Does the USA need a middle class?

[screembloodymurder]

If you believe the media, our economy is booming, but the average worker is earning less "real" money than he did 20 years ago. Can this trend continue? If the American consumer dies and the corporations still thrive, is a middle class needed? I don't believe a Democracy can survive when one class controls the bulk of the wealth.

[thinkingwoman]

1. spending by the middle class

drives the American economy. That's simple Econ 101.

The media lies, as we all know, and they will continue lying until the story overtakes them.

Then they will say they were telling us the truth all along but we "just weren't interested" in the story. :eyes:

Big business knows the score as well. They will take and take and take from the middle class until the breaking point. Then they will allow enough gains that the middle class starts buying again, at which time the entire cycle will start anew.

[DaveJ]

22. No, not really.

That's my take on it anyway.

Econ101 and most other courses in academia have always been behind in matters pertaining to the 'real' world, but now it is becoming a larger problem. In this case it ignores the population problem.

The population problem has been forcast for decades, and now it is starting to emerge. People now have to compete for natural resources to survive: food, oil, electricity, and natural resources necessary to construct basic shelter.

The idea of a middle class was based on the notion that basic living necessities were readily available and easy to obtain. People who were less educated or unmotivated did not achieve much, but at least they had life's necessities. Not anymore -- now basic necessities are the far most difficult things to obtain.

The current administration is not really addressing this issue except in that they are creating the appearance that they want to grab all the world's resources they can (oil, economic power, etc). They are not addressing the lifestyle changes that we must strive for in order to live in comfort and harmony as lifespans increase the the population continues to grow. A middle class is not necessary because the vast majority of people cannot compete for success when what we unfortunately need to do is focus on our basic survival.

[Deja Q]

2. We are a republic, not a democracy. And not a real republic either...

Definition of a republic:

A state in which the sovereign power resides in the whole body of the people, and is exercised by representatives elected by them; a commonwealth. 1913 Webster

Definition of what our country TRULY is:

Plutocracy Plu*toc"ra*cy (pl-u*to^k"r.a*sy^), n. Gr.
ploutokrati`a; plou^tos wealth + kratei^n to be strong, to
rule, fr. krato`s strength: cf. F. plutocratie.
A form of government in which the supreme power is lodged in
the hands of the wealthy classes; government by the rich;
also, a controlling or influential class of rich men.
1913 Webster

[PDX Bara]

10. Who?

Who is the person with the black "Elvis" type shirt in your post? I don't watch TV so I have no idea... Thanks.

[rman]

23. Republic: "...representatives elected by (the people)..."

That's in your own (or Webster's) words.

So how is "representatives elected by the people" not democracy?

[Deja Q]

3. The economy does well because profits are being made...

But that cannot continue, given their current methods of obtaining their profits - which happens by cutting jobs and worker benefits while raising their own salaries.

And they too know the party's about to end.

[mduffy31]

4. Well

My wife and I are both college grads, I am a nurse and my wife works for the state. Now we sometimes barely make it some months. It is no longer like it was when my parents were younger, my fathers paycheck from the power company was enough to pay the bills and the income that my mom got from being a teacher was for everything else. Now my wife and I both have to work to just make the rent and heat each month, and we are coming up on winter in Minnesota, the best 8 months of the year.

[screembloodymurder]

11. LOL

I like winter. Maybe I should move.

[izzie]

5. If you want an upper class you will need this middle class.

A lot of poor people are not going to keep stock holders in dividends.Going to be hard to put in roads if no one has cars and they need only to build 100 TV sets at RCA because no one can buy them. To be a CEO you need something to be CEO of.:shrug:

[screembloodymurder]

12. They're just moving the middle class to China and India.

They will still sell the TV sets. They'll just save on shipping. I believe the American worker is becoming irrelevant.

[whatever4]

6. My answer would be

That as long as we're buying from them, while working for pennies, our "leaders" don't care what our standard of living is. Look at us as a resource, because that's how they look at us. All we are is bodies. The most useful bodies are best kept. All others are negotiable. Young and old, weak and infirm. Slavery, basically. So I'd say no, they don't need a middle class at all. All they need is a dominated populace, one which has to buy from them, work for them, and obey them.

It's my opinion this is already a reality. We have more people in prison in our nation than any other nation on earth. We have one twentieth (1/20) of the world population. Ask yourself, how can WE possibly have more people in prison than any other nation, having built up over the past 20 years, if we only have 1/20 of the world population? Has human nature changed suddenly...or has our government?

No, make no mistake, it's already a prison nation, right under our noses. And the idea of it has been normalized, which is just as bad.

