Mitt's middle income gaffe, an accidental truth

[DonCoquixote]

I was inspired by this thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021343083

Now, to sum it up, Mitt defined Middle Americans as those making 200K a year. Now, let's be honest, few DUers, myself included, would come close. Some of us live in places where 100k per annum is considered uppermiddle class, enough to pay the rent, pay the bills, send the kids to private school, and have enough to comfortably eat out.

Yes, I realize some New Yorkers will say that is not much, but most of that is the way overpriced real estate market that literally turned parts of Harlem into yuppie condos.

Also, needles to say, all civil servants, including all teachers, most cops, most firemen, and even many nurses, would fall WAY short of this mark. Here in Tampa, the chief of police does not make that much. And this is the lady who made her cops give OWS gatorade instead of beating them, unlike Oakland.

http://www.ehow.com/about_6547364_police-chief-salary-florida.html

Hell, most engineers do not make that much.

So what does this mean?

That Mitt does not care about or fear anyone making less than 200 grand a year? Well, that is obvious. But in America, we have a fluid sense of class, we believe that anyone can make it, and, while most people know Horatio Alger is a myth, there used to be a chance where people could, with traning, get to the comfortable middle class level.

USED to BE.

What Mitt has inadervently done is destroy the myth of the Middle Class that was one of the major barriers against rebellion. The truth is, in the world that Mitt creates, without the social security, or the civil servants, you are NOT middle class unless you have a stock of cash. Oner medical bill or legal bill can send your house of cards down, and most of Mitt's donors are people who have a vested interest in being able to take your money: collectors, banks, medical corporations, insurance, private schools, churches, and outright crooks and theives that make their money the old-fashioned way, they STEAL it.

Guess what, the vast majority of people who think they are middle class, are NOT.

[xchrom]

1. i don't want to be divided from people making 200k a year if they are a worker.

i.e. not management, etc.

if they are a worker, small business owner, etc -- however that shakes out -- then they are just prols like the rest of us w/ a better paycheck.

[Nikia]

5. But generally they don't have to worry about barely scraping by

Unless they are making some really bad decisions with their money. They might be able to invest $50,000/year of their money and eventually not have to work if they so choose.
I think that the OP reflects the fact that Americans want to be at least middle class. If $200,000 is middle class, few of us can attain that no matter what we do.

[xchrom]

7. I get what your're saying ... But scraping by

Can't be the standard.

We need to get the message out that lots more people are just workers - even if they're not scraping.

[lumpy]

2. We have never had a presidential candidate more clueless than Mitt Romney.

Dubya is a genius compared to Mitt. Romney's only interest, apparently, has been in collecting money, and then he must have had someone else doing the thinking in that area. I can't think of one thing he appears to be well versed in. Can you think of anything?
How about diplomacy, foreign relations, domestic affairs, Constitutional rights, human rights, the workings of leadership ? Doubtfull

[DonCoquixote]

3. Sadly, none of that matters

The elites in this country are trying to hide the fact they have NOTHING to back their bluster.

Ivy league education?, look what it did for Mitt and W.
World Travel? W. and Mitt manage to embarass the country every time they go abroad.
Patriotism?, W. and Mitt have no problem putting their money aborad, or hiring cheap Chinese workers.
Track record of success?, Bush managed to go broke in the Oil Biz, and Mitt used other's people money to build Bain.

The fact is, the instituions that built the elites are a joke, and that is not only true in America, but everywhere. Meritocracy is dead, and there is serious debate about whether it can, or even should, be revived.

[Nikia]

4. I agree that few people can hope to make that much

Even if they are college educated and rise towards the top of their field. If that is middle class, most of us have no hope of being anything other than poor even if we do everything "right".

[lumpy]

6. Traditionally the Middle Class has always been the larger bulk of the US population.

It still is inspite of Romney's whacky conclusion. We can prove it at the polls. That is if some of the Middle Class educated themselves about politics instead of swallowing the crap that comes out of political soundbites.

[DonCoquixote]

8. It is also done

To redefine the term poor, after all, if even college educated professionals are considered the poor, that means the one percent can still hate them and consider themselves the moral superiors. It also means that the more poor can be hated even more.