Do you think the American middle-class is worth saving? What would you do to save it?

[Infohawk]

Do you think think the American middle-class is in decline?

Do you care?

If so, what would you do to save it?

I think it is in decline and that it is the foundation of America's peace and prosperity. I don't think cutting or raising taxes is all that important to helping the middle-class. We've had similar tax schemes in the last half-century and the middle-class has been fine. What's new is globalization and third world competition. I do not see that there is a reason for multinationals to employ middle-class Americans when third-worlders can do much of the same work for much cheaper. I would impose tariffs on third world countries and use this to fund unemployment / underemployment insurance for the middle-class.

 

[dank69]

'The world needs ditch diggers, too' is quickly becoming a thing of the past for americans. It just isn't going to be practical to build a decent life on hard labor anymore.

 

[Phokus]

If we just cut taxes to 0% for the rich (aka, the 'job creators'), we'll have so many jobs, we won't know what to do with them. The rich will be BEGGING Americans to come back to fill their unfilled jobs 😛

Hell, we could probably solve world hunger if we gave them a negative income tax.

Trickle down economics, baby!

But seriously, fuck the middle class, keep voting Republican and Democrats who pretend to be for the little guy.

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" - John F Kennedy.

 

[Jaskalas]

Given the current crisis, I've always felt that no one should have been removed from their homes. No foreclosures, anywhere. Bit late to stop that... millions have been ruined since 2008.

 

[theeedude]

Middle class is sustained by government programs, which are sustained by progressive taxation.

 

[Infohawk]

Middle class is sustained by government programs, which are sustained by progressive taxation.

Do you think the middle-class is suffering now?

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Of course the middle class is worth saving. The problem is our national identity has shifted away from Americans helping Americans for the good of the country to a mindset of individual greed. Granted, greed has always played a part, but in the halcyon days of the American middle class, people were happy to have a home and a family and a job and a car and leave it at that. Now, people are never satisfied. Make a hundred thousand dollars? Wish it was a million. Make a million? Wish it was a billion. Make a billion dollars? No, I don't think I should pay higher taxes than everyone else despite my disproportionate wealth; I need that to create jobs.

Without a fundamental change in how our society views the accumulation of wealth, the rich are going to continue getting richer while everyone else wishes they were rich. Everyone is glorifying how the middle class lived in the 1950s, but no one wants to revert to a 90% marginal tax rate on the richest Americans. So nothing will change.

 

[theeedude]

Do you think the middle-class is suffering now?

Yes

 

[werepossum]

Do you think think the American middle-class is in decline?

Do you care?

If so, what would you do to save it?

I think it is in decline and that it is the foundation of America's peace and prosperity. I don't think cutting or raising taxes is all that important to helping the middle-class. We've had similar tax schemes in the last half-century and the middle-class has been fine. What's new is globalization and third world competition. I do not see that there is a reason for multinationals to employ middle-class Americans when third-worlders can do much of the same work for much cheaper. I would impose tariffs on third world countries and use this to fund unemployment / underemployment insurance for the middle-class.

I agree, but I'd use tariffs to fund government.

 

[Infohawk]

Yes

We have progressive taxation. Do you really think reversing Bush tax cuts will save the middle class?

 

[werepossum]

Of course the middle class is worth saving. The problem is our national identity has shifted away from Americans helping Americans for the good of the country to a mindset of individual greed. Granted, greed has always played a part, but in the halcyon days of the American middle class, people were happy to have a home and a family and a job and a car and leave it at that. Now, people are never satisfied. Make a hundred thousand dollars? Wish it was a million. Make a million? Wish it was a billion. Make a billion dollars? No, I don't think I should pay higher taxes than everyone else despite my disproportionate wealth; I need that to create jobs.

Without a fundamental change in how our society views the accumulation of wealth, the rich are going to continue getting richer while everyone else wishes they were rich. Everyone is glorifying how the middle class lived in the 1950s, but no one wants to revert to a 90% marginal tax rate on the richest Americans. So nothing will change.

It is truly amazing that virtually every post decrying greed immediately launches into a demand for other people's money.

If public education has done nothing else, it has surely destroyed our sense of irony.

 

[Carmen813]

What middle class?

 

[matt0611]

Yeah, stop taxing us so much, stop the wasteful spending, stop the mass intervention in the economy and fucking it up, stop trying to micromanage sectors of the economy, stop the wasteful uncennsarry wars and nation building, stop racking up so much debt, stop perpetuating a culture of dependency on living off others through welfare, stop the corporatism, the handouts, the bailouts, the government boondoggles, and the inflation.

Do that and it will probably help some.

 

[JS80]

Saving the middle class is cutting off the lower and uber upper classes. That would be great (start with the lower class though).

