What Middle Class are we trying to save?

It's the mantra of progressives and democrats (gad, even Lou Dobbs) that the middle class is under attack and needs to be helped or saved or rescued or supported or ... something. Of course, my empathetic side stands up and cheers. The middle class is the bedrock of every modern, democratic society. It is the heartbeat of civility and the engine of creativity and productivity. It is the strongest protector of the weak and the greatest champion of collective optimism. In short, it is a really, really good thing.

But then my practical side kicks in and, being an unreconstructed academic, I am compelled to wonder: "What does 'middle class' mean?"

Being lazy, I go to the wikipedia article on the 'American Middle Class'. But its first sentence says: "The American middle class is an ambiguously defined social class in the United State" Not hopeful. Then, as I read more (Google has 11.4M hits for "middle class" so I may have missed a few), most writers lament the vagueness of their definitions. So, I figured why not explore the definition with a posse of brilliant Kossacks? So come over the fold and pitch in.

As I read the voluminous literature on the middle class, the most common definition focuses on a Middle Class Income. This is the definition that economists, policy wonks and the census bureau favor. There is some magic amount of money that qualifies you (like a country club fee) for membership in the 'club'. The only problem is that no one agrees on the number. They aren't sure agree whether it should be measured on individual or household income.

Whatever the number, most observers agree that the middle class income is under threat. Smart, motivated people around the world are thrilled to do our high paying jobs for less money. Contrary to some beliefs, we're typically not competing against oppressed or slave labor. Most foreign workers live where the cost of living is simply lower than ours. Many of the workers that underbid us are convinced that they are in the middle class in their economy - and they're hungry to stay there.

The Middle Class Job - The post-WWII era in the United States created an unprecedented surge in high wage jobs. America was the last industrial economy still standing. As the world rebuilt, America could make and sell pretty much anything it wanted. This rewarded the 'mass-production' manufacturing economy that America had developed prior to the war - and paid high wages even to unskilled factory workers. It gave American labor the clout to demand and get the Great Society. Long careers at one company. A retirement pension. Employer healthcare. Work hard, play by the rules, and everyone could be secure and have at least one vacation a year.

Unfortunately "middle class jobs" are also under threat. Its not just mean-spirited robber barons or sociopathic outsourcers that are killing them off. A lot of the damage is inflicted by technology and new ways to run businesses at the front lines. We can do tasks with machines that used to require skilled people. At the same time, the invention of the global supply chain and the Internet allows us to find products and services anywhere in the world. The new middle class job is really part of an emerging career path where a sequence of different jobs is punctuated by episodes of retraining and retooling. Not the same thing at all.

The Middle Class Education and Middle Class Culture - Many in the middle class have at least part of a university bachelor's degree. Its a chicken and egg thing. Having a degree greatly improves the chance for a middle class job, income, and lifestyle - and coming from a middle class home greatly improves the chance of having a university degree. Whatever the causality, the middle class education clearly shapes the middle class self-view and how it views the world, public affairs and life in general. It is a key feature of the middle class 'culture'. A lot of people who are between work or short of money still see themselves as middle class - because they think and act like members of the middle class.

Yet, a middle class education is becoming unaffordable to many in the middle class. If there are ways to preserve it, they won't be easy. It will take a lot of work and creativity. We need better analysis, better leadership and far less turf-protecting. Given the nature of our educational institutions, that's a longshot. Even if we succeed, preserving middle class education won't single-handedly solve the problem. Ultimately, an educated middle class may be smart enough to realize that they are falling out of the economic middle class.

A Middle Class Lifestyle - Yet another way to look at the middle class is to think of it as a 'lifestyle'. If I were to pick some signature aspects of that lifestyle, the list might look like the following:

• Steady work with reasonable assurance of future income.  
• Good housing, personal security and ample nourishment.
• Some free time to care for the kids, enjoy personal pursuits and engage with broader society.
• Personal mobility and freedom to travel.
• Credible, effective health care.
• Education for the next generation.
• Some disposable income.

The lifestyle definition assumes both an income and an expense, but the absolute amounts don't matter. What matters is having essential amenities and enough disposable income to feel like life allows us some free will and control over our choices.

