Economic Reports: Middle Class Americans Feel Less Secure Than Five Years Ago

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/8321

Economic Report:

Middle class Americans don’t feel better off than they did five years ago according to a new study from the Pew Research Center. The majority of those polled say they haven’t progressed in five years with 31 percent expressing that they have gone backwards. 53 percent of the middle class Americans polled said they have cut spending due to a tighter wallet.

[Corgigal]

1. Really ? Ya think?

This might explain why I just put in an application for a job located in Antarctica. Baby girl needs some college funds.

[Deja Q]

2. The truth is in the middle.

I've cut spending too; though for doctor and vet appointments, food, the usual, I'm remaining frugal and avoiding sugar crap.

If I had tons of money, I'd get that 60" TV, but I don't need it and I'm not competing with Ms. Jones next door either.

And I'm especially avoiding radio commercials that are uber-tacky. McDonalds' desire to overload them with adjectives is not compelling me to eat greasy snot slop and I know how to make my own cappuccino, with better ingredients I control.

Of course, news articles have had a field day saying only the upper class is moving ahead while everyone is stagnant or moving backward. I can live with stagnant and even going backward though nobody finds that fun. So while I'll agree, we all have to do our part, especially in war time like the dj said on the radio show this morning, why are some doing what could be perceived as "not doing their part"? Why are we, as taxpayers, helping the banks but not the homeowners, not all of which are the wasteful spending, lazy, crack-smoking wastrels many like to claim? I still recall the article where the bank gave a construction worker, making $15/hr, a loan for a $700k house. Both sides should have known better, but the construction worker was a young adult and in all probability, naive. (they don't even teach basic finances in school anymore. Not in now, not back in my day, but they did during my parents' day (early 1960s). I wish they taught the importance of it in my day, and they really need to now. Especially with predatory lenders out there.)

[poppysgal]

3. The truth is

that those of us that were was once known as the middle class are now known as the lower middle class and our backs are almost broken because we have been carrying a huge load. :argh:

[Beausoleil]

4. That's what happens when you vote "R"

for "reverse".

[The2ndWheel]

5. A middle class is only possible with cheap energy, especially cheap non-human energy

And that's only if the people have jobs, and are not made interchangeable and easily replaceable by addition people, or obsolete and inefficient by automation. Also, place must still factor into the equation.

However, the cheaper the energy, the easier it is to replace you with an indentical cog, or have the job get done thousands of miles away by a mechanized arm that doesn't have children to feed, a need for sleep, and health problems.

[Beausoleil]

6. Not sure if it's the middle-class

that's only possible with cheap energy, but the suburban/exurban lifestyle with no mass transit and one commuter per car every morning and evening, that is only possible with cheap energy.

There are many things we can do that can preserve the American middle class as energy gets more and more expensive. It just takes political will and educating the people, and probably massive public expenditure. We will have to change the way we live.