The Widening Gap In America’s Two Tiered Society

informedcitizens.wordpress.com...

Americans, particularly ones from the middle class, need to realize that there are no core entitlements imparted by their government representatives, nor any other sources. They have none and should adjust their expectations accordingly.

If the U.S. populace somehow imagines that its members are viewed any differently than any other populations across the world that are used to produce maximal profits for the top economic class, there’s a rude awakening in store ahead. Further, most legislators simply do not care whether middle and lower class interests are or aren’t well served as long as they, themselves, can somehow make out well in the times ahead.

Besides, why should any Americans feel that they deserve to be treated more favorably by the transnational moneyed elites and their government backers than their counterparts across the rest of the world? As A. H. Bill reminds: “The richest 225 people in the world today control more wealth than the poorest 2.5 billion people. And… the three richest people in the world control more wealth than the poorest 48 nations.”

Occasionally someone making a staggering amount of money in a crooked sort of way might raise a few officials’ eyebrows or induce a mild reprimand. In addition, he might, occasionally, be singled out as the token fall guy so as to be made into a warning example as was Bernie Madoff. Most of the time, though, no action is usually undertaken to correct the situation when directors of major companies carry out activities that are, obviously, right on or over the edge of fraudulent practices.......

Please see above link to read the whole piece. I think this piece is just more evidence of something most of us already know but don't want to come to grips with, and that is the death of the American middle class. I have shown proof positive the evidence of this with charts like this..



You cannot have a sustainable US economy as long as there is no middle class. If the middle class has no money who is supposed to buy all of this crap we need to sustain our consumer based economy? Is there a coincidence that both times the inequalities were at their highest we had the worst economic downturns in our history? People there is nothing wrong with making money an no socialism does not work. But there needs to be a change in the mindset of Americans because a dead middle class is a dead America.

But..But..But Marx said that we should all share equally in our endeavors so the highest can be dumped on to meet the lowest! Isn't that what Obama is trying to do for us poor lowly middle class? Even us all out so no one feels out of place or with greater expectations than the lowest moron in our midst? Dang TJG, what we gonna do now?
Sarcasm off:

You hit it right square on the nose Amigo. We are in deep doodoo with the prospective's we see coming out of DC in the next few months. It's going to be a very raucous Midterm election cycle from all I can gather! Gonna' be down and real dirty!

Zindo

[edit on 8/25/2009 by ZindoDoone]

The article is breathtaking in it's scope. I have been concerned about the dissolution of our middle class as the trend has continued over the past 10 years. Tax breaks for the extremely wealthy combined with little oversight for out and out fraud (income funneled to unreported overseas accounts) furthers the shift of the bulk of wealth towards the top few.

If 27+ million Americans (over 1/12th of the population) live in sufficient poverty to qualify for food assistance (gross income less than $28,000 yearly for a family of four, provided they have few assets) it becomes overly apparent that something in our system seriously needs reining in.

If health care reform is not attained I shudder to think of the consequences. Raising the tax rates of the wealthiest among us to pay for it wouldn't even put a dent in the disparity between the incomes of the wealthiest and the rest of the population. It's quite shocking, really. You really have to ask yourself who the absence of a public option for health care affects the most.

I was wondering if you could fix the link to the image of the chart. Thanks.

The middle class always gets the shaft. My dad didn't make enough to pay for my college, and he made too much for tuition assistance. Poor folk were handed food stamps, tuition, medical care, subsidized rent, and didn't work. Poor folk lived next door while my dad worked his butt off. We also got high taxes because we didn't understand how the tax system was setup to manipulate where you put your money. We couldn't afford professional advice, so the government took more of our money, handed it to big corporations that won bids, and handed it to the teen neighbors next door who just had another kid so their welfare check was bigger.

If the free market was allowed to work the America middle class would be stronger than it ever was. We'd have so many more middle class mom and pop business owners. But instead we have state corporatism where government and big corporations are in bed with each other. Leaching off each other for bribes, kickbacks, special interest, lobbyists, campaign finance etc.

College tuition is so expensve because of GOVERNMENT! If colleges and universities didn't provided all this free debt based money for kids, many of which have no business even going to college, the price would have dropped dramatically. But instead the DOE and Federal student loans props up a multibillion dollar higher education system that is run more like a multinational corporation instead of an institute of learning. Just look how much damn money goes towards NCAA sports. I love how many people bitch about college tuition and then plop their fat asses down every weekend to idolize professional athletes and college athletes. Higher education is a racket supported by big government.

When was the last time a college or university ever went bankrupt in this country?

This country definitely needs some redistribution of wealth......but it needs to come at the hands of the free market not government. And we would have had a good start if all these banks and corporations would have been left to go bankrupt.

[edit on 26-8-2009 by Zosynspiracy]

This all sounds like whining to me.