This is the definition that seems seem to me to be the most useful - and the most hopeful. It means that we can strengthen the middle class by focusing as hard on our expenses as we do on our incomes. Fortunately, our economy produces so much waste that there are plenty of opportunities to cut our costs and enhance our quality of life:

• Reform Health Care - We pay more and get less than any developed country.
• Reduce Energy Consumption - We consume more energy than any other country
• Shrink defense - We spend more on defense than the rest of the world put together.
• Change our diet - We eat more junk than any other developed country and it leads to more health costs.
• Reform Education - We spend a lot on education that frankly sucks.
• Reduce Travel - We travel farther and more often for less that virtually any other country (think suburbs).

A lifestyle-centric definition would allow us to look for low-cost ways to expand the critical amenities of our lifestyle. Instead of bringing more people to the middle class lifestyle, we might be able to the bring the middle class lifestyle to more people.

So its simple, right? We just have to reform all of our most wasteful activities, keep working real hard and we will sail gracefully off into the sunset? Right?

Right?

Questions:

1. If we cut our costs for healthcare, defense, energy, transportation, food, etc., won't that hurt industries that currently offer a lot of 'middle class jobs'?

2. How do we convince Americans to become more frugal when some Americans (with help from the MSM) are ostentatiously flaunting the wealth that they earn off of our lack of frugality?

3. Is the middle class a useful concept or a confusing myth?

4. What's your definition of the middle class?

•  tip jar? n/t

  by grapes on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 06:45:29 AM PDT

  •  would you find it reassuring if I told you that

    the long-term trend of energy prices per unit is going to be upward practically regardless of what we do about fixing the energy problem?

    by alizard on Sat Jul 14, 2007 at 12:41:39 AM PDT

    •  Nope - but everything is relative

      If every other country faces the same upward trend, then we all have to tighten our belts. But if Americans us more energy, less efficiently than anyone else, our belt-tightening will give us a bigger relative advantage.

      I hope.

      Maybe?

      by grapes on Sat Jul 14, 2007 at 05:29:25 PM PDT

      •  what I'm hoping is that

        we'll be able to sell energy-efficiency and alternative energy technology and products to the rest of the world.

        And that American businesses will be smart enough to be early adopters of the regional model of production, i.e. instead of the cheap-energy-dependent raw materials from Country A, to be processed in Country B, turned into components in Country C, assembled into products in Country D, and shipped here, that companies will accept the redundancy and go start-to-finish in each regional market.

        The problem is that we need to push American businesses into a longer-term business perspective... by changing the tax laws so that it is no longer personally profitable for C-level people to manage to a quarterly bonus/option timeframe.

        by alizard on Sat Jul 14, 2007 at 06:52:03 PM PDT

•  Having enough money to stay healthy and

  support myself, and enough time to do some of the things I enjoy...and freedom from fear about not having some of those things.

  by dangangry on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 06:50:25 AM PDT

  •  due to the health care situation

    I think that is now approaching the definition of "rich"

    by HiBob on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 09:34:12 AM PDT

•  Here is the wingnut definition

  remember this when they talk about the "middle Class"

  "When I see a first-class individual who makes $80,000 a year, he's lower middle class. When I see someone who is making anywhere from $300,000 to $750,000 a year, that's middle class. When I see anyone above that, that's upper middle class."
  --Rep. Fred Heineman (R-NC), explaining that his yearly income of $180,000 leaves him short of middle-class status

  by NCrefugee on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 06:58:19 AM PDT

  •  damn ncrefugee, I've been looking for that

    quote for years.  I was thinking he said $130,000 to get to the middle class.  Rep Fred said this serveral years ago right?  Thanks.

    Nice diary grape.

    by tribalecho on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 07:12:43 AM PDT

    •  1995

      Funny McCain Pics archive updated regularly

      by InsultComicDog on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 11:51:14 PM PDT

  •  Let me just say that...

