[Magdalen] Trump, education and children

[Charles Wohlers]

Both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are benefitting from the same problem - 
rising inequality in the US. A very few people are getting quite wealthy 
while the great majority are going nowhere. Bernie's solution is more 
thoughtful and reasonable - make the US more of a welfare state, like most 
Western European democracies. It's unfortunately not all that practical 
under today's political realities.

Trump, OTOH, is tapping in to a lot of anger - his supporters, instead of 
coming up with reasonable solutions to problems, simply lash out at any 
available target. The targets, however, are never the right one - big 
corporations and the people who run them. There's a lead article in last 
week's Economist which examines the excessive profits of American companies. 
Under normal conditions, greater profits would lead to lower prices, as 
competition increases. But, "Profits have risen in most rich countries over 
the past ten years but the increase has been biggest for American firms. 
Coupled with an increasing concentration of ownership, this means the fruits 
of economic growth are being hoarded. This is probably part of the reason 
that two-thirds of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, have come 
to believe that the economy “unfairly favours powerful interests”, according 
to polling by Pew, a research outfit. It means that when Hillary Clinton and 
Bernie Sanders, the Democratic contenders for president, say that the 
economy is “rigged”, they have a point." I urge you to read it, to see where 
Trump's support arises from:
http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21695385-profits-are-too-high-america-needs-giant-dose-competition-too-much-good-thing 
(economist.com, next to last story).


Chad Wohlers
Woodbury, VT USA
chadwohl at satucket.com