What about the American Middle Class?

Teak · #1 (**permalink**) 02-18-2008, 10:29 AM

I read this on another forum and thought I would bring it over here to get a few remarks:

Quote:

"EVERY night, Lou Dobbs gets on CNN and drones on and on about how the middle class in America is shrinking. It is disappearing along with our jobs at the textile mill.

Woe is us.

I say the people in Bangladesh are welcome to make my shirts.

I'll sit here in my smoke-free, air-conditioned-in-the-summer office where I don't have to worry about brown lung.

If Dobbs is wondering where the middle class went, in New York City, they have moved on up to the deluxe apartments in the sky.

Everywhere else, they have moved into large houses in the suburbs with big yards.

National Public Radio reported that the average U.S. home in 1950 was 983 square feet.

By 1970, that had expanded to 1,500 square feet.

In 2004, the average home in the United States was 2,349 square feet.

You could fit two of those 1950 homes in that 2004 home and still have room for the family SUV.

Most of today's homes have some sort of air-conditioning. The Census Bureau reported 58 percent of homes in 2004 had central air-conditioning, and 25 percent had room air-conditioners.

In 1950? It is so difficult to type when one is laughing.

The family car that seemed to need a repair every few months has become two vehicles that seem to make it to 100,000 miles with only oil changes and new tires every 40,000 miles, not 14,000.

I won't go into how little we spend on food and utilities, or how computer and other gadgetry have improved as the prices dropped to the point that every teenager now seems to come with an iPod and a cell phone. Americans have never had it so good.

The middle class has become the rich.

And the poor?

In 2003, one-eighth of Americans - 12.5 percent - lived below the federal line of poverty.

But the Census Bureau reported that 46 percent of households listed as officially living in poverty actually lived in homes they owned.

And, the Census Bureau reported, 76 percent had air-conditioning.

And, the Census Bureau reported, 75 percent had a car.

And, the Census Bureau reported, 30 percent had two cars.

And, the Census Bureau reported, 73 percent had a microwave.

And the Census Bureau reported, 33 percent had a dishwasher.

And on and on. What were once luxuries for the rich are now the "necessities" of life - at least to listen to Lou Dobbs and other peddlers of the snake oil about the disappearing middle class.

In his "Living Large" video on the Internet, comedian Drew Carey found the middle class. At a lake. Enjoying boats they own. Which they hauled by the SUVs they own.

I see that Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is going to base his presidential campaign on the fact that the rich make some obscene multiple of the wages of the average worker.

I say, good for the rich.

But why should I care how much money is in the wallets of the two richest men in America - Bill Gates and Warren Buffett - both supporters of the Obama campaign?

So what? I have my central air. And I drive a 2006 Ford Mustang convertible.

As the old Chock Full o'Nuts jingle used to say, "Better coffee a millionaire's money can't buy."

Most Americans already enjoy most of what Gates and Buffett have.

Without having to be worth more than $50 billion. Each."

George O Well · #2 (**permalink**) 02-18-2008, 11:11 AM

Quote:

And on and on. What were once luxuries for the rich are now the "necessities" of life - at least to listen to Lou Dobbs and other peddlers of the snake oil about the disappearing middle class.

>>>All you have to do is look at the numbers, my friend.

Quote:

But the Census Bureau reported that 46 percent of households listed as officially living in poverty actually lived in homes they owned.

>>>That's a horrible statistic. Any you're proud of it, Marie???

satv365 · #3 (**permalink**) 02-19-2008, 02:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teak

I read this on another forum and thought I would bring it over here to get a few remarks:

Well the difference between the super wealthy and everyone else. Is that wealth does not really pertain to luxury. It is directly related to power.

The more money you have. The more power you can exert.

That is the biggest problem. Wealth is not the problem. It that America allows our Government to commit fraud on us by caving in to the whims and desires and interests of these elite few who simply use the power they wield to...

Get more power.

satv365 · #4 (**permalink**) 02-20-2008, 01:17 PM

I happen to like Lou Dobbs, personally. He reports on stuff the other Network lackeys refuse to. I purchased one of his books regarding this very subject. I haven't opened it up yet, since I have to finnish a few books I have on Karl Marx and Frederich Engels.

I think we can all keep a keen eye on politics by tuning into his show every night.

World Hegemony · #5 (**permalink**) 02-22-2008, 10:36 AM

Poverty isnt a problem in the united states. It only becomes a problem when people make too little money to get food. Screw the car, take the bus. Forget about tv or entertainment, buy food and pay off debts. Real poor people don't have food or shelter.

satv365 · #6 (**permalink**) 02-22-2008, 10:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by World Hegemony

Poverty isnt a problem in the united states. It only becomes a problem when people make too little money to get food. Screw the car, take the bus. Forget about tv or entertainment, buy food and pay off debts. Real poor people don't have food or shelter.

Which has been steadily growing over the past decade. Homelessness, and real poverty. It only evades the public eye, because of the Urban and Suburban life we built for America since the Japanese Surrendered.

mulp · #7 (**permalink**) 02-22-2008, 11:06 PM

What does it mean to "own the house they live in"?

Do the people who bought a house to live in for $250,000 with a mortgage for $250,000, and then got laid off along with 10% of everyone else in the area, and then see the prices fall as their neighbors try to sell to get out before they are foreclosed, so they are now living in a house they would be lucky to sell for $200,000, actually own anything?

Even if they had put down 20%, do they had a $200,000 mortgage on that $250,000 house, do they actually own their home if they can't sell it for $200,000?

I actually found myself in a somewhat similar situation; I traded houses at peak in the market, and bought a house for $200,000 with a note for $133,000 in 1984, and then the economy tanked and my house was assessed for tax purposes down from $185,000 to 133,000. I was very busily employed to I barely noticed at the time, but if I had needed to move, by the time the transfer taxes and commissions were paid, I would have walked away three years later with zero after putting down $67,000. Did I own my house in 1986?

lassie · #8 (**permalink**) 02-22-2008, 11:39 PM

As realtor, last year I brought several sellers to closing owing money. Many have lost their homes and I live in an area that has not been hit hard compared to other areas in the country.

PLeasant · #9 (**permalink**) 02-23-2008, 12:03 AM

"Most Americans" don't own a jet, or their own island. "Most Americans" are, in fact, living from paycheck to paycheck. In terms of wealth vs. privilege. You're only as privileged as your wealth can afford. I know I speak for thousands, if not millions of Americans when I say that my wealth along with my privileged lifestyle would end pretty quickly if I had to go without a paycheck for much more than a month or so. If that makes me a member of the "middle-class" Then fine, I won't argue. However, I would invite the author of this elitist sarcasm to make his way along I-75 going north into Detroit sometime. Those people, don't own boats, or go on vacations. They don't own their homes, and most of them don't have air-conditioning. They survive, and that's about it. You can find them in most major cities all across this nation. While they are considered by the author of that piece (of crap) to be "the poor." The reality is most, and I mean almost all, of the "middle-class" here in America are actually standing much closer to those folks than they realize. Or perhaps, care to think about.