Middle class? I'd say they only want two classes, top and bottom. All we have to do is buy products and work. WE don't have to be happy or healthy doing it. In fact, when our ill health causes us to purchase more, and our poverty causes us to bow down to more and more federal regs and control (Katrina victims being shuffled around), the lower they push us, the better.

[acmejack]

7. We shall soon find out.

The * administration has nearly completed their project to eliminate the middle class. We will be able to determine just how vital this group is to America in the very near future.

[BlueEyedSon]

8. uh... I do!

:)

[Village Idiot]

9. Ya, well....why on EARTH would you believe the MEDIA?

[Ready4Change]

13. Lost potential. Destroyed potential.

The middle class, as an organism, is highly sensitive. When it detects a predator it recoils in self protection. Economically, that means it stops spending money. The predator in this case is the upper class. The senses are continued messages that, no matter what the people want, tax cuts will continue to be given to the wealthy, people will continue to be required to work harder for less pay, and our leadership in control of the White House, Senate and Congress has no intention of changing these facts.

The lost potential is this: The middle class HAS money to spend. Right now. Our economy could turn on a dime, in a heartbeat, if something could restore confidence in the middle class. Our ecconomy could be doing better right now, but it's not. Lost potential.

However, if that confidence is not restored, the middle class will continue to grow more fatigued. It will start to crash, dropping into the lower class, and loosing spending power. THAT'S real trouble. That's destroyed potential. That can't be repaired on a dime, in a heartbeat. Repairing destroyed potential takes generations, if it can EVER be done.

[sadiesworld]

14. The politicians don't think so, obviously.

[phantom power]

15. Without one, you end up with a very small upper-class and a...

very very large population of peasants. And a third-world economy.

[newharper]

17. and one that

the said peasants appear happy to keep cheerleading for the system.

[raccoon]

16. Yes.

Economy booming? Yeah, right.

If another Great Depression happened, you can bet the corporate media would NEVER use the "D" word.

[stevebreeze]

18. Imagine a tree, the top if full and lush, however, the trunk is hollowed

out and the roots are rotting in the soil. This is our current economy. You will remember just a few weeks ago, David Cay Johnston had a study that showed the top http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/37/11624 is far out pacing the middle class. Whats more they are gaining at the expense of the rest of us. Witness the draconian budget cuts the republicans just passed. This can not continue without a serious recession, and much of the safety net has been cut from under us. The top of the tree no matter how pampered, needs the trunk to be strong and the roots to run deep to survive and proposer. We are all in this together.

[screembloodymurder]

19. What a beautiful analogy.

I just hope the tree survives.

[rman]

20. Just look at the middle ages/dark ages

The rich and powerful managed to stay rich and powerful by exploiting the rest of the population as slaves - literally for centuries.

Of course people won't stand for such exploitation it, so it will collapse, eventually.
Then things get better, "the people" forget how bad it once was, and the whole thing can start over again. The rich and powerful don't forget how well such a system works for them.

[ktlyon]

21. I support a one class system

but to get there we need the middle class to bridge the gap that has been history. It has always been the haves over the have nothings. The middle class needs to grow until there is no edge.

[fasttense]

24. The middle class is a very recent development in the history of man.

Throughout most of history, there was a huge lower class and a very small upper class. The upper class was the elite ruling class. There were a few people who managed to rise above the poverty but not obtain the wealth of the elite ruling class but they were very few. An economy can function just fine with only two classes. You need many, many poor to support one upper class elite. You need fewer middle class to support one upper class elite. The larger your middle class, the more upper class elites you can support. If the upper class wants to stay small, they encourage and promote a huge poor class. If the upper class wants to expand, they encourage and promote a large middle class.

The problem is that sometimes the poor and the middle class object to supporting the elite, then there are revolutions and revolts. During Roman times, there was a major uprising about every three years. As conditions worsened for the poor, the number of uprisings increased to as often as once a year. If you have a large middle class, and a smaller poor class, you will have fewer uprisings.

A large middle class makes for a more stable society but is not necessary for a good economy. Just ask Greenspan.

[Democrats_win]

25. Middle class is bad for people who get rich off the labor of others

The laborless class believes that great character means to make your money work for you. The middle class (MC) is smart enough not to work for peanuts and insist on benefits and some control over the working conditions. The MC also values the ideal of work and the character it brings.

For the laborless class, the larger the poverty class, the better. The laborless class will be in a better position to force low wages on the poverty class and exploit them with no benefits and dead end jobs at the lowest possible pay.