[FITZ]

Third world values are the desire for a two class society ---the wealthy and the very poor. That seems to be where we are headed by increasing illiteracy rates and having a servant class. The people who consider themselves elite prefer this system, they like cheap help to clean their toilets, watch their children, make their beds for them. We seem very eager to eliminate the middle class, wages are actually falling in many places for what was once middle class jobs. Jobs that in the 50's could support a family with one-wage earner, obtain a home paid off in 15 years and a comfortable middle class lifestyle are now poverty jobs that provide no health insurance benefits, minimum wages and tiny raises if any, and a family that has to have food stamps and Medicaid.

[WRhine]

We seem very eager to eliminate the middle class, wages are actually falling in many places for what was once middle class jobs.

Thanks FITZ for bringing up this very important point. The day that middle class America dies and their dreams of upward mobility with it, we are finished as a global super power. Who is going to do the bulk of the heavy lifting that makes America great? America will go from the best country on the planet to the best 3rd world country on the planet.

[garbanzo]

Jobs that in the 50's could support a family with one-wage earner

The solution for this is simple. Build a time machine and go back to 1950.

Economies evolve. Way earlier in the thread I mentioned that if we double the wages of fruit pickers we double the wages of software developers. Note that in 1950 there were no software developers - or at least very few - so you could have higher wages in lower skilled jobs because the economy supported it. It no longer supports that because the demands of the labor market have changed. Cheap computers means a broader market for software and a demand for more software developers relative to fruit-pickers.

We simply can't compare the 50s to today without adjusting for other factors - e.g. women in the workplace, Jim Crow, etc.

[garbanzo]

On the two-tier society - that's exactly what they're fleeing, huddled masses yearning to breathe free and all.