by Tim Nelson
Member since:
March 11, 2007

A large middle class? Fo'geta'boutit!

November 21, 2009 11:22 AM EST
views: 50 | comments: 14

The large middle class lasted 50 years, so lets just get over ourselves for once. Sure, the large middle class HAD a solid foundation, but now it doesn't.

The transfer of economic power is happening to US this time. It is we who are downsizing, and returning to an earlier time.

How big was the economy of the USA in those early years? Women, slaves, and others were not paid for their labor. They could not vote, but they did have a social contract. That social contract is what we would call charity, today.

Those who demean government welfare, in favor of the charity-based social contract, have never compared the two, objectively.

Comments: 14

Spencer T. Nov 21, 2009, 11:44am EST
No they haven't and I fear when they do they might find themselves in the mirror. While pointing at others who break their perceived restrictions they have pointed themselves into a lower economic class as well.
J. Reid Nov 21, 2009, 3:40pm EST
Point dead on and nailed!

Again you have beat me to the bunch! :)
Sandy (back in Ohio...blah!) Nov 21, 2009, 12:19pm EST
I don't think you can really compared the two.
Angel sent from God Secret Sisters Nov 21, 2009, 1:04pm EST
Congratulation for a featured post of the day !!! :D :D:D :D
Beth G. Nov 21, 2009, 3:39pm EST
The middle class does seem to be struggling these days. This is the featured post for comment as you please today!
Tim Nelson Nov 21, 2009, 5:42pm EST
Two of these today. I must have learned how to write.
libramoon C. Nov 21, 2009, 5:49pm EST
We need a large middle class to have the consumer base necessary to continue a growing economy. More fundamentally, we need a large class of people to do all the work beyond bare subsistence labor. If people do not have the incentive of creating comfortable lives from their work, it all degrades.
Marsha S. Nov 22, 2009, 12:00am EST
I do believe you have hit the nail on the head
Carol Lloyd Nov 22, 2009, 8:35am EST
Tim it is the middle class that acts as a buffer between those that have and those who have not. Take that away and we are just another 3rd world nation heading toward revolution or civil war.
Tim Nelson Nov 22, 2009, 10:05am EST
A large middle class is the rare exception, which only took place because of the depleted state of nations at the end of WWII. We have Laffer curves, and other such drivel, only because we needed new models of economic behavior, due to a large middle class.

A standard economy, by historical standards, has a small middle class.

We will adjust, like the UK did, without the pitchforks, and torches.
Tim Nelson Nov 22, 2009, 10:09am EST
Returning to income tax rates during the great depression, around 79% for the top tier, would be a great first step.
Peter Joseph Swanson Nov 22, 2009, 10:17am EST
Labor Unions put economic power into the hands of the working class for the first time in history. Unions made the middle class. As Unions decline (Republicans policies worked to utterly crush them), so does the middle class.
Tim Nelson Nov 22, 2009, 10:38am EST
Labor unions didn't form before the middle class grew, that's true, but the union organizers tried for at least a half-century before that.
Peter Joseph Swanson Nov 22, 2009, 10:48am EST
it took a long while for it to work for enough people (and lots of union places to go to work to like all the factory jobs we had) to get a middle class.

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