    That individual is out of touch.

    by mmcole on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 07:49:06 AM PDT

  •  Well, the middle class ought to at least touch

    the middle. While everyone who's rich seems to want to include themselves in the middle class -cause they all know people who are even richer. If you asked those same people "is the US a mostly poor country? Are most US residents poverty stricken?" they'd say no (due to pride and cognitive dissonance). So the middle class should  go down to the median household income of $46k/yr (2005).
    On the other hand, the cutoff for the  top 5% of household income is $156k/yr. I think having 19 out of 20 people below you on the hill is plenty to consider yourself rich - after all, you are now officially a statistical outlier. Unless, that is,  you're ready to concede that the vast majority of the citizens of the United States of America are Poor.

    In which case, shouldn't you be doing something about that?

    by HiBob on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 09:09:54 AM PDT

    •  I think what I would do to define

      middle class by household income, would be this:

      1. Pull out of the median income caclulation all househholds with income below the poverty level. These folks, by definition, can not be "middle class".

      2. I would then use this newly calculated median income of folks not in poverty as my midline and go out 2 standard deviations from there.

      3. I would then look at the household incomes of people in the lower end of my curve (within the 2 standard deviations) and determine if those incomes are sufficient to support the "middle class lifestyle" outlined above.  If that turned out to be true, I would consider myself done.  If not, I would try to determine what income is necessary to minimally support that middle class lifestyle. That level of income, however many standard deviations from the median would be my entry point for "middle class."

      4. Anyone with a household income north of 2 standard deviations from the median (the top 5%) would then be considered "rich", or upper income.

      By removing those in poverty from the calculation, you would get a significantly higher "median income", and aslo a much higher cutoff for "middle class."

      I haven't tried to run any of these numbers, (it's a little too late on the East coast for that), but I would be interested in the results if anybody wants to take a crack at it.

      Florida Kossacks Rock

      Blog Florida Blue

      

      by gatordem on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 10:50:30 PM PDT

  •  I tell wingnuts when they complain of America

    losing it's middle american (class) values, that you can't have middle class values without a middle class.

    by dopper0189 on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 08:15:13 PM PDT

•  OK. I'll Bite.

    1.  If we cut our costs for healthcare, defense, energy, transportation, food, etc., won't that hurt industries that currently offer a lot of 'middle class jobs'?

  Of course it will. But it will create new industries so this is a wash. For instance, where I lived abroad, nobody had "central heating and air." Most peopled used little space heaters. You heat or cool the room you're in, not the whole house.

  Well, so maybe Trane and Carrier and the other makers of big residential units re-tool to make smaller, more efficient systems. The trick here to make improvements on a steady, gradual basis.

   2. How do we convince Americans to become more frugal when some Americans (with help from the MSM) are ostentatiously flaunting the wealth that they earn off of our lack of frugality?

  You can't convince Americans of anything. Half of 'em think the Bible is the actual recorded thoughts of an invisible superbeing. But you can tax things. And you can give tax credits for things. Some combination of carrots and sticks are warranted here.

    3. Is the middle class a useful concept or a confusing myth?

  I've asked a lot of people, face-to-face and online, what they think a middle-class income is. You get quite a range of answers. I like your lifestyle definition better. You can also use a process of exclusion: Anybody who owns a yacht isn't middle class. Anybody who owns a $250,000 parking space in Manhattan isn't middle class. Anybody living on public assistance isn't middle class.

  And that answers number 4 for you as well.

  Ultimately, I'd like to see more people discover the happiness that comes with fewer possessions. It's OK to have things, but it's best to have only the things that you actually need. When you've got so much crap you have to rent a storage unit to stow your excess, then it's time for a garage sale.

  by The Raven on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 06:59:42 AM PDT

  •  Impressive answers

    Your answer to #2 merits some thought. Two things come to mind:

    • America used to be able to use the tax system as a carrots and stick in the way you propose. However, the one constant about Republicans has been their fanatic zeal to remove that tool from public policy. A backdoor attack on the middle class?
    • Tax policy doesn't really help us do very much with the expense side of the equation - where the biggest opportunities may reside.

    by grapes on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 07:05:44 AM PDT

    •  Paying for things..

      So much of things that people buy to flaunt are charged on credit cards or home equity loans. And so many goods are imported from other countries.

      So it stands to reason that the companies that will suffer if consumption drops include Bank of America and Walmart. That brings me a sort of grim satisfaction.