 

[Jhhnn]

Of course the middle class is worth saving. The problem is our national identity has shifted away from Americans helping Americans for the good of the country to a mindset of individual greed. Granted, greed has always played a part, but in the halcyon days of the American middle class, people were happy to have a home and a family and a job and a car and leave it at that. Now, people are never satisfied. Make a hundred thousand dollars? Wish it was a million. Make a million? Wish it was a billion. Make a billion dollars? No, I don't think I should pay higher taxes than everyone else despite my disproportionate wealth; I need that to create jobs.

Without a fundamental change in how our society views the accumulation of wealth, the rich are going to continue getting richer while everyone else wishes they were rich. Everyone is glorifying how the middle class lived in the 1950s, but no one wants to revert to a 90% marginal tax rate on the richest Americans. So nothing will change.

Well said. thank You.

We have progressive taxation. Do you really think reversing Bush tax cuts will save the middle class?

No, but it's a start in the right direction. As the source of top tier incomes shifted offshore, taking employment with it, we should have insisted on higher taxes to compensate. Capitalists would still have made greater profit, but they'd have to share more of it in taxes in lieu of jobs.

It is truly amazing that virtually every post decrying greed immediately launches into a demand for other people's money.

If public education has done nothing else, it has surely destroyed our sense of irony.

Rich people are just in a better position to get more of other people's money than the average guy. All income started out as somebody else's money. They paid much higher taxes as a % of income pre-Reagan, and didn't seem to whine about it nearly so much, nor to have nearly as great an influence over politics, either.

Participation in the economy isn't completely voluntary, or anywhere near it, so it's the right and the responsibility of govt to see to it that too few don't have too much influence over it, greed being what it is.

Republican ideology can't and won't accomplish that- it'll accomplish exactly the opposite, quite by design. It is what it is, regardless of the pseudo morality attached to it.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Saving the middle class is cutting off the lower and uber upper classes. That would be great (start with the lower class though).

Yes we should cut of all assistance for the lower class, and when they get hungry we should feed the rich to them 😀

 

[ArizonaSteve]

Yes we should cut of all assistance for the lower class, and when they get hungry we should feed the rich to them

Sounds like a plan!

 

[a777pilot]

What would I do to save it?

Guess. Just take a wild guess.

 

[theeedude]

We have progressive taxation. Do you really think reversing Bush tax cuts will save the middle class?

No, you'd have to reverse Republican policies going all the way back to Nixon.

 

[Phokus]

Actually i wonder if the complete destruction of the middle class over a short period of time would be a good thing. The problem is, the decline of the middle class has been maddeningly slow.

If what happened to the middle class happened in the span of a few years rather than from 1980 through today, there would be rioting in the street, governments and corporations would be shitting their pants, and we would have REAL change. Instead, the rich have picked us apart piece by piece, but it's hard to notice it when the process is taking decades.

 

[masteryoda34]

End the FED

 

[Jhhnn]

Actually i wonder if the complete destruction of the middle class over a short period of time would be a good thing. The problem is, the decline of the middle class has been maddeningly slow.

If what happened to the middle class happened in the span of a few years rather than from 1980 through today, there would be rioting in the street, governments and corporations would be shitting their pants, and we would have REAL change. Instead, the rich have picked us apart piece by piece, but it's hard to notice it when the process is taking decades.

True in every respect, other than wrt government. In 1932, FDR & the Democrats of the time used govt to level the playing field, constrain the power of wealth. FDR likened the plutocrats of the day to "economic royalty" and exploiters of other people's money, and he was right. He'd be right today, too.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

True in every respect, other than wrt government. In 1932, FDR & the Democrats of the time used govt to level the playing field, constrain the power of wealth. FDR likened the plutocrats of the day to "economic royalty" and exploiters of other people's money, and he was right. He'd be right today, too.

The USSR was successful in making an entire nation thralls to themselves. The formula is reliable, just make dependency on the central government absolute. If it happens we'll be told by many how lucky we are. Just wait, the apologists will start soon.

 

[JSt0rm]

What would I do to save it?

Guess. Just take a wild guess.

you would dress in all leather going from gay club to gay club giving hand jobs to middle class gay men?

 

[Jhhnn]

The USSR was successful in making an entire nation thralls to themselves. The formula is reliable, just make dependency on the central government absolute. If it happens we'll be told by many how lucky we are. Just wait, the apologists will start soon.

if you had a rational argument, you wouldn't resort to false equivalence, innuendo & hyperbole...

That's not what happened in the US, at all, nor would it today if the people insisted that govt curb the power of wealth, harness capitalism to better serve us all rather than just a few of us.