of students over the last decade as correlated to graduation, 5)proportion of trade school admissions in Europe vs. US, and 6)the trend of trade school graduates vs. inflation-based living wage. I mean, that is just brillant.

Questioning 1) if borrowing money for a particular college degree cuts it on a cost/benefit ratio, and 2)potentially considering a trade skill as an alternative- ...is akin to being regressive??