The decline and fall of the American middle class

[marmar]

The decline and fall of the American middle class
The heart of our political malaise is that the middle class, so long a powerhouse of US prosperity, is being crushed as never before

Paul Harris
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 13 September 2011


No one can accuse the candidates on stage at Monday's Republican debate of not discussing a broad range of topics. They talked about big issues like social security, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, energy independence, repealing healthcare reform and the need for job creation. And they talked about small issues for political point-scoring: like HPV vaccines for girls.

But missing from the debate – and, in fact, much current discussion of America's politics – is the single biggest issue facing the country: the destruction of the American middle class. For stories on how America is bifurcating into haves and have-nots, with precious little in between, you have to dive behind the headlines of the latest Washington political bun-fight and find the devil in the details.

Take a story that appeared in the Wall Street Journal Monday. The tale is nominally one about marketing strategy and it looks at how giant firm Procter & Gamble sells its household goods to its customers. But the picture that emerges is terrifying. P&G, it transpires, is cutting back on marketing to the disappearing middle classes, instead selling more and more to either high-income or low-income customers and abandoning the middle. Other big firms, like Heinz, are following suit. The piece reveals there is even a word for this strategy, helpfully coined by Citibank: the Consumer Hourglass Theory – because it denotes a society that bulges at the top and bottom and is squeezed in the middle.

The story contains some scary figures, such as the fact that the net worth of the middle fifth of American households has plunged by 26% in the last two years. Or that the income of the median American family, adjusted for inflation, is lower now than in 1998. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/sep/13/american-middle-class-poverty

[mckara]

1. Neo-liberalism at Work!

Neo-liberal policies have been inflicted upon Americans for three decades and most people have no clue how their votes for Republicans have been destroying the middle-class. People are stupid, despite notions of their "wisdom". We have been watching a significant destruction of people's lives in the last ten years, and Republicans are winning elections because people are angry with Obama and the Democrats for not reversing Republican policies. Once in power, again, the Republicans double-down on their failed agenda. It's completely ridiculous, yet here we are in quagmire with no hope, I'm convinced, until people's lives are bad enough to trigger violent rebellions. Ignorance is not bliss; it's very, very sad!

[OHdem10]

2. Lose the Middle Class and we lose Democracy. My friends

this is serious. FDR saved Democracy for us once.

Or will Corporatism(Fascism--the merger of the State wiht
Business and Business having the power) prevail???