What I want to talk about is my garden.

What needs to be talked about is the vanishing middle class.

As Elizabeth succintly points out, the middle class in America is indeed being carved up.  

The question is, how long will it take for them to notice that they've lost several pints of blood and oh, by the way, there's knife stuck in your ribs...?

to try out the html code in comments.

The apparently inevitible slipping of the middle class is why I'm now almost a democrat...after years as a vehemently anti-party independent.

As far as I can see, the Republican party is advancing itself in the old Ponzi scheme fashion, with the capital class riding atop the broad shouldered middle...all the while selling out the avenues for innovation and growth that promote small business.

 On the other hand, how can we have a truly global economy with equity in the markets when the vast majority of Americans live like kings in comparison to their analogs in developing markets??

 

Yes, the middle class is being squeezed, but isn't the lower class, by definition, in much worse shape?  Are you interested in the middle class because it is more important politically?  Or the most important personally to us, the politically motivated, mostly white, commentariat?

I've heard the argument that the middle class is the most important to the economic health of a society, but to me that sounds just like the supply sider's argument that the rich are the ones that need to be taken care of.  Are they really concerned about the health of the whole, or just the personal?

I'm a Town Meeting member and we're going through hell trying to fund the schools with moderate vs. Draconian cuts.

We passed an override last year, and there is no way to do it again. Yet average citizens are blaming the schools, saying they are overspending, rather than the Republican governor who managed to cut taxes rather than increase local aid.

It's a mess. 

The problem with that definition is that it includes the probably illegal hispanic workers lined up outside near the home depot in my neighborhood hoping for some contractor to pick them up and pay them $5/hour for a day.  I don't think you could call them middle class.

We all know that the middle class is being squeezed -- stagnating incomes, longer working hours, high college tuition, rising health care costs, private pensions under siege. 

This is why folks do not want to gut the one stable part of our incomes -- Social Security.  This is why Bush is losing on destablizating the one stable point.

 

That's where there's room for Democrats to come back -- to appeal to the middle class.  Bill Clinton did that and he won.  He won twice, despite being under constant political attack.

 

For 2006 - Democrats need a Middle Class Bill of Rights.  It should be modelled after FDR's Second Bill of Rights.  Along with staying on the attack against Republican corruption and  anti-middle class policies, this will nationalize the elections, give the Democrats impetus, and turn the political tide.

 

 

The stakes are bigger than people think.  One compelling economic theory of government holds that a healthy middle class is absolutely essential for good government.  Countries that lose it or never had it slide into darkness.  Countries like the Phillippines, where a healthy middle class grows under the permissive yoke of a dictatorship, find themselves suddenly with a representative government without anybody really knowing how it got there.

Can the PTA save the planet from tyrrany?  I'm not sure, but it seems to correlate.

As much as I adore a good fire-breathing environmentalist social liberal, we need more influential Labor Democrats.  With luck this site can help to deliver. 

"Ponzi Republicanism".  Speechwriters, take note.

The middle class should be important because it's the demographically largest group in the country. If the poor are the largest portion of the population, we're in deep trouble. Of course, this is in large part a matter of definitions.

Also, healthy, stable, representative governments depend on well-educated, comfortable middle class citizens to look past demagoguery and vote in the best interests of the country. If too large a portion of a country's citizens are too poor and/or too uneducated to see past the lies of power-hungry politicians, the country ends up with a popular dictator: a Hitler or a Stalin.

In my opinion the middle class began to disappear when Reagan popularized the idea that paying taxes was an imposition on citizens, that holding on to every last penny you earn and to heck with anyone who is needy is good. This enabled him to get Congress to pass tax changes that began the shift of the nation's wealth to the very wealthy. Clinton did little to reverse that shift, and Bush has greatly accelerated it. As the very wealthy approach controlling almost all of our nation's wealth, that leaves only the dregs for the vast majority of us, and that eliminates the middle class almost completely. We can reverse this, and an essential first step is to get universal single payer health care coverage for all of us. Tax code changes need to follow, but that will probably have to wait until we get another Democratic administration.

The definition of "Middle Class" needs to be set by those who are concerned with its survival. The middle class not only must be able to provide basic living expenses (food, housing, clothing and medical care) for their families by working, but also must be able to maintain or improve their standard of living.

As the purchasing power of the middle class continues to diminish, as it has over the years, more families live on the brink. A new class has emerged, the "Medically Impoverished." Many families that are under the delusion that they are "Middle Class" are only one medical emergency away from bankruptcy, in spite of medical insurance. Half of all bankruptcies are due to medical expenses, according to a Harvard study.

It seems that some conservative economists might see this loss of market as destabilizing.

