Why is Middle class disappearing , What can be done??

Question

As we all see now a days middle class is disappering, rich people are getting richer, and poor getting poorer. What do you suggest to stop this situation.

Answer 1

I'm disappearing? When did that happen? Don't tell my wife she'll freak out. Sorry but come on. I use to pick potatoes to buy my own school clothes, I made some choices and took personal responsiblity for them and now I'm in the upper middle class and doing great.

Answer 2

Is the Middle Class really disappearing? If so it's only because they are getting richer.

The middle class is alive and well, and doing better than ever. Don't believe me? Fine, will you believe the Census Bureau?

They track household income over the last 40 years. Look at the second table in the link below. It shows real income for each 20% of the population. ALL GROUPS, including the poor and middle class, have made real gains over time, like the last 10 years, 20, 30, etc.

If you do a little analysis, you'll see the lowest 60% of households gained about 6% in real income. Real income is defined as income gains or losses after inflation is taken into account.

Answer 3

I think this a good question. Like many others, I don't think we're disappering. I'm a government attorney, my wife stays home and works just as hard. I mention that because I make a good income, but nothing like private attorneys. I have good benefits. It seems to be to be harder to change my basic place in the middle class. It was your last sentence that hooked me. Why should I need an accountant to do my taxes? My life is not that complex. Why is ok for my property taxes to go up 3% a year? (law of my state). Why do my appliances die early deaths despite research? Do we really buy our needs and do we ever considered what is really a need (credit to a previous answerer)? Anyway my point is---and I do have one--- to stop this static situation is a re-examination of our "needs', reform of taxes, and a look at our we choose to be our "values". One last thing--a balanced government budget on all levels. I live in one of the poorer states, but with a huge budget surplus. Seems odd...

Answer 4

"You don't understand the class structure of American society," said Smetana, "or you would not ask such a question. In the United States, the working class are Democrats. The middle class are Republicans. The upper class are Communists." Whittaker Chambers, Witness, p. 616

Marx states in the Manifesto of the Communist Party: You must, therefore, confess that by "individual" you mean no other person than the bourgeois, than the middle-class owner of property. This person must indeed, be swept out of the way, and made impossible. (Published by Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1973 edition, page 66)


What can we do? Bring back "McCarthyism". He was right you know…

On 1 February 1943 the U.S. Army’s Signal Intelligence Service, a forerunner of the National Security Agency, began a small, very secret program, later codenamed VENONA. The original object of the VENONA program was to examine, and possibly exploit, encrypted Soviet diplomatic communications. These messages had been accumulated by the Signal Intelligence Service (later renamed the U.S. Army Signal Security Agency and commonly called "Arlington Hall" after the Virginia location of its headquarters) since 1939 but had not been studied previously. American analysts discovered that these Soviet communications dealt with not only diplomatic subjects but also espionage matters.
Six public releases of VENONA translations and related documents have been made. These releases covered the following topics and are all discussed in this monograph.

1. Soviet atomic bomb espionage
2. New York KGB messages of 1942 and 1943
3. New York and Washington KGB messages of 1944 and 1945
4. San Francisco and Mexico City KGB messages; GRU New York and Washington messages; Washington Naval GRU messages
5. KGB and GRU messages from Europe, South America, and Australia
6. Messages inadvertently left out of the previous five updates of previously issued translations. Updates some translations by restoring names that had been protected for privacy reasons in the original releases.

Read the links...

Answer 5

The only thing disappearing is the want to make money. The UNIONS have made it imposable for most people to make cash by working at a good company. The liberal Unions have forgotten about all those that paid there bills, They got wage increases for there members by giving up sick leave personal time Higher co pays for meds and insurance. Higher amounts of dues to them. Unions had there time in history. No longer is it in the interest to legislate more work rules there are enough.

Answer 6

I'm not sure you can really do anything...

Capitalism in its essence isn't about equality.
The proof about middle class? Well, US has extremely unequal distribution of wealth. Search for Gini coefficient.
Poverty in US is very spread compared to Europe, minimum wage is a laugh- in some developed W Euro countries, minimum wage is like 10 $+ good social rights etc.

Certainly, one can earn a lot of money in US, but US is really good for rich- for poor it isn't.

Again, this inequality is a consequence of the way US economy is being run. Politicians get money from companies, and then implement laws in their favor.

So, worker and social rights are weak in US, while for employers this is the best country- they can lay off easily, they can treat you like dirt etc.

What you can maybe do, is choose and vote for better government/president etc.
What you need is a change of social system, reform of medical system, and perhaps a tax reform. Inequality should be reduced, that's it.
Even Alan Greenspan i think said extreme inequalities in US are dangerous for further development.

Answer 7

it is disappearing because how we measure it. you are poor if you don't have a third DVD player for the third color TV in your house. you don't have medical insurance to give the receptionist at the ER when you are being treated. you have trouble filling the gas tank in your car. if you believe there is such a large number of poor in the USA, look at the poor in other countries. yeah, we have some, but it is not the major problem that the press would have us all screaming about.

Answer 8

More wars. Wars always help the rich -- I mean poor. Really.

It doesn't matter ... something like 14 million home loans re-adjust in october... foreclosures sky rocket, banks keel over... the bottom gets let out of the economy and the rich are the only people who have money at all.

Answer 9

When you take something and squeeze it in the middle some of it will go up and some will fall out the bottom.

Either way there will be no middle left.

Maybe a 15% income tax across the board. Hmm

Answer 10

"Middle class is disappearing"? What are you basing this on? I am, and know, just as many middle class people as I did 10 years ago....but some of them have become upper class, so I guess I shouldn't count them.