Showing the system is rigged
By Paul Waldman
September 4 at 1:34 PM
... as a candidate, Trump correctly identified the anger and disappointment so many people feel about the contemporary U.S. economy, where the vast bulk of the benefits goes to those who are already wealthy and millions struggle to get by. The system, he told them, was “rigged” by those who already have wealth and power, and they believed him because of what they saw in their own lives and communities.
As Trump went around the country in 2016, he promised to turn back the clock to the days when factories were humming and factory towns were growing — and said he’d bring back all the coal jobs to boot. It was a cynical hoax, because the economy of the 1950s and 1960s for which he had such praise was made possible not only by a technological era that is far behind us, but by U.S. labor unions — unions that are under relentless assault from Trump’s party. Those old-fashioned factory jobs, where you could start without much in the way of education or experience and earn good wages and strong benefits, negotiated for you by the union, are largely gone. If you can find a manufacturing job today, chances are you won’t be represented by a union, and your employer will say, "This is what you’ll get. Take it or leave it" ...
And now we get to the centerpiece of the Trump administration economic plan: A gigantic tax cut for the wealthy and corporations! Of course. On one hand, Trump keeps saying that the economy is doing spectacularly, regularly issuing triumphant tweets about the latest stock market high and saying things like "I’ve created over a million jobs since I’m president." On the other hand, he says that we absolutely must save the economy, and only this tax cut can do the job.
It’s the same argument that Republicans always make, and it’s just as false as it was the last time we tried it, in the George W. Bush years. So Trump, populist hero, has a message for workers: The only help you’ll get from me is whatever trickles down after I give a big fat check to your boss’ boss, Wall Street bankers and wealthy heirs like my own kids. Did I tell you that the system is rigged? Oh, you bet it is.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/09/04/trump-told-workers-that-the-system-is-rigged-now-hes-showing-them-just-how-much/?utm_term=.f5426d3b961a
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So true!