      I wonder if it will even be necessary to convince people to buy less-sooner or later their credit will max out.

      by Many Dogs Barking on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 09:51:48 AM PDT

      •  You're right about them having to pay less

        But wouldn't it be neat if we reformed some of our broken functional institutions so their money would stretch a bit farther?

        by grapes on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 10:12:22 AM PDT

    •  It absolutely is a

      backdoor attack on the middle class.  The Republicans have figured out how to tax capital less than labor (Capital Gains tax rate, 15%).  Or it could just be a way of rewarding their upper class friends.  But the fact remains, any society that is taxing capital less than labor is attacking its middle class.

      Florida Kossacks Rock

      Blog Florida Blue

      

      by gatordem on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 10:58:12 PM PDT

  •  When I was in college

    in my macroeconomics class, taught by a right-wing republican, he asked the class of 30 kids, all of whome were attending a small, private liberal arts college, if they thought they were middle class. I was the only one who raised her hand. Then he asked who was working class. Everybody else raised their hands.

    Including a girl who was related to Henry Fonda!

    by decembersue on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 07:08:13 AM PDT

  •  Excellent response Raven.

    Iraq Moratorium

    by One Pissed Off Liberal on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 07:24:36 AM PDT

    •  Thanks, OPOL

      Your last diary was killer, by the way. Really well done.

      by The Raven on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 07:46:34 AM PDT

      •  Thanks very much.

        Iraq Moratorium

        by One Pissed Off Liberal on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 07:48:51 AM PDT

•  Somebody did a poll back in 2000

  where they asked people if they were in the richest 1 per cent of Americans, in terms of income. 20 per cent said yes. Another 19 per cent expect to be be in the top 1 per cent before they die.

  I remember thinking at the time, "That explains the first 39 per cent of Bush's support right there."

  by Kimball Cross on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 07:21:07 AM PDT

  •  This has always amazed me

    I quote this statistic frequently to demonstrate how out of touch with reality some people are - especially when it comes to economic issues.

    Where does this thinking come from? First, not having a sense of economic reality... some people believe if they made $100k a year they would be in that 1% category. Then there is the impossible dream... they think they will "make it big" by hitting the lottery, or coming up with a great invention, or (honest, I hear this fairly regularly) by winning a big lawsuit that will leave them fixed for life.

    by 1864 House on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 11:02:08 AM PDT

    •  Like Lake Wobegon ...

      Where all of the children are above average.

      by grapes on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 12:06:08 PM PDT

    •  My Old Boss

      For a summer during my junior year in college, I was a night janitor at a Wells Fargo.  Anyway, my boss, who didn't even have a driver's license always talked about how he was going to make it rich someday by suing someone or waiting for someone to hit him with a car so he could make him comfortable for the rest of his life.  Interestingly, he attended a very right-winged church, and made a lot of anti-semetic remarks because of the way he was taught to beleive.  

      I bring this up to show that I think that most people don't want to come in touch with reality when it comes to economics.  They'd rather live in their own little dream world, and think that they're doing just fine, it's everyone else whose causing them pain and mischief.  It's much easier that way, and that's what's so unfortunate.  I just wish there was an equally easy answer.

      ...but then again, that's why I'm a liberal.  Because there's nothing better or fun than trying to figure out the reall hard questions.

      by blue yotie on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 10:58:01 PM PDT

    •  Hospitals are just waiting

      to snatch the lawsuit winnings.

      by SingleVoter on Sat Jul 14, 2007 at 03:25:59 AM PDT

  •  This is one of the reasons

    why so many of these schmucks vote Republican.  They think they are going to be "rich" someday and that supporting the Republican Party is the best way to get there.

    What they don't understand is that the policies of Republicans work to keep people like them from having a snowball's chance in hell of becoming rich.

    There is the old saying:

    If you want to live like a Republican, vote Democratic.

    Florida Kossacks Rock

    Blog Florida Blue

    

    by gatordem on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 11:04:57 PM PDT

•  Thank you grapes for a penetrating look...

  at some crucial issues.  I very much like your thoughts about how to improve the quality of life for as many people as possible.

