{"id":707675,"date":"2018-05-20T23:49:15","date_gmt":"2018-05-20T23:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=707675"},"modified":"2018-05-20T23:49:15","modified_gmt":"2018-05-20T23:49:15","slug":"als-best-reads-provided-by-friends-sun-20-may-2018-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=707675","title":{"rendered":"Al&#8217;s best reads provided by friends. &#8211; Sun 20 May, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-style:italic;font-size:16px\">By  <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kereport.com\/2018\/05\/20\/surprised-agree-article-bit-hope-elimination\/\">Big Al<\/a><\/span>  <\/p>\n<div class=\"ftpimagefix\" style=\"float:left\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kereport.com\/2018\/05\/20\/surprised-agree-article-bit-hope-elimination\/\"><\/a><\/div>\n<p>I would be surprised if we did not all agree that this article provides a bit of hope for an elimination of what we are all against.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<nav role=\"navigation\">Big Al says:\u201dThis is  an optimistic view on America provided by my friend <strong>Mike Saran<\/strong>. We normally don&#8217;t agree on political issues but I have found that by listening instead of arguing I do, at times, learn. This article is the first in what I will call \u201cAl&#8217;s best reads suggested by  friends.\u201d With all the great material that <strong>Tim Howe<\/strong> has provided I realized that I have to give credit where credit is due!<br \/>\n<\/nav>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h1>How Baby Boomers Broke America<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>Ross MacDonald for TIME<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>By <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/time.com\/author\/steven-brill\/\">STEVEN BRILL<\/a><\/p>\n<div>May 17, 2018<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>IDEAS<\/div>\n<div>Brill, the author of <em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/1524731633\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=tmtailspinstevenbrill-20&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=1524731633&amp;linkId=8a6b700f650c049463efec6f99d75e91\">Tailspin<\/a><\/em>, is the founder of Court TV and the American Lawyer<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>ONE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Lately, most Americans, regardless of their political leanings, have been asking themselves some version of the same question: How did we get here? How did the world&#8217;s greatest democracy and economy become a land of crumbling roads, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/time.com\/money\/5207987\/income-inequality-every-state\/\">galloping income inequality,<\/a> bitter polarization and dysfunctional government?<\/p>\n<p>As I tried to find the answer over the past two years, I discovered a recurring irony. About five decades ago, the core values that make America great began to bring America down. The First Amendment became a tool for the wealthy to put a thumb on the scales of democracy. America&#8217;s rightly celebrated dedication to due process was used as an instrument to block government from enforcing job-safety rules, holding corporate criminals accountable and otherwise protecting the unprotected. Election reforms meant to enhance democracy wound up undercutting democracy. Ingenious financial and legal engineering turned our economy from an engine of long-term growth and shared prosperity into a casino with only a few big winners.<\/p>\n<p>These distinctly American ideas became the often unintended instruments for splitting the country into two classes: the protected and the unprotected. The protected overmatched, overran and paralyzed the government. The unprotected were left even further behind. And in many cases, the work was done by a generation of smart, hungry strivers who benefited from one of the most American values of all: meritocracy.<\/p>\n<p>This is not to say that all is rotten in the United States. There are more opportunities available today for women, nonwhites and other minorities than ever. There are miracles happening daily in the nation&#8217;s laboratories, on the campuses of its world-class colleges and universities, in the offices of companies creating software for robots and medical diagnostics, in concert halls and on Broadway stages, and at joyous ceremonies swearing in proud new citizens.<\/p>\n<p>Yet key measures of the nation&#8217;s public engagement, satisfaction and confidence \u2013 voter turnout, knowledge of public-policy issues, faith that the next generation will fare better than the current one, and respect for basic institutions, especially the government \u2013 are far below what they were 50 years ago, and in many cases have reached near historic lows.<\/p>\n<p>It is difficult to argue that the cynicism is misplaced. From matters small \u2013 there are an average of 657 water-main breaks a day, for example \u2013 to large, it is clear that the country has gone into a tailspin over the last half-century, when John F. Kennedy&#8217;s New Frontier was about seizing the future, not trying to survive the present.<\/p>\n<p>For too many, the present is hard enough. Income inequality has soared: inflation-adjusted middle-class wages have been nearly frozen for the last four decades, while earnings of the top 1% have nearly tripled. The <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/time.com\/3644182\/us-economic-recovery\/\">recovery from the crash of 2008<\/a> \u2013 which saw banks and bankers bailed out while millions lost their homes, savings and jobs \u2013 was reserved almost exclusively for the wealthiest. Their incomes in the three years following the crash went up by nearly a third, while the bottom 99% saw an uptick of less than half of 1%. Only a democracy and an economy that has discarded its basic mission of holding the community together, or failed at it, would produce those results.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div role=\"region\">\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\" role=\"group\"><button title=\"Pause\" type=\"button\"><span>Pause<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<div title=\"Mute\" role=\"button\">\n<div>\n<div>\n<div role=\"slider\">\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>Mute<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><span>Current Time<\/span>0:01<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\/<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><span>Duration Time<\/span>1:31<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div role=\"slider\">\n<div><span>Loaded: 0%<\/span><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><span>Progress: 0%<\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><button title=\"Share\" type=\"button\"><span>Share<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<div title=\"Captions\" role=\"menuitem\"><span>Captions<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><button title=\"Fullscreen\" type=\"button\"><span>Fullscreen<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\u00d7<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>YOU MIGHT LIKE<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><span>TOP 5 TONY NOMINATED SHOWS<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Meanwhile, the celebrated American economic-mobility engine is sputtering. For adults in their 30s, the chance of earning more than their parents dropped to 50% from 90% just two generations earlier. The American middle class, once an aspirational model for the world, is no longer the world&#8217;s richest.<\/p>\n<p>Most Americans with average incomes have been left to fend for themselves, often at jobs where automation, outsourcing, the decline of union protection and the boss&#8217;s obsession with squeezing out every penny of short-term profit have eroded any sense of security. In 2017, household debt had grown higher than the peak reached in 2008 before the crash, with student and automobile loans staking growing claims on family paychecks.<\/p>\n<p>Although the U.S. remains the world&#8217;s richest country, it has the third-highest poverty rate among the 35 nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), behind only Turkey and Israel. Nearly 1 in 5 American children lives in a household that the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/time.com\/3857672\/food-insecurity-poverty\/\">government classifies as \u201cfood insecure,\u201d<\/a> meaning they are without \u201caccess to enough food for active, healthy living.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Beyond that, too few basic services seem to work as they should. America&#8217;s airports are an embarrassment, and a modern air-traffic control system is more than 25 years behind its original schedule. The power grid, roads and rails are crumbling, pushing the U.S. far down international rankings for infrastructure quality. Despite spending more on health <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kereport.com\/2018\/05\/20\/surprised-agree-article-bit-hope-elimination\/\" target=\"_blank\" id=\"rssmi_more\"> &#8230;read more<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>From:: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kereport.com\/2018\/05\/20\/surprised-agree-article-bit-hope-elimination\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Al's best reads provided by friends. - Sun 20 May, 2018\">The Korelin Economic Report<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Big Al I would be surprised if we did not all agree that this article provides a bit of hope for an elimination of what we are all against. Big Al says:\u201dThis is an optimistic view on America provided by my friend Mike Saran. We normally don&#8217;t agree on political issues but I have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[362],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707675"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=707675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707675\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=707675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=707675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=707675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}