Posted on 02/06/2008 2:51:01 AM PST by LowCountryJoe
To hear the Lou Dobbses and Bill O'Reillys of the world--not to mention politicians ranging from Ron Paul to Hillary Clinton--the middle class of America (however you define that term) has never had it so tough. Between credit squeezes, out-of-control immigration, rising costs of education and health care and everything else, it's all darkness out there for those of us who are neither millionaires nor welfare cases, right?
In "Living Large," Drew Carey and reason.tv examine the plight of the American middle class. What do they find?
http://reason.tv/video/show/61.html
Things were just so much better when the wife stayed at home and washed clothes by hand in a 1000 sq. ft. house with no air-conditioning, and all she had to worry about was whether the kids came down with polio.
Both adults working? But how can that be since all of our jobs have been lost to slave labor?
Yep, and the economic data really teases out all the unhealthiness.
Things were just so much better when the wife stayed at home and washed clothes by hand in a 1000 sq. ft. house with no air-conditioning, and all she had to worry about was whether the kids came down with polio.You would have been seriously poor in the '60s to not have air conditioning and hand wash clothes. We're talking about the middle class here snoogums, not the unwashed masses.
Both adults working? But how can that be since all of our jobs have been lost to slave labor?Middle class jobs haven't declined *that* much. At least compared to manufacturing(as an aside, been to detroit lately? *shiver*). What they have become is unstable and managers have started to expect Japanese working hours(quick poll, how many people here are 7/11's? 7 am to work, 11pm home).
Re: “Middle class” families *do* have more money these days. But that comes from households where both adults work.
Two points:
1) That makes for an apples to oranges comparison.
2) Most households would NOT have two inclomes if they were not needed.
Many people on FR are delusional if they they think everything is rosy for the vast portion of people in the USA. Families are hurting.....and I am sure this would be the daily mantra here if a “D” was in office instead of an “R”.
Ding ding ding. You talk sense my friend.
Agree. But, I think one has to go back to the 60’s (40 to 50 yr’s ago) to start with the root cause. Beginning in the 60’s, a sense of entitlement began to foment within our youth that they should be granted all the creature comforts of life, regardless of ability to afford them. This is the era when the culture of purchasing by credit began. During this era Visa and MC cards literally passed out unsolicited. Many people used them without even knowing that their purchases must eventually be paid for. And, sadly, this culture has grown and grown. Now, people, regardless of their ability to pay, finance via sub-prime mortgages homes they can not afford, lease cars that they are upside down on from the get go. Buy on credit all sorts of toys such as big screen tv’s, bass boats, etc. And, while loading up on all of these items, never bother to secure medical and dental coverage for themselves or their family. Naturally, they leave these less desirable obligations to be paid by others. And so it goes...
One thing we weren’t was WASTEFUL OR IN EXTREME DEBT. (unlike most of us today)
Did you watch the full video?
Also, notice where they went. Castaic lake in LA county. Not Ohio, or central Illinois or Tennessee. Or, anywhere else where the real world is.
Ketsu is spot on. Real income levels are falling for the middle class and they are just working harder (same thing occurs with idiotic physicians who work harder the less you pay them). Meanwhile wealth is being super concentrated in financial services and anyone who recieves compensation denominated by the financial services industry. Why?? Currency confiscation and real wealth redestribution to financial service industry by the unconstitutional chief agent of impoversation - The Federal Reserve Board (est. 1913 by the commie Woodrow Wilson at the behest of his J.P. Morgan).
Reality is two incomes have become necessary BECAUSE people want more and live high but scale back living high and believe it or not a family can live on one decent income.
It’s called “Acting your wage” and living within your means.
As the video said, “It’s not the cost of living, it’s the cost of living high.”
How dare Drew Carey support his argument! Where’s Pat Buchanan? Where’s the Fairness Doctrine?
One of the central assumptions to the “incomes are stagnating” argument is the denial of income mobility. The reality is that folks are moving from the middle class into the high class, and being replaced by folks moving from the low class in to the middle class . . . creating the illusion of stagnation.
You posted: You would have been seriously poor in the ‘60s to not have air conditioning and hand wash clothes. We’re talking about the middle class here snoogums, not the unwashed masses.
***
I don’t know how “seriously” we were poor in the 60’s, but we didn’t have air conditioning until the mid 70s, and that was a window unit that cooled the bottom floor of the house we lived in. My mother did do some hand washing of clothes in the 60’s, or else went to the laundrymat. We were lower middle class, or maybe upper lower class, I guess.
There are very few poor in this country, and perhaps none, based on world-wide standards. If the measure is in comparison with the well-to-do, there will always be poor.
I didn’t feel like spending the morning looking up statistics about a/c, but the last time I did (maybe a year or so ago), I think I remember that a/c crossed the 50% (of homes) threshold during the 60’s. In other words, it was still considered a luxury during that period.
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