  Instead of bringing more people to the middle class lifestyle, we might be able to the bring the middle class lifestyle to more people.

  Your diaries are always erudite and thought-provoking, and, speaking for myself, much appreciated.

  Iraq Moratorium

  by One Pissed Off Liberal on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 07:29:18 AM PDT

  •  We don't have to lose the lifestyle

    We may just have to rearrange it a bit.

    Mostly, though, we have to fix the critical operational systems in our society that are so broken and so unfairly expensive compared to those in the rest of the world.

    by grapes on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 07:33:59 AM PDT

    •  Much of the middle class lifestyle is, as you...

      point out, wasteful and encompasses much of which we could probably all do without.  But a secure and resonably comfortable life is something for which we should all strive.  Upper class reformation, in terms of waste and sheer selfishness (and fair sharing of the tax burden), probably wouldn't hurt the effort either.

      We could all stand to scale back some of our more wasteful or otherwise questionable expectations and practices.  A little sacrifice for the common good might be a refreshing change.

      Mostly, though, we have to fix the critical operational systems in our society that are so broken and so unfairly expensive compared to those in the rest of the world.

      I agree with this statement in the strongest possible terms.

      Iraq Moratorium

      by One Pissed Off Liberal on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 07:45:04 AM PDT

•  Shifting term

  "Middle classes" was originally the British term for what the French call "bourgeoisie."
  That is the class (or classes) between the aristocracy and the workers.

  The term didn't make much sense in the USA, because we don't have much of an aristocracy. The rich are our "upper class."

  So it has been adopted various times for various groups. I've never seen it used helpfully in the American situation.

  by Frank Palmer on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 08:49:25 AM PDT

  •  What I was going to say...

    Americans don't have "class" in the traditional sense. True "class" is something that doesn't change when money comes or goes....winning the lottery can make a gas station attendant rich, but it doesn't make him upper class. A professional person who loses his job and savings through illness is still middle-class in the cultural sense.

    by Alice in Florida on Sat Jul 14, 2007 at 04:19:14 AM PDT

•  Middle class

  seems to be in the eye of the beholder.It's a shifting fantasy and for me became totally absurd in the 80's peaking out in Clinton's era. The he who dies with the most toy's mentality. Is it a state of mind, the American Dream, I just don't know. It some where along the line stopped being about the quality of your life and became a dog eat dog gotta keep up thing.

  I do know one thing it's getting harder and harder to maintain on a fantasy or real life level. We purchased our house in 1992 foe 74,000 it old1914, urban and to buy one now on my block to even qualify for a loan you'd need to make well over 100,000. Has this improved my neighbor hood , not really the streets now clogged with SUV's and the wonderful diversity is being gentrified right out.

  Playing the game, as my realtor neighbor call it, hooks a lot of people and gets them stuck right where the big money wants them, working their asses off for stuff,  in debt, and not smelling the roses because their busy choking on SUV gas fumes. But hey, what do I know I'm a socialist, proletariat, artist, type.  

  by shaharazade on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 09:25:46 AM PDT

•  Middle class

  when I grew up in the 60s & 70s middle class was your dad worked at Boeing, your mom stayed home, and there was enough money to own a vacation cabin on Hood Canal.

  Now I look at people who can afford that type of lifestyle as rich.

  Middle class now is both mom and dad working at Boeing just to be able to own a home and take out a ten year loan for an RV or 18ft boat.

  by Many Dogs Barking on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 09:58:47 AM PDT

  •  yeah

    rich in money. poor in time.

    I think about that alot.

    I have 3 friends where one spouse stays at home at least part time.

    In all cases the other spouse is a doctor.

    by biscobosco on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 10:43:59 PM PDT

•  The biggest probems facing the middleclass is

  health care and corporate greed and mismanagement.

  Health care needs to be placed in the hands of the government. Have everyone pay into the Medicare system and have the government pay the insurance companies to be providers as they do now. Essentially paying th18ese companies to oversee the paper work and day to day matters for the client that signs with them.

