30 years ago today: The beginning of the end of the Middle Class.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

Article by Michael Moore.
From time to time, someone under 30 will ask me, "When did this all begin, America's downward slide?" They say they've heard of a time when working people could raise a family and send the kids to college on just one parent's income (and that college in states like California and New York was almost free). That anyone who wanted a decent paying job could get one. That people only worked five days a week, eight hours a day, got the whole weekend off and had a paid vacation every summer. That many jobs were union jobs, from baggers at the grocery store to the guy painting your house, and this meant that no matter how "lowly" your job was you had guarantees of a pension, occasional raises, health insurance and someone to stick up for you if you were unfairly treated.
Read more here:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/30-years-ago-today

I'm sorry if someone has already posted this. I looked around and didn't see it, and I think you guys will love it.

[indepat]

1. I recall the district supervisor for my government agency taking a 2-grade-level

reduction to a field position so he could move his family back to California where a college education was free/nearly free: that was about 50 years ago. ;)

[demosincebirth]

2. Two things. One, the firing of the Air traffic controllers by Reagan, and two

the de-regulation of the unionized Trucking Industry. The latter, we can thank Ted Kennedy and signed into law by Carter.