America's Middle Class Can't Take Much More Punishment, page 1
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Topic started on 23-7-2008 @ 10:25 AM by DimensionalDetective

America's Middle Class Can't Take Much More Punishment


www.alternet.org
We have a government that is spending two and a half billion dollars a day in Iraq, essentially subsidizing new swimming pools for the contracting class in northern Virginia, at a time when heating oil and personal transportation are about to join health insurance on the list of middle-class luxuries. Home heating and car ownership are slipping away from the middle class thanks to exploding energy prices -- the hidden cost of the national borrowing policy we call dependency on foreign oil, "foreign" representing those nations, Arab and Chinese, that lend us the money to pay for our wars.

(visit the link for the full news article)


reply posted on 23-7-2008 @ 10:25 AM by DimensionalDetective
Boy is this ever true. The corporatization and militarization of America has basically obliterated the middle class. In fact, there is a literal class-warfare being waged against the populace, and the citizens are losing, big time.

I see it everywhere around me, friends and family that were once doing well, or even okay--struggling just to make ends meet. And it appears that the same endlessly greedy entities that are largely responsible for this draining of the economic infrastructure of the nation aren't done--not by a long haul. War with Iran, and all of the profiteering that goes along with it, has them all salivating and beating their drums daily.

The ENTIRE energy industry is a complete cess pool of greed-mongering leeches that just keep taking more and more from people who have nothing left to give. They have bled us all dry and are still trying to squeeze more, not being satisfied with the billions on end they have extorted from us already.

Then we have the ever-fraudulent LENDING industry, who not only are not punished for their fraudulent and predatory schemes, but are REWARDED by being bailed out by the equally fraudulent and criminalistic FED, and now two more lending giants are scheduled to be bailed out by none other than you and I, the tax paying peons...

How much more of this bottomless greed and illegality can this nation withstand?

Now we have a new set of dire problems in the areas of home ownership and exploding energy prices. In both of these matters the basic dynamic is transnational companies raiding the cash savings of the middle class. Because those same companies finance the campaigns of our politicians, we won't hear much talk about getting private industry to help foot the bill to pay for these crises, or forcing the energy companies to cut into their obscene profits for the public good. We will, however, hear talk about taxpayer-subsidized bailouts and various irrelevancies like McCain's gas tax holiday (an amusing solution -- eliminate taxes collected by government in order to pay for taxes collected by energy companies). Ultimately, however, you can bet that when the middle class finally falls all the way down, and this recession becomes something even worse, necessity will force our civil government -- if anything remains of it by then -- to press for the only real solution.




www.alternet.org
(visit the link for the full news article)


reply posted on 23-7-2008 @ 11:45 AM by Dan Tanna
reply to post by kattraxx



To awaken 'middle' America? they would need at least six months with no monosodium glutemate in their diets, no aspartame, no fluoride in the water, and then, maybe then they will 'wake up' and start thinking further than their 'bread and circuses'.

Till then? the bemoth lumbers on towards war with iran and no one even raises an eyebrow in dissent.

However, when 1.2 MILLION people protested the Iraq war, TPTB went and di it any way, and as punishment for the masses raised taxes to a crippling level.


reply posted on 23-7-2008 @ 12:24 PM by eradown
Originally posted by Dan Tanna
reply to
post by kattraxx



To awaken 'middle' America? they would need at least six months with no monosodium glutemate in their diets, no aspartame, no fluoride in the water, and then, maybe then they will 'wake up' and start thinking further than their 'bread and circuses'.




These things are necessarry only in order to be healthy enough and cunning enough to put a stop the machinations of some of the elites.

I suspect the latest crop of bad elites will be brought down by elites fighting other elites.

The problem the middle and lower classes now face is that the evilelites are trying to kill as many of the lower classes as they can.

The people who are not hunting their own food , the people who are not planting gardens or are not gathering edible nutritious plants will be dead of cancer or diabeties in a few years .

I personally think the survival instinct of the masses will kick in really soon ,but it will not lead to out right revolt. Someone at the top will become too greedy for power and war will break out among the elites. For this not to have happened sooner, the elites must themselves be under some sort of mind control.