  20 Years ago the ceo's made around 18 times what the average workers made now it is 200 times what the average worker makes. Then companies give these CEO's  golden parachutes of up to $200 million to fire them. The way to solve this is to force these companies to allow all stockholders to vote on ceo pay packages as well as all other major decissions in the same way we elect people to public offices and major reforendoms.

  by Americans for a Brighter Democratic Future on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 04:18:11 PM PDT

•  I have always been a fan of...

  the "live simply so that others may simply live" idea...

  I am not sure of exactly what  "middle class" means...like others, I like your lifestyle description-- it works.

  by mommyof3 on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 08:14:44 PM PDT

•  Household income distribution

  Bottom 10% $0 to $10,500
  Bottom 20% $0 to $18,500
  Bottom 25% $0 to $22,500
  Middle 33% $30,000 to $62,500
  Middle 20% $35,000 to $55,000
  Top 25% $77,500 and up
  Top 20% $92,000 and up
  Top 5% $167,000 and up
  Top 1.5% $250,000 and up
  Top 1% $350,000 and up
  SOURCE: US Census Bureau, 2006; income statistics for the year 2005

  I always find the numbers fascinating.  When I think of one unmarried, healthy person in an apartment in a state with a low cost of living, it doesn't take much to end up with savings and a disposable income.  When I think of a couple with three kids, a house, two cars, colleges to pay for and retirement to fund, it takes a lot of money to have any disposable income.  Two professionals working can make 250K and not be rich if you add enough kids.  On the other hand:

  The Top Ten
  William H. Gates III
  Warren E. Buffett
  Sheldon Adelson
  Lawrence J. Ellison
  Paul G. Allen
  Jim C Walton
  Christy Walton
  S. Robson Walton
  Michael Dell
  Alice L. Walton
  Complete List  

  by dkmich on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 09:06:53 PM PDT

  •  Thanks for this. I really depresses me when

    I hear the $250K 3 kid 2 worker family classed in with "Teh Rich" by some progressives. Yeah, they may make $250K this year. Next year they may make $0 when the tech economy busts or their jobs get outsourced. One year they're in the confiscatory tax bracket, the next they're on unemployment. Oh, and the $250K is only for peak earning years--they're pretty much gonna get dumped after 55 anyway if they survive outsourcing.

    BTW, I have to respectfully disagree with the diarist on one point: nobody in the middle class has "Steady work with reasonable assurance of future income" anymore. Masters, bachelors, master welder, master machinist, we're all subject to the whims of the owners of capital.

    by dallasdave on Sat Jul 14, 2007 at 02:31:16 PM PDT

    •  I certainly agree with you about

      no job security whatsoever.  55 should be peak earning years but now it is all about retraining and starting over.   Corporate America needs their bluff called.  Want to leave?  Go ahead because they will whether or not they get their way.  Ever watch the TV show called Dirty Jobs?  Wonder if "these" are the jobs Americans won't do.  Oops, they all look pretty white and American to me.

      by dkmich on Sun Jul 15, 2007 at 06:49:19 AM PDT

•  Choices

  Excellent diary, grapes.

  To me the essential definition of middle class is that you have some choices. You could send your kid to college or buy a boat. You could take 3 weeks in France or save for retirement.

  You can participate in what your society has to offer. Not that you can order everything on the menu, but you can choose one or two things that you really want to do and do them.

  Who doesn't have choices: people who have to work every waking hour to afford the minimum rent, food, gas, and shoes for the kids. Some get the illusion of choices from the second mortgage and credit card companies, but the ultimate effect is to turn them into credit slaves.

  The other definition of middle class refers to who is below and who is above. When "above" gets too high up, it makes a mockery of the people whose main achievement is that they're not at the absolute bottom (yet). If we want middle class to mean something real, then we have to lower the level of the upper group.

  by DBunn on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 09:19:28 PM PDT

•  Very nice diary

  and I really liked your lifestyle definition.

  There's something monolithic about a strong middle class. It tethers the government, supports the structure of society, creates a framework for stability.

  utahgirl

  by nio on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 10:03:48 PM PDT

•  very fresh and interesting diary

  grapes!! very useful I like particularly the part about middle class lifestyle.

  Middle class seems to be underneath it all about acheiving a fairly stable level of security RE:

  • income
  • health
  • housing
  • future

  vs (poor) facing the question of survival , and less security, much more uncertainty.

