This is exactly what the problem is in this country.  As Mr. Smith so eloquently wrote, we've been made to believe we shouldn't expect too much.  If we can't pull ourselves up by our bootstraps (how 19th century is that?) we don't deserve anything more than what we already have.  We don't work hard enough, pray hard enough, think hard enough.  We don't know how to do it, but there are people who do and we should be grateful for their cleverness.

We celebrate greed in everybody and everything except in our own lives.  We reject it because we've been conditioned to reject it.  The expectation of high wages is pure greed--not something the average worker should be striving for, since higher wages means less company profit and company profit is supposed to help everyone.

We celebrate volunteerism and expect that people who are passionate about a cause should be willing to work for nothing to keep it going.  We should be willing to support it monetarily, even though the heads of certain organizations (read Red Cross) are paid salaries in the six figures.

Ordinary people buy into this to an astonishing degree, even preferring now to give up the safety and solidarity of a union because they've been led to believe that all unions are greedy and corrupt and bad for free-thinking workers.

They've willingly played into the hands of the capitalists, who have been waiting for this since the very idea of capitalism began.  In some ways, the American success story has been fulfilled.  Just not by us.  We have now become the peons, the serfs, the servants, and the capitalists are getting the society they've poured their hearts, souls and money into owning.

I suspect we've given up too much, too easily.  They want more from us and fully expect to get it.  Even something like a Romney defeat hasn't slowed them down.  If anything, it only makes them fight harder.

The fact that something as ludicrous as "shared sacrifice" is making the rounds without being laughed out of existence says something about how inured we are to their takeover methods.

The thought of how easily this has been accomplished is terrifying.  Even with the recent election, with hints that the populist movement might have come through, nothing can really change until and unless workers understand the need to become masters of their own fate.

I don't see any signs of that happening.

The GOP is trying to complete the biggest bait and switch in history. Hopefully the Democrats won't abide.

Reagan/Greenspan raised SS payroll taxes on workers wages, and cut taxes on the wealthy and investors. The bait was 'let's save SS' with a SS surplus, the Trust Fund, which conveniently helped fund the deficit from the upper end tax cuts. The switch is they now deny the $2 1/2 trillion Trust Fund exists, ergo, Social Security has to be cut......they won't raise income taxes at the upper end to monetize the Trust Fund.

Face facts, Obama is going to sell us out. I'm just waiting to see how much.

I voted for Obama because of the Supreme Court and because the democrats will screw us a little slower and a little less then the republicans. But in the end the democrats will sell us out too. Let's see if I'm wrong.

Was just listening to a caller on Tom Sullivan's show who raised stagnant middle incomes with Tom.  His response was, "Oh, I know!"  That was pretty much it.

Sharpton's response sounds completely on point.  Americans workers keep getting more productive without getting a raise.  Until that changes, that is their sacrifice.

In the meantime, Obama needs to ride off the fiscal curb.  Let all the cuts expire, pass cuts for the middle class in the Senate and give the ball to the House.  The wealthy elites in this country have succeeded in constraining our response to this economic depression by way of breathless debt demagoguery.  Time to pay up.