 

Clinton was lucky....don't forget that. Yeah...he's a brilliant guy but that was not why he won twice, and his formula for the Democratic Party of splitting hairs with the Republicans is what has the Party is such peril. As long as the Democrats refuse to develop a clear policy supporting the middle and working class "Joe Six Pack" feels disempowered and is free to vote his beliefs, (or prejudices, if you prefer) That's how the GOP kicks the Demos butts every time with all their so called "values" talk. The Demos need to get WAY out in front and quit reading daily polls to decide what they're going to talk about that day. Lastly, Hillary will likely be a disaster if nominated. Can't this party come up with more qualified people and stop imitating the GOP in tuning politics into a family affair?  

The dems are getting kicked about by the repubs because people do not always see the world as it is...but how the think it might be.

The republicans do an AMAZING job of appealing to the same part of the voter's mind that thinks s/he will win the lottery if s/he only buys a couple more tickets.

The middle class is comfortable with huge tax cuts for the wealthy because many secretly believe that they are just a few years of hard work away from being on the side that benefits.  Of course the changes they are helping usher in are the very things that are making the climb steeper and steeper.

I view myself as a centrist.  I don't want a welfare state....but I've seen how well pure capitalism can work to channel wealth in one direction.  And it's not as if the upper 5% are constrained by the health of local markets.  When American consumers have been gutted...they can simply move on to Europe, China and India for new buyers.  They've outsourced production...can outsourcing consumption be far behind??

I want to talk about what 80/20 loans are doing to the middle class. That is just a deceptive way of saying a person has a 100% mortgage on their home, no equity. How this works is that the home buyer gets a traditional 80% mortgage and a 20% equity mortgage for the rest at the same time---just to make the initial purchase. It encourages people to buy a more expensive house than they should and helps keep housing costs up because it is really for speculators in the market who drive up the prices.

So, this has become all the rage and lenders are talking folks into them when they used to be careful about their loan underwriting back when my parents bought their house in 1966. Now, a middle class person is encouraged to over extend himself in his home purchase.

To go along with this, short sales have also become popular. That means that these 80/20 folks who end up not being able to pay end up losing their homes and the lenders take the full proceeds to pay off the loan because that is all they can get. But wait, now these lenders won't have to be satisfied with a short sale because under the bankruptcy law changes. Once that law goes into effect, these lenders will be able to hound a bankrupt who has just about any salary coming in for the deficiency, forever. Working people won't be able to get a bankruptcy discharge. Many democrats worked for an amendment to the bankruptcy revision to take into accounty lender's predatory lending practices, but that failed to pass.

I wonder if any of these 80/20 folks in red states know that they voted for their own economic demise when they voted in 2004?

Just as I don't need an understanding of math and physics to learn how to juggle three balls, most of us don't need a comprehensive understanding of monetary and fiscal policy to make a living and provide for our families.   (And evidently even Nobel laureates make lousy investors.)  Most Americans alive today assume that hard work and adherence to bedrock vaues is enough to maintain and even improve their standard of living.   Yet few Americans alive today have lived through a depression.  (Being a kid during the Great Depression doesn't count.)  Their faith is going to be tested.

My failure to juggle three balls successfully wouldn't cause me to run out and sign up for physics and math courses, and falling out of the middle class isn't going to cause Americans to teach themselves about the Federal Reserve or growing global imbalances.  And as long as cheap credit and increasing home equity bridge the growing gap between expenses and income in family budets, at least the appearance of Middle Class membership can be maintained a while longer.

The creditors have bought the politicians and together they've convinced the debtors that our interests are their interests.  They're not.  W thinks that what's good for bidness is always good for the country.  And no political leader can afford to question the underlying orthodoxy until reality itself shatters the collective faith in it.  (What?  We can't borrow our way to economic security???)  How do you say, "Sucker" in Chinese?

Hell is truth seen to late, said Hobbes.  Political "leaders" of both parties will feel the wrath of a clueless public when the housing bubble deflates or implodes - Greenspan's latest tortured rationale on the question not-withstanding.  Will Middle Class Americans understand what happened to them when the ground is finally pulled out from under them?  Or will they still see it as an individual, personal failure?  Will they finally surrender their cult-like hope in Faith-Based Ponzi Economics and join the reality-based community?  As Paul Krugman pointed out, there isn't another bubble to inflate when this one runs its course.  80 year interest-only mortgages anyone?

And by the way, if Republicans are now "creating Reality" while the rest of us only analyze it, why is the present state of affairs the best these moralizing know-it-alls can do?

lectrice

jstien has got the current political issue framed correctly, "right wing policies are screwing the middle class, and at the same time persuading them that the enemy that is causing all their misery is the very people who advocate the policies that would get them out of the squeeze."