  These are the things which are being challenged for us middle classers - the idea of the future, that our kids will have security, our own job and health security.

  I think you have put your finger on what was so dammed enticing when watching the american ex-pats (talk in sicko (did you see the movie?)

  That they seemed freer than us. freed of the worries we have in this country about what happens if we get sick and lose our job - about how to juggle dinner, house work, and childcare and work full time at the same time.

  worries about our kids college, about our own retirement.

  (BTW- Are you going to be at Ykos?? It was delightful meeting you & spouse last time..}

  regrettably I will probably not go this time.

  by biscobosco on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 10:40:05 PM PDT

  •  hi - agree about sense of freedom

    Another way of looking at it is that a lot of people in America are racing to be rich because they fear the jackals nipping at their heels. With no sense of security about healthcare, social security, security in general, they are trying to accumulate as much as they can in the hopes of fending off the threats.

    Yes, we will be in Chicago and I'll be sorry if you aren't there. I was looking forward to seeing you.

    by grapes on Sat Jul 14, 2007 at 01:58:32 PM PDT

    •  yes. freedom from fear

      Wasnt that a big them of FDR?
      Freedom from fear and want.

      I guess it's too late to register now for ykos.

      Speaking of freedom...
      ykos should be exciting, but we already spent more than we should have on trips.

      by biscobosco on Sat Jul 14, 2007 at 05:20:34 PM PDT

      •  Hope you enjoyed the trips :-)

        If so, then you probably made a good choice. You can always participate online. Can't go places all the time.

        Take care. We'll miss seeing you!

        by grapes on Sat Jul 14, 2007 at 05:25:57 PM PDT

        •  too pacific

          three weeks, 2 pacific(s)

          Costa Rica, and then Oregon Coast...

          peaceful, pleasant... a bit more enticing than Chicago in the Summer.

          Though of course one doesnt go to ykos for the weather.

          by biscobosco on Tue Jul 17, 2007 at 10:20:50 PM PDT

•  I always thought

  I was middle class.  I am not all that class conscious.    I don't care if someone else would label me as poor or working class.  If I have what I need, it's enough.  I have worked three part-time jobs for many years to bring in a little less than $30k.  I never had lots of cash, but I could always save up a little for a week away or something fun now and then.  In the last several years my income has actually shrunk as my hours have increased.  Energy costs have affected not only transportation and home utilities, but the cost of everything else.  Even my relatively simple tastes and lifestyle are difficult to maintain.  I never thought that I would have to be concerned with having food or a place to live, but it is getting increasingly difficult to feel safe about even those basic needs.  I try not to think about what will happen if I live beyond the time when I am able to work.  It's too depressing.

  by luckylizard on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 10:47:37 PM PDT

•  A system of free, quality public education

  is an essential element in the creation of a thriving middle class.

  The Republicans are intent on destroying this system.  High stakes testing, insufficient funding and school vouchers are just some of the tools they are using to do this.

  Florida Kossacks Rock

  Blog Florida Blue

  

  by gatordem on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 11:27:27 PM PDT

•  Using income to define "middle class"

  or re-define it, actually, seems to be a Democratic concept that Republicans have turned to their advantage. When everyone who is between poverty and super-wealth is called "middle class," the Working Class disappears altogether, and with it the threat of unions and workers' rights and all the stuff that Republicans despise. It seems to have also turned people away from traditional trades that actually pay better than a lot of jobs that require a college degree--jobs like mechanic, plumber, electrician. There is a lot of demand for mechanics these days, and one of the great things about it is that it is outsourcing-proof: you can't send your car to China or even Mexico to be fixed. Unfortunately, as long as Americans keep falling for the idea that the way to the good life is to go to college and avoid getting your hands dirty, we're liable to see immigrants brought in to take these jobs because somebody's got to do them.

  by Alice in Florida on Sat Jul 14, 2007 at 04:32:36 AM PDT

  •  Amen re working class

    The kids going to college when it isn't the best course for them is what I refer to as being 'cursed with a high SAT'

    by grapes on Sat Jul 14, 2007 at 01:59:57 PM PDT