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The middle class is certainly not a lie. Membership is not automatic though, one needs to work and accumulate wealth to rise in the American version of the middle class. It is not guaranteed either. You don't have a birthright to class membership in the USA. Even the upper class get catch the elevator down. Where I live there are all classes and I agree the middle class is under stress right now. Easy credit is not a new thing, people have been struggling with that for generations. Leverage is a great tool, but it can be like a drug. Easy to abuse for the last 10 years, and now those that did are in trouble.
One thing I didn't see mentioned in this thread that helped create America's vast wealth and middle class was the homestead acts of the 19th century that virtually gave away huge chunks of land to anyone that would work it and improve it. That free land was the key, as in europe the landowning class is very small and exclusive. As the immigrants filled these empty spaces, all sorts of good things happened, and left behind the building blocks for a huge middle class. Towns grews, the industrial revolution came along and the wealth increased exponentially.
The middle class grew to enormous size, and is still huge.
Once we get through this pain and get through the de-leveraging we will trive again. It's gonna be ugly for a while, though. And as someone mentioned above, plenty of spots in this country are still thriving and doing well(the low cost places that never had a bubble in real estate).
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