Another great comment from R.L. Schaefer:
The truer picture of the middle class
Here’s an anecdote; Back from WWII, my father bought a house in Los Angeles. At the time he was a “grease monkey” at an auto repair shop. He earned $65..00 a week and my mother didn’t work. The home cost $6000.00.
He earned the price of the house in about 21 months.
Today the same little house in 900K (it was S1,200,000 at the top of the market) – a lube and oil guy in L.A. earns about $20.00 an hour, or $800 a week. At that rate it would take Mr. Lube Guy 21 years – not
21 months, to earn the price of the same home!
Now, both parents need to work full time, at well paid jobs, to buy a modest home.
I don’t think the middle class is doin’ real well. And, it ain’t gonna get any better in a country that has outsourced its jobs, overpaid its executives, won’t provide its own energy needs, is burdened by union legacy costs, bogged down by dozens of governmental bureaucracies, buried in debt and is strangled by hundreds of costly, dogmatic Environmentalist regulations.
We certainly can not compete and succeed – The question really is, “Can we survive?”
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Our government has really betrayed us. They see what is happening to the middle class but do you see them doing anything to stop it? The middle class is shrinking. Taxes up, Deductaibles up, HSA’s, Consumer prices Including food and energy are up! Wages are the same or so paultry they don’t even keep up with cost of living. The world that I grew up in is gone and wouldn’t come back even if you held a gun to thier heads.
On another note, a popular webiste has muted my freedom of speech. OWS is constantly being harrassed, arrested, and forcfully tazered and tear gassed to oppress their rights of speech and assembly. Can the middle and lower class do anything short of revolution to fight back?
I agree with you about the suppression of the middle class through public and private policy. In addition to that though, American “sheep” seem blind to the corruption that is the US government. Honestly what does the American public think that the job of a lobbyist is? To present and persuade a politician to review their product, their proposition or law and vote in favor of their interest. Most people think that their representative has to vote the same way that their district votes on a ballot but representatives and senators can vote however they want regardless of how their constituents vote. So for us to think that our government isn’t bought is similar to thinking that a tire sales man would still be in business if all cars flew. Why do you think there are so few limitations on campaign contributions and lobbyist’s expense accounts?
Very true. And lobbyists are not just affecting government. There are lobbyists to persuade the Hollywood elites too. Everyday they are selling their ideas to actors/actresses in order to get a following based on their popularity. Influence peddlers are everywhere. BUT constituents need to be more active Influencers themselves. Thanks for chiming in!
Amen to that!