Ultra conservative Christians like Dobson & Company tell their followers that Christians are being persecuted by Liberals while the White House, the Congress and the Courts are populated by conservatives, not liberals.

Republicans argue that being against the war is "unpatriotic" since it undermines the sacrifices of our soldiers.  Loss of our soldiers is the result of neo-conservative decisions and occurred without liability.

Until Democrats can figure out how to convince the public at large that the folks defining the problems are same ones creating them centrists and Democrats will continue to struggle to compete in the political arena.

The NY Times just finished a series on class in America, complete with some very interesting grpahics. I don't know how long this chart will stay up, but it show that a person in the middle middle earns between $35k and $45k, and has a net worth of $50-$100k.  In my opinion this is just one serious illness away from bankruptcy (as you have pointed out, Elizabeth - thank you for trying).  It's scary.

Is "Red state, Blue state" a rhetorical ploy to disguise divisive economic policies?


I've been bothered lately by the continued use of "red state" and "blue state." It is particularly irksome when journalists do it.


Here's my question: We know that the labels "red" and "blue" are inapt; careful maps of the post-election demographics showed most states to be purple. SO, is the use of this inaccurate shorthand a way of asserting the following:


"Blues" are elites, upper class types.
"Reds" are regular folks, the middle class.


By perpetuating these stereotypes, Republicans and a lazy/complicit media give cover to the economic changes so dangerous and damaging to the shrinking middle class. Many in red states harmed by the policies say nothing partly for the reasons Tom Frank outline in his Kansas book, but partly because they can't see that their target has hidden among them.


That's my theory. Comments?

Part of me loathes the reduction of political and ideological values into a binary designation. Yet by my own hand I have identified myself by that binary system, just as Baudrillard predicts that I will because of my mind's favoritism for simplistic categorization.

I hope, though, with all of my hoping capacity, that the term "Luntzian" never becomes commonplace. That freaky hobbit has done enough damage to the politico-linguistic landscape and does not deserve his own adjective. Rather than use that term, maybe we can use more apt adjectives like "deceptive", "red herring-esque" or "rhetorical sleight-of-handish".

Why is the Middle Class being sqeezed?

Because the poor don't have enough to be worth stealing from.

It's like everything that the Bushies do!  "You're either with us or against us."  Rich or Poor. Right or Wrong.  Right or Left.  Red or Blue.

All that will be left are the rich and the poor.  It's why they are in favor of private accounts and reducing Social Security benefits for all but the poor.  Once Social Security is a welfare program, they can get rid of it!

My personal belief is that in the next 12 to 15 yrs, if we don't change course in the mid term and 06 elections, the corp's will have pretty much eaten up the middle class here and will start on the Indo/china middle class.  MultiNationals, I believe would like nothing better than to create a two class society in America.  You know the Ultra rich and the very poor. I can only hope that Americans wake up, step up and kick some multi national A--.

and their large company patrons every single day and not just at election time.  

 
Corporations have placed Republicans in power. If you want to enact a progressive agenda despite Republican control of the House, Senate and presidency then selectively go on a purchasing strike against Walmart and some other companies. Leverage our purchases to get what we want in Washington. Otherwise you're merely complaining and doing a defensive action. I propose an offense that we can do every day and not just at election time.       We the undersigned demand that the Congress of the United states and the  president of the United States enact a law to increase the minimum wage to TEN  dollars an hour and also to extend unemployment benefits for all people whose  unemployment benefits expired after 6 months even though they still seek  work.

We also demand that the Congress of the United States to not privatize social security benefits in any form including taking a percentage of  the social security tax and placing it in private accounts. People can already  create their own pensions with money after taxes in the private  sector.

We also demand that the congress make all of a person's earned  income taxable for social security FICA tax purposes and remove the 88,000  dollar salary cap. This will make social security solvent for many years to  come.

We pledge to boycott Walmart and call them at 800-966-6546 and  demand they help in getting the above legislation enacted or we will never buy  from Walmart again.

We make no statement of quality of Walmart products  but we maintain the right of free speech and association and of boycotting for  the purpose of persuading congress to enact this part of a progressive agenda.  After all the money belongs to us and we can legally set conditions for our  purchases of products and doing business with any company in the United  States.

We the undersigned also demand congress and the president enact a  prescription drug benefit under Medicare Part B which covers 80 percent of  medication cost, with no extra premium, no extra deductibles, no means test and  no coverage gaps or else we will not purchase products from the CVS, Eckerd, and  Walgreens pharmacy chains. We make no statement of the quality of products sold  by these pharmacy chains.