[edit on 23-7-2008 by eradown]


reply posted on 23-7-2008 @ 12:57 PM by kattraxx
reply to post by Dan Tanna



However, when 1.2 MILLION people protested the Iraq war, TPTB went and di it any way, and as punishment for the masses raised taxes to a crippling level.


1.2 million people protested? Where? When? I didn't see that.

You can't "punish" 300 million people unless 300 million people allow it.


reply posted on 23-7-2008 @ 01:56 PM by DimensionalDetective
reply to post by Blaine91555



That may be your reality, but it is not everyone elses. I know what I see around me, and it has nothing to do with being "alarmist", it is in fact what is happening. I see sections in my town and neighboring towns that were once thriving, looking like ghost towns. There are "for lease" signs on literally every other commercial property in my area. My friends and family are struggling to pay their most basic necessities, food, mortgages, utilities, and fuel.

Not doubting things are going well for you and your circle, but it is not that way everywhere, I can assure you that.



reply posted on 23-7-2008 @ 01:59 PM by deltaboy
reply to post by DimensionalDetective



I saw one neighbor run away with his family and the bank took over the house because he couldn't afford to pay a 300,000 dollar home. And he moved in like 2 months ago.


reply posted on 23-7-2008 @ 02:07 PM by Grafilthy
reply to post by Blaine91555




I fit into Middle Class and I'm not suffering, nor do I know anyone who is. $20 extra a week for gas and a $100 extra a month for food does not harm a Middle Class wage earner.

Really??
How much do you make a year? Got any kids??
I can tell you it does hurt, a lot. My wife and I both work full time plus a few.
We live paycheck to paycheck. Does that make me "working poor"?
I am educated.....no skills, ha.
When prices go up and wages don't....it hurts.


reply posted on 23-7-2008 @ 03:06 PM by nuevobilly
Hey Blain can I come live with you? I grow most of my own vegatables. Enough for my girlfriend her 3 kids, my mom and 2 of my sisters. With out the $25.00 food box from church we are out of most food stuff by mid week. So sorry I'm uneducated. As I have said before the family farm, taken from us around 1985, Feed people like you. I can take a piece of land, some water and hard work and produce a crop worth less than I put into it. Ours was a high producing farm. Potatoes, watermellons (shipped to 3 western states), corn, hay for the cows, sugar beets for holly sugar. I'd take your $20.00 a week and still be in the hole. My 2001 sunfire holds close to 13 gallons. In California $50.00 gives me half a tank. So could you take my noneducation and do as well as I do. Still have a house and a little land around it. At 54 there are not alot of doors open. I work part time for a painter, maybe he needs my help 2 days a week and no its not even$100.00 a day. As bad as it seems as short on money as I am. There was a guy older than me today at the market, $0.60 short... I dug into my pocket and said here. With a smile while I but back the bacon and boy I sure wanted cookies. Short on money to buy my own I still had a chance to help someone else. Then I had to dodge a Hummer in the parking lot because he has more than me and pushing my cart I'm in the way. I live in Riverside county California but its still 12 miles one way to the market. I love where I live so don't tell me to move from the land my family has live on for 100 years. Two years ago I was arrested for yelling at my girlfriend who od and was passed out in the street. They give you a box to keep stuff in while your there. When they let you out 72 hours later they ask if you want any thing in the box. They should tell you take the box you'll need a place to live. As for those who say there are no tent cities, well the local goverment bulldozed 3 large encampments that they set up for the homeless. Mad no I have way more common since than most, because I worked the land and prayed for the rain for 40 years. Got a good living wage job for me let me know. Here $8.00 a hour is average. $13.00 to$15.00 is still poverty. Enjoy your good fortune while you have it because there coming for you next....bil


reply posted on 23-7-2008 @ 03:13 PM by TheRedneck
You're right DD, the middle class is 'suffering'. Blaine is right too, about the poor being hard hit. But the real problems are yet to come.

