Where is the US economy headed?

It appears to me that these top ten countries have a common denominator, in that there is a large homogenous citizenship, even though there may be a percentage of newer citizens in the country. That being the case, there is less resentment to have higher taxes that offer social programs to everyone, since the taxpayer may think of a sizable portion of the country as just one big extended family. At this point in history, the U.S.A. might not be so lucky, since I would not necessarily want to pay higher taxes when this country is so lax at letting in illegal aliens, or for that matter the great diversity of immigrants that would benefit from my tax dollar. Call it my "alienation," but I think that may be the standard attitude of many a citizen, even though we all try to "play nice" and give strangers the time of day when asked.

I may be more candid than the average person?

Noinsense ! Taxation doesn't "funnel wealth" to people - it takes it, and funnels it to government.

The decline in our industrial base started in earnest about 36 years ago. The situation of the middle class in the 1970s & 1980s was pretty good (except for the disastrous Democrat interegnum under the hapless & inept Jimmy Carter). Moreover the tax adjustments which you use as a foil weren't nearly large enough to even come close to explaining the phenomenon in question. Finally you left out the earned income tax credit - effectively a negative tax that did funnel money direct to low wage earners. That too was part od the new "system of taxation".

That argument doesn't fly, because the US is made up of immigrants, and we are the world's economic super power. The reasons? We attract the smartest and brightest to work in our high tech and biotech industries where most of the world's economy grows.

True, but Obama is making the US less attractive to the smartest and brightest to work in our high tech and biotech industries.

It was a chaotic day in the economy today. The Dow was down 1.5% with the broader markets down slightly more. Oil fell by more then 4% with futures suggesting further drops.
There was some mixed news out in the U.S. on the economic front but the big influence was the public protests in Greece, where anti-government demonstrations were huge. I was in Greece during some earlier events there years ago. It was scary but pales to what we saw today. The government will probably fail. 40% of the people between 18 - 30 are unemployed.
The dollar rose sharply against the euro, which accounted for the fall in oil prices.
Meanwhile, there is a protest in Britain scheduled for the end of the month amongst professionals that may involve 750K people.
I have a friend of a friend who lives much of the time in China. Her job precludes her from chatting about things there but sometimes I will get a link tossed over my transom.
"Official" inflation numbers show April (or May) was up 5.5% over the same month last year. The numbers for previous months year to year have been increasing little by little.
Only when you get deep into the analysis do you get the news that (a) the inflation for food is probably much higher and (b) there has been civil unrest in some outlying areas that is going unnoticed.

Does anyone here follow China?

It's been a chaotic economy for the last 28 months.

Obama’s Economic Policies are Making Americans Miserable

How is that “hope and change” working for you so far?

Ask the desperate mother of three children who is selling a handwritten letter from Obama in order to avoid eviction. An avid Obama supporter and active campaign volunteer during Obama’s 2008 Presidential run, things aren’t going so well for her and her family these days.

Regarding the sale of the letter, she says 'I am just a little bit weary of the promises that (Obama) has made. I really haven't been seeing any kind of changes that affect me directly.”

“We need the money so we can move into something that's compatible with the kids and to help us out. We are really, really struggling. It's hard for us right now.”

I really do trust that I'm making the right decision.

To refresh your memory, the president's standing in terms of handling the economy is not favorable in the public's eye.

On Meet the Press on June 12, 2011, David Gregory asked Debbie Wasserman Shultz, the Democratic National Committee chair, this question; Why should Americans trust Democratic governance right now on the economy , and particularly the president's?

Shultz replied, “Because we were able to, under President Obama's leadership , turn this economy around.”

Shultz’s comment was an inelegant description of the horrific economy that is making the lives of many Americans absolutely miserable. If anything about the economy is turning, it is the fact that the economy is turning from bad to worse. The poor, the seniors, the middle class and the minorities are getting slammed hard by Obama's economy.

Here are a few recent economic reports that show just how deceptively wrong Shultz was when she made that statement on Meet the Press.

1. Twenty eight months after Congress passed President Obama’s signature economic stimulus law, and nearly one year after he declared the summer of 2010 to be “Recovery Summer,” 1.9 million fewer people are employed.

2. President Obama, who had promised Americans that passing the Stimulus package would pay immediate benefits because the government had “shovel ready” jobs waiting for funding has now backed off from that promise. This week the President quipped; 'Shovel-Ready Was Not as Shovel-Ready as We Expected.” In other words, they made up the story to promote passage of the Stimulus package. The term shovel ready was a bogus promotional gimick all along.

I follow China - more or less, because of the effect they have on the world's economy.

I'm also curious about how the Chinese people are reacting to the Middle East uprising against their governments.

Obama wants the US economy to be like the economy in China... this must be avoided.

Twenty eight months after Congress passed President Obama’s signature economic stimulus law, and nearly one year after he declared the summer of 2010 to be “Recovery Summer,” 1.9 million fewer people are employed.

President Obama, who had promised Americans that passing the Stimulus package would pay immediate benefits because the government had “shovel ready” jobs waiting for funding has now backed off from that promise. This week the President quipped; 'Shovel-Ready Was Not as Shovel-Ready as We Expected.” In other words, they made up the story to promote passage of the Stimulus package. The term shovel ready was a bogus promotional gimick all along.

I heard a snippet of a story this morning about North Korean workers in Libya. NK and Libya have had close ties for years and there are thousands of NK laborers there. And they are stuck there.
Other countries have pulled people out but NK doesn't want, according to the story I heard, people coming home and talking about the concept of people protesting against a central government.

According to a web site, there are only 200 NK in Libya, and the NK government told them not to return.

There are 13,000 South Koreans working in the Middle East.

I stand corrected, C.I., on the number of North Koreans. I was wrong.

The truth about the American economy

The double-dip threat returns

From the same author:

Why the Republican War on Workers' Rights Undermines the American Economy

Reich is a paid hack of organized labor. He sits on their "Economic Advisory Council along with all the heads of the major unions and gets a very large salary from them.