We pledge to Call Eckerd Pharmacy Corporate  Headquarters at 800 325 3737, Call CVS Pharmacy Corporate headquarters at 888  607 4287 and Call Walgreens Pharmacy Corporate headquarters at 800 289 2273 and  tell them we will not purchase any products from their drug stores but will  patronize them in the future if they can get the congress to pass a prescription  drug benefit as described above. If a person cannot stop buying medications from  the three drug store chains,
I consider it acceptible to buy your medication  from one of the chains but still refrain from buying other products from their  drug stores.

We also call for the complete repeal of the faulty Medicare  law HR 1 / S 1 passed by congress in Nov 2003.

Please tell your friends,  family and coworkers to sign this petition.

We do this in the spirit of  peaceful resistance to a congress that refuses to enact this legislation  
If you don't support what the Republicans did since they took over the  House of Representatives in 1995 and don't support the Republican party's plans  for this year then Join the revolution for progressive legislation and sign the  petition at  

http://www.boycott-republicans.com

 

Write this url on your one, five and ten dollar bills in the white areas in  Pencil.
 
Tennessee residents please make an effort to boycott the following companies I list in my boycott petition: Walmart and Eckerd,CVS, and  Walgreens in your state and call Senator Frist and tell him unless he gets our  agenda passed those Tennessee outlets of these chains will not get your  business. You live at one of the biggest seats of power in the United States.  Organize and use your purchasing power to leverage it into passing progressive  legislation.

 

 

Read the Liberal America politics Forum

http://www.network54.com/Forum/259017 

 

Also join my activist group

 

http://groups.myspace.com/revolutionforprogressivelegislation evolutionforprogressivelegislation   

 

Sign the petition to end the war in Iraq.

 

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stopthewar  

 

To punish the Republicans for stealing the 2000 and 2004 elections BOYCOTT  Wendy's (of Ohio) restaurant chain and Outback Steakhouse (Florida) chain until  the people elect Democrats as governor and secretary of State and in the  majority in the legislatures. Call and email Wendy's and Outback Steakhouses, 2  big Republican Party contributors.

 

I call for vote by mail throughout the United States of America. This will  prevent Republicans from vote suppression by skin color which happened  electronicly and in person in the 2000 and 2004 elections. Demand that your  state implement vote by mail with ballots easy to fill out and difficult to  change or invalidate by Republican Party officials.

 

Spread the messages at your grocery store too by printing out the graphics  and leave it in your shopping cart when you finish.

 

Look at this web page for other efforts.

 

http://www.justicefornone.com/handbills/index.htm

 

Thank you.

 

How to destroy the agenda of Arnold Schwarzenegger

 
and advance a progessive agenda in California.    
http://www.boycott-republicans.com    
and now the companies that helped install Arnold.  
THE GAP clothing stores   TOYOTA TEMUCULA VALLEY   LANCASTER, SIERRA TOYOTA   JORDAN VINEYARD & WINERY   VICTORY DEALERSHIP GROUP auto dealers   WEIDER HEALTH & FITNESS   Dean Spanos SAN DIEGO CHARGERS ceo   CONANT AUTOMOTIVE RESOURCES   AMERICAN STERLING CORP commercial bank   FLETCHER JONES MANAGEMENT auto dealer   PACIFIC WEST PHARMACY   ARTISOFT, INC.   HANSEN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES   CONEXANT SYSTEMS   SCHEID VINYARDS, INC   TUTTLE-CLICK AUTOMOTIVE GROUP   FOOD 4 LESS   MERUELO ENTERPRISES   Emulex corporation   HILMAR CHEESE COMPANY INC   HANFORD HOTELS   HITCHCOCK AUTOMOTIVE RESOURCES   KEYES MOTORS

HANSEN TECHNOLOGIES

 

 

Prescient Douglas Coupland could see this happening in 1991 when he coined the term "Brazilification" in his book "Generation X".

If Reagan did indeed publicize the idea that taxes are an imposition, he was recycling an idea that was a major impetus to the American Revolution -- that taxes are a burden.

As for the dregs left for the middle class, my dad grew up in abject poverty, at times having nothing to eat in the house, working a paper route from the age of 6 to help support his family, having to move frequently when they could no longer pay the rent and needed lower rent to get by. He became a baker and worked hard to support his family. But the money was tight, and my mom worked part-time to help out, and full-time when the kids were in high school. But my dad did a lot better than his father had, and he taught us the interesting idea that if we worked hard, we too could do better.

I went through college and graduate school on scholarships, loans, and what I could earn myself. My parents couldn't afford to help me and still keep their head above water with the expenses for my younger sibs. It took a lot of time and effort to pay off all those loans, and those for graduate school. But, guess what! My dad was right. If I worked hard, I too could do better.

As I read your frantic postings, I wonder why your parents didn't teach you the simple lesson my parents taught me, because, I'll tell you, they were right. Unlike Disney's Goofy character, I don't believe that the world owes me a living.