Yes, there are those that benefit from our bad spending habits but none the less, changing these habits could put us int he next taxt bracket.

As far as the stock market, its not as risky as it used to be. The old idea was that stock were for the faint of heart becuz the risk where so high compared to trusts and bonds but now times have changed. The risk gap between these two groups had shrunk tremendously. This means you can potentially make muchmore moeny in stocks in comparison to risks that trusts and bonds, etc. Also, the amount of money you invest plays a large role inhow much you make, obviously. For example, lets say a stock is $10. One person owns 1000 SHARES ($10K) Aand another owns 10,000 shares ($100k), an another person owns 100,000 ($1m) shares; the stock goes up only one dollar, the first person made a grand while the second made 10grand and the final person made a million bucks even though the stock only went up a buck. This is an obvious example but it puts things in perspective, this is a huge reason why the rich get richer. Imagine whats in your savings collecting interest at proably 2%, even at that rate imagine how much more a rich person would generate. Now take ito account the rich person is investing in stocks and business. Many middleclass don't invest inanything besides their 401k becuz they don't think about it. I know people with a good chunk of change sitting in a savings account lsoing money due to inflation but if they would have invested it they could have at least earned 8% on that money. I know of small business owners that make 6 figure incomes runt hemselves so far in debt that they a week away from loosing everything. My g/f used to run a cash advance pay day loan place, she wold have customers that made 2grand (100grand/yr) a week come in for a pay day loan. Why? Becuz of bad habbits, not becuz rich people we're taking all the money. This happens more than you think which is why I support the national sales tax, it would it give middleclass incentives to invest.

You know, I don't know what else has been posted on here, because I have my own work to do outside of this and don't feel like reading through the entire thing.

But, I do have this to say: only the American middle class can save the middle class. The whole notion of a middle class was started when the wealthy class of England was knocked out of place and strived to regain it's power.

In society we split into two groups, those who have power and those who don't. When we have those who don't have power trying to gain influence they become the middle class during their transition. So, basically, if we don't have the people who are not wealthy not trying to become wealthy, we have no middle class.

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"If I didn't live in Ohio I would love to live in Texas, it's the only place where drinking beer and kickin' ass is still accepted." -Roman

I see that happening. The neocons (who I see basically as nazis) don't have to wipe out the entire middle class. They just have to reach a tipping point where the pissed off under class outnumbers the middle class.