An Economy Based on Thin Air

The Republican's favorite talking point is that, under a Republican administration, Americans of all economic stripes can expect to do well and advance into retirement age with a nice, sensible nest egg. All the middle class has to do is sit back and enjoy the benefits of financial policies that are, at base, designed to benefit rich people, and they will bathe in a shower of trickling down financial benefit, jumping into old age with the safety and security of a bank account made more robust by good financial times and solid, solvent programs like Medicare and Social Security (never mind that these are really socialist-style programs that were put in place by Democrats and would be condemned by Republicans if they thought they could get away with it).

The truth, in 2019, heading into a presidential election year, is beginning to look a little different. For one thing, despite the Republican insistence that everyone is doing just fine, that the economy is soaring and everyone is living the life they dreamed of, the reality for most in the middle class is very different. At the bottom of the economic ladder, we find a homelessness crisis unlike any in the history of the United States. In one city alone, Los Angeles, there are nearly 60,000 men, women and children living in tents or on the street, unable to afford rent in a city that was once famous for affordable housing.

While it's true that Trump has continued the economic policies that Obama set in motion so that the numbers are still positive (as of this writing, 2019, unemployment is at a record low) the fact is that wages have not kept up with expenses and most people who aren't wealthy or super-wealthy are struggling to make their monthly payments. Republicans don't address THAT side of the economy because it puts their rosy outlook on the grill. (38.)

And what of those “socialist” policies that Americans, including Republicans, look forward to collecting in old age – Medicare and Social Security. Both programs have been under threat for some years; there is simply not enough money in the treasury to guarantee that these programs will remain solvent into the future, and when Republicans repudiate their own policy of lowering the national debt (Republicans used to wave this issue at Democrats on a regular basis) they are putting these programs into more jeopardy. As the national debt rises and as taxes are lowered by trillions of wealthy dollars, there may not be enough money to fund these necessary programs in the years to come.

Wonder why more and more senior citizens are straying from the “safety” of Republican economics?