Is the middle class a false reality?
 

What if the middle class is a lie? What if it only exists due to borrowed money and the note is now due?

Thinking of overpaid autoworkers (both working and retired), too easily accessed credit (something the middle class can not exist without), etc. etc. All the things we are seeing fail these days because they don't really work.

Is not the middle class a relatively new creation? Perhaps it is not a natural state and is entirely dependant on gov't intervention and other groups bucking true capitalism.

Just a thought.

snow tires

False premise.

If the middle class falters, the economy goes into depression. It happened back then. It can happen again.

Do you not know any plumbers, factory workers, carpenters, etc?

EVERYONE is middle class in this country. The whole concept is a lie.

Does that make me white trash?

Does surfs, and vassels count?

Which is a lie, my theory or the concept of a middle class?

Factory workers where i live (chicken country) don't get paid well at all. Can't say that i know a lot of comfortable plumbers or carpenters. I did recently meet a very well off sheet metal guy but he was union.

Maybe where you live is too expensive? I work at an aircraft company, the factory worker's base pay is around $15/hr, maxing out at about $35/hr. A good licensed plumber, pipefitter, HVAC guy, carpenter, etc can easily make $20-$30/hr. Obviously they do even better if they are self-employed. On these wages in KS, you can easily buy a nice house, have nice things, and raise a family.

Same here in Houston. A 2500 sq ft house on the edge, can be had for $100K.

Well, his profile says Maryland, so yeah; where he lives is too expensive.

So what do you call it when everyone is broke?

Homeless

Kinda ironic that we have this glut of housing but people are losing their homes.

In Days of yore there was only two class

Royalty

and

Peasant.

Middle class are just peasant that wants to be closer to Royalty.

Marylanders.

Since the Middle Ages there has been a Middle Class. They are the store owners, the trades man, the importers exporter and the Bankers (in the middle ages one could NOT be a Christian and lend money for interest, therefore only the Jews were bankers in Europe).

In America one could become Middle Class and be an unskilled facotry worker (Unionized) starting in the 1950's. After WW2 the USA was the only industrialized nation in the world that was unscratched by the war, and they had to buy form us or do without (tractors, heavy equipment) So our labour could charge a premium. Before WW2 one was just working class. The Middle Class in America before WW1 were the tradesman, MD's Lawyers, store owners, sm factory owners..much smaller.

Going forward we are going to return to a more segmented society. eg a smaller true middle class. The dream of a large inclusive Middle Class, was doomed from the begining since the Marshall Plan in 1948 was conceived to rebuild our competitors industrail capacity. It took the USA rougly 40 years (1968) to squander by living large the money we made during and right after WW2.


We have become a SUBPRIME NATION.

WOW over here 100K will get you a cover parking space for your car.

Heh heh. A couple years ago, when I was living in Boston, that's about how much a parking space would go for in the Back Bay. Usually uncovered, no less.

I'm certainly not upper class, and I've never been on Jerry Springer...so I reckon I'm somewhere "smack dab in the middle" :).