We have not changed our habits. Every day, I see thousands of cars on the road, not just going to and from work, but traveling from several states away. Admittedly I have seen a change, a decrease in the number of SUVs and pickups and an increase in the number of tiny compacts and motorcycles (even got held up on the Interstate by a motor-scooter the other day).

The problem will get a lot worse before it gets any better. So far, most people are losing homes and having to rent. They still have a roof over their head. They are stuck with a gas-guzzler they have to take a hit on to get something they can afford to drive. They can't go out to the restaurant every week, or get that new room of furniture; they have to make do with what they have, which is usually still luxurious.

But the dominoes are tipping. Less people eating in restaurants means less money, which means fewer workers. Lower-middle class is losing jobs, and losing them fast. These poor souls have no home and no income, maybe a car if they're lucky, with no way to put gas in it. And every time a job is lost, more are put at risk. It's a self-sustaining spiral, downhill all the way like a snowball rolling down a mountain.

The government is stepping in to help, with unemployment benefits, food stamps, and welfare. But that money comes from taxes, which are paid by people with some money (a job). As the number of recipients rises and the number of contributors decreases, things are going to get real ugly real fast.

We live in a society that sees government as a nanny-like uncle who is there to help us out should we fall down and get a boo-boo. Hey, it's worked for thousands for years. But we fail to realize where all that money is coming from. The source is drying up, and governments are desperately grasping for every possible dollar. Public/private partnerships are the latest scheme; leasing the rights to the very highways we already paid for to huge conglomerations from overseas in return for a temporary windfall. Take a glance at the toll roads in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, and what's being discussed in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The money comes in, it goes back out on useless social programs, and the states are left with no roads and no money.

Congress seems to be considering a new tax scheme every day. We are no longer interested in growing a tax base; we are more interested in taxing beyond any reasonable limits. Why? Because we are running out of money at the governmental level. So what happens when the Fed says "Sorry, we already own everything. No more money"? Hundreds of thousands (probably millions) of people who are depending on the government to provide for them in their time of need will be left out in the cold. No home, no food, no car, nothing left. This will be the wake-up call. Most will die screaming empty threats, but some will take action. And this will be the SitX discussed so frequently in the survival forums.

There's a bit of good news; we will survive as a society, albeit a changed one. There is life on the other side.

More good news: I get a front-row seat.

TheRedneck


reply posted on 23-7-2008 @ 03:16 PM by Blaine91555
reply to post by DimensionalDetective



I'm sorry to hear that. Where do you live. I've only seen that in a few isolated parts of the country like Florida. The people hurting don't earn Middle Class wages though. The ones being hurt are young people earning below Middle Class wages. Maybe I'm being to harsh in word usage. It may be my age too. I'm in my 50's so everyone I know is at Middle Class or better by this age.

I survived Carter and I understand how it is to be younger and do that with lower incomes. We had double digit inflation, 21% mortgages and things this generation has never seen. We went through way worse than you are seeing now. We managed though. I worked long hours in those days. Hopefully young people now will never see it as bad as it was before Reagan straightened out that mess.

Most of the country is doing fine but I can see how interpretation would depend on where you live. Honestly all the gas prices have done is make me spend $20 more a week on gas. Food has gone up for my house about a $100 a month. I have a little less entertainment money, so I find cheaper entertainment.

As far as the mortgages go, that was self inflicted. Who in their right mind signs a variable rate mortgage when interest is so low on fixed rate? Nobody with any sense. Now Congress wants to take my money and give it to people who did such a stupid thing.


reply posted on 23-7-2008 @ 03:32 PM by Grafilthy
reply to post by Raist




but I also know I cannot afford a house that is $115K plus.

You should look at the median home prices in Seattle......You can't get anything within 30 miles for under 300k....and the jobs pay the same as elsewhere.


reply posted on 23-7-2008 @ 03:38 PM by eradown
reply to post by PokeyJoe

You need to use mass transportation. With gas prices being what they are, I am surprised that the busses and trains are not packed in my area. It is also strange that it is only the rich or the very poor who are using the busses.
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