Aughts were a lost decade for U.S. economy, workers – Washington Post

The past decade was the worst for the U.S. economy in modern times, a sharp reversal from a long period of prosperity that is leading economists and policymakers to fundamentally rethink the underpinnings of the nation’s growth.

It was, according to a wide range of data, a lost decade for American workers. The decade began in a moment of triumphalism — there was a current of thought among economists in 1999 that recessions were a thing of the past. By the end, there were two, bookends to a debt-driven expansion that was neither robust nor sustainable.

There has been zero net job creation since December 1999. No previous decade going back to the 1940s had job growth of less than 20 percent. Economic output rose at its slowest rate of any decade since the 1930s as well.

Middle-income households made less in 2008, when adjusted for inflation, than they did in 1999 — and the number is sure to have declined further during a difficult 2009. The Aughts were the first decade of falling median incomes since figures were first compiled in the 1960s."

So.  What do you think of Reaganomics now?  How do you feel about Dubya and his view of economics now?  Wasn’t he just a great guy making sure that whatever money we had was made to flow back into the wallets of the very, very wealthy? 

This is outright theft. This is cause to shut down the Republican Party en masse.  They are out of their freaking minds and they did this to us, there is no doubt.  Those bastards and their rigid ideological nonsense that passed for mainstream economics literally has driven us into national poverty. This is a national disgrace.  And the GOP is to blame.  How does Ronald Reagan and his fantasy Reaganomics look to you now?

And unfortunately Obama is not making things any easier.  He seems to be clueless as to how this happened and how to get us out of it.  He might not be to blame but he has proven to be very little help.  The Democrats may not have caused this but they seem helpless in the face of the mountain of financial disaster.  How in the hell did we elect these clowns on both sides of the aisle?

And yet, we are waging something like four or maybe even five wars within the Muslim world and they are very, very expensive. They cost billions of dollars a week in toto.  And once again, they make oligarchs rich and kill working class kids in uniform. And that is the return on our investment?

Have you had enough yet?  Are you ready to listen to reason?

We need pragmatic, non-ideological, workable, utilitarian government in this country and we need it now.  Before we all wind up eating dog food for dinner because it is all we can afford.

Do you see now why rigid ideology in American politics when it is applied to Plebian lives and livlihoods is so freaking dangerous?  The ringleaders of this fiasco need to be sitting in prison. 

Just about every other politician in the Texas GOP that pushed that idiot Dubya upon us needs to be sitting in jail.  Thanks Texas.  You really helped us.  You sent that moron into the national spotlight as a viable presidential candidate and you were 100% behind him knowing full well he is an idiot.  Look at his legacy.  He accomplished something that the Soviet Union could never do.  He ruined our economy.

Thanks a bunch cowboys.  We owe you one.

CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)