You should be concerned with learning to make more money, not trying to pull down the winners.
The idea that ~everybody~ deserves a free ride is bogus.

reply to post by THX-1138



Why don't you try to stay on topic . No one is arguing a free ride for anyone. We are talking about the American MIDDLE CLASS! They hardly constitute a "free ride". In fact they are the back bone of EVERYTHING. The rich don't get richer without the disposable income of the middle class. In fact you can even say the middle class is the tool that the rich use to steal money from each other. Many wealthy people are hardly winners either. A majority of fortunes in America were made over a hundred years ago. Many fortunes today are made by people sticking their hand in the next guy's pocket. America hardly produces or manufactures much anymore that leads to real wealth. Even Bill Gates and Steve Jobs had serious government intervention in order to be able to build their empires. If government stayed out of private enterprise there would a lot less rich people, a lot less poor people, and a lot more middle class people. In my eyes middle class people ARE THE WINNERS!

But you're probbly a self made multimillionaire right?

[edit on 26-8-2009 by Zosynspiracy]

[edit on 26-8-2009 by Zosynspiracy]

[edit on 26-8-2009 by Zosynspiracy]

Originally posted by elfie
The article is breathtaking in it's scope. I have been concerned about the dissolution of our middle class as the trend has continued over the past 10 years. Tax breaks for the extremely wealthy combined with little oversight for out and out fraud (income funneled to unreported overseas accounts) furthers the shift of the bulk of wealth towards the top few.

If 27+ million Americans (over 1/12th of the population) live in sufficient poverty to qualify for food assistance (gross income less than $28,000 yearly for a family of four, provided they have few assets) it becomes overly apparent that something in our system seriously needs reining in.

If health care reform is not attained I shudder to think of the consequences. Raising the tax rates of the wealthiest among us to pay for it wouldn't even put a dent in the disparity between the incomes of the wealthiest and the rest of the population. It's quite shocking, really. You really have to ask yourself who the absence of a public option for health care affects the most.

Even if you taxed everyone making over 500,000 at some very high unrealistic tax rate, you wouldn't even be able to make up for the budget deficit imbalance.

"Taxing the rich" isnt' going to solve anyone's Marxist redistribution dreams.

reply to post by elfie


Jim Demint's bill in the Senate is the better way to provide insurance instead of illegal State Run Medicine.

reply to post by THX-1138


Thanks, we qualified for the top 1% in 2007.

"The Peoples Voice":

In relation, one wonders when a significant number of Americans will, finally, recognize that they’ve been had. Put another way by Andrew Greeley: “It should be no surprise that when rich men take control of the government, they pass laws that are favorable to themselves. The surprise is that those who are not rich vote for such people, even though they should know from bitter experience that the rich will continue to rip off the rest of us. Perhaps the reason is that rich men are very clever at covering up what they do.”

And yes, If you make just enough to get by " you need not apply for ANY kind of assistance" it is not available.

The wealthy work the system from the top!
The poor work the system from the bottm!

The majority Middle Class keeps working hard and voting in the same scumbags.

I QUIT!!! Hurry up 12-21-2012

Originally posted by VinceP1974


Even if you taxed everyone making over 500,000 at some very high unrealistic tax rate, you wouldn't even be able to make up for the budget deficit imbalance.

"Taxing the rich" isnt' going to solve anyone's Marxist redistribution dreams.

Who said anything about taxing the rich? Why not quit subsidizing international corporations who send millions of middle class good paying jobs over seas. That would be a nice place to start.

Originally posted by THX-1138
This all sounds like whining to me.

You should be concerned with learning to make more money, not trying to pull down the winners.
The idea that ~everybody~ deserves a free ride is bogus.

Who says anything about a free ride? The middle class work. The middle class just is not getting paid. Please don't give me this "Go to college if you want more money" because I have seen more "educated jobs" go to India than I would ever care to see.

Originally posted by elfie
I was wondering if you could fix the link to the image of the chart. Thanks.

The link does work for me but here is another...

Noam Chomsky also talks about this in his >10 year old lecture Class Warfare, which turned out to be disturbingly accurate. It's worth listening to if you haven't heard it.

reply to post by tjeffersonsghost


Don't let 'em get to you TJ's G, some people get it--some don't.

I used to get it but lately it seems like this world is slowely doing a 180/upside down movement.

reply to post by Zosynspiracy


I understand some of what you are saying. But I can tell you from someone who I know was on the inside... part of the problem with tuition is the amazing costs of just paying the higher ups.

The salaries wasted on college administration is staggering. One of the Univer this person worked for is a well known and decent school.

But also one of the most expensive. The CFO alone makes 300k a year. Which is twice as much as the cfo for the state! And the dean demanded a brand new, top of the line computer every six months.

which kills me because I can't even go to college because I can't even afford one class.

reply to post by nixie_nox


Not only that, but the high tenured professors who hold chairs at the Univer don't actually teach. Most of the profs don't enter the classroom but once or twice a semester.The grad students are in the class room while these elite idiots spend all their time trying to publish and apply for grants to make more money.

Zindo

[edit on 8/26/2009 by ZindoDoone]