Trouble ahead for the American middle class

Free Republic | may 16, 2006 | jim shirreffs

[jpsb]

My thoughts after hearing the Presidents last night.

[jpsb]

Dyslexia strikes again, could you fix the title please?

[Proud_USA_Republican]

well the immigration bill they are pushing would have 100 million immigrants come to the US over the next 20 years.

If thats not a middle class buster, I don't know what is.

[WhiteGuy]

Very thoughtful.

[jpsb]

"If thats not a middle class buster, I don't know what is. "

It will be the final nail in coffin.

[2banana]

You have not seen "super wealthy" until you research the robber barons of the 19th and 20th century. Some actually bailed out the US Treasury.

As for the rest of your socialist drivel - economic opportunity and personal freedom is what drove the middle class to prosper in America. Adding socialist programs only destroys the middle class.

[oblomov]

Specifically what anti-trust, labor, and trade laws are being ignored?

[A. Pole]

Bump

[Clemenza]

More populist idiocy (populism being the socialism of the truly braindead).

1. The middle class grew FASTER at the turn of the 19th Century (the era when you say "the rich" were all powerful) then they ever did before or since.

2. The real reason the federal income tax was passed was because the Southrons felt that the Yankees had "too much money." How they now regret this!

3. The era of "high payin' factory jobs" only lasted from the end of WWII (when management had no choice but to buy labor peace) until the early 1970s, and was a phenomomenon limited to the upper midwest and northeast. Sorry if you can no longer get a middle class salary just for "showing up" to polish screws!

You obviously learned history from McLiberal textbooks. Read Hayek work on the industrial revolution for a change! If you still feel as you do, there is a place for you in the Democratic Party with other class warriors and folks jealous of others success.

[oblomov]

JP Morgan bailed out the NYSE, not the US treasury.

[Centurion2000]

Much as I hate to admit it, I think you are on to something.

There's only one reason rich people can logically vote democrat and it's not about compassion for the poor. It's because they've already protected their money and are bent on controlling the rich.

Why some middle class people support the democrats? Because they only think they are in that particular 'class' or are swallowing the propaganda of destructive altruism.

[Lunatic Fringe]

I'm sorry, but I completely diagree with your premise that the rich want to break the middle class.

It is the middle class that makes the wealthy "super rich". Without our buying power, they have no profits. Sounds like sour grapes to me.

[jpsb]

via merges, buyouts etc. Only a hand full of companies now "compete" in many industries. Take the oil industry as an example. Other example would be PC operating systems. Another example might be telecomminication, another example might be naval ship building. Another example might be entertainment, another examble might be broadcasting. etc, etc, etc,

[jpsb]

Please name a society other then the usa had a majority population of middle class citizens as opposed to working poor.

[2banana]

JP Morgan bailed out the NYSE, not the US treasury.

I think you are right but the point is the same - not even Bill Gates (the richest man in America) could bail out the NYSE today...

[agere_contra]

Ever wonder why the wealth generating machines of the usa (manufacturing) are being moved overseas?

There's no conspiracy - it's just simple market forces. Some people abroad make things cheaper than seems to be possible in the West. Net result: the West gets to buy neat stuff cheaper from Indians, Koreans and Chinese-based producers rather than buy expensive stuff from feather-bedded/subsidised internal producers.

[pabianice]

[thejokker]

explain why the ratio of ceo salaries to hourly workers has exploded over the last thirty years? the "super rich" has not been re-investing their wealth in america and americans. dr samual huntington explores the theme of the super rich behaving as globalists (vs nationalists) in his latest book: "who are we".

[mc6809e]

Uhg. Seems like class-warfare crap.

My spin:

The middle class is being eaten from below as they compete with the lower classes for goods and services paid for by Uncle Sucker.

And since they're paying the taxes to do this, they're just in a race against themselves.

As far as the loss of manufacturing goes, the lower-wage theory is mostly crap. It's very expensive to move resources and products 10,000 miles across the ocean and that negates many wage differences.

No. Manufacturing is being lost because American workers are simply too much trouble.

Workers overseas are willing and often just as able as American workers.

Oh, and they don't destroy your business through organized labor gouging. GM is learning that lesson.

[Spirited]

I can recall when they did the same thing in England.

Breaking the middle class is essential to making us into a third world country for the gain of socialism.