A Affordable America

[Technosoul]

Many of our poltical canadates are hearing from working people who still cannot afford to live in America. That is to say that the cost of living is so high that their low wages cannot cover expendatures from payday to payday.

And although large companies that make big profits could afford to higher wages we have some companies that also have budget problems and much lower margins of profit. And paying higher wages to their employees would bankrupt them or prevent them from investing in making their company larger.

Many middle-class people are now finding out they must downsize to lower paying jobs due to lay offs and downsizing of the work force. Forced to loose their house and other good credit in the process.

So how can we get back to an affordable America for those people in low income brackets? Who's numbers are growing as jobs are outsourced and so forth.

By raising the minimum wage? by offering tax breaks to big companies that pay more in wages? By forcing some companies to sell their product or service at prices that are affordable for everyone working? (Re: unility company, gas station, medial companies, food outlets, etc.)

Or by doing nothing and allowing the "free market" to balance out in a natural way?

It is not always the case that we need more jobs, but rather, jobs that pay a living wage.

Our stores and car lots are full of products for people to buy, but if they cannot afford to do so then what will happen to America as the leading consumer nation?

We need a magical cure or some real intelligent way to reverse this trend and to make America affordable. And that might mean a major overhaul from where things are now heading.

Care to make any comments?

[Clarence]

we need to innovate a vital export or two. If we're the world's leader in something invaluable, we have something to work with. Right now all we do is trade dollars for donuts. or something. Actually we borrow money to do it. Everyday we sell ourselves out a little more.

[Technosoul]

Quote by: Clarence we need to innovate a vital export or two. If we're the world's leader in something invaluable, we have something to work with. Right now all we do is trade dollars for donuts. or something. Actually we borrow money to do it. Everyday we sell ourselves out a little more.

Our big export product right now is perhaps music and movies, weapons and related military items. Hillary wants us to create the technology for clean burning coal which "copyrighted" knowledge could be sold or shared with China and other countries. Or course we export McDonalds and so forth. Cigarettes are still a popular export item.

But how is creating a couple of vital exports going to create lots of jobs or how will it bring down the cost of living in America?

[Domino]

Personally, I like the idea of having far more worker-owned factories. I've never heard of one that didn't excel They're not hampered by the profit-growth requirements of large, publicly-traded corporations. Instead, they can just do what they would have done, anyway, charge a reasonable profit rather than the highest the market will bear, and every employee receives a most excellent living. I believe the worker-owned model could easily be extended to virtually any other business.

Of course, it'll help when 3d printers are well-developed, affordable, and wide-spread, which isn't that far away. We can just stop importing all those small manufactured goods from China, etc., and instead print out your plastic flags and Hot Wheels from your desktop. With an effective investment in the new technology, we could render entire sectors of the economy obsolete, freeing up vast amounts of wealth and resources to be applied toward whatever our needs may be.

[Clarence]

Quote by: Technosoul But how is creating a couple of vital exports going to create lots of jobs or how will it bring down the cost of living in America?

First of all, the cost of living in America is comparatively low to nearly every country in the world. Second of all...how could increased revenue hurt our situation? Money in our pockets is always good. Plus technology is leverage.