There Are Only Three Economic Classes in America

[Yavin4]

The HAVES
The HAVE NOTS
The DEBTORS

Most Americans are in the "DEBTORS" class. A debtor is nothing more than a Have Not with the ability to borrow large sums of money to buy something of perceived value like a home or a college education. The key to the American economy is convincing the "DEBTORS" class that they're actually part of the "HAVES" class. One of the most brilliant examples of convincing people who have a mortgage to believe that they're really "homeowners", when in reality they're just leasing their home from the bank.

Any person with a mortgage is a "DEBTOR". Yes, there may be a perceived value in their home, but such asset valuations are fluid. They can change over-night. Just ask someone who was a C++ programmer in 1999 how perceived values can change in an eyelash.

A true "HAVE" is someone who has assets that generate income for them, and that income alone places them in the top 10% of all incomes. A "HAVE" is on the other side of your debts. They're the ones that your mortgage check goes to. Every payment you make, every time you buy anything, a "HAVE" is getting paid. The saddest thing in American politics is the firmly held belief by people in the "DEBTOR" and "HAVE NOT" classes that cutting taxes on the "HAVES" will mean bettern employment oppotunities for them.

A "HAVE NOT" is someone with no assets and doesn't have the ability to borrow large sums of money to buy something of a perceived value. These are people with mulitple jobs, but they're still poor and are getting poorer. IOW, the only way that they can move up into higher economic classes is to sell their labor, but the labor markets are getting flooded by overseas competition and unchecked illegal laborers from abroad.

[LSparkle]

1. Brilliant

You totally get it. Sad but absolutely true (especially the part about convincing the "debtors" they're part of the "haves").

[Anakin Skywalker]

2. Right On!

Too bad most people in this materialistic, must-compete-with-the-Joneses society do not realize this. Then again, maybe it's better they do not know. Their heads would explode from knowing they've been duped.

[LiberalEconomist]

3. Damn You!

Now all I have to do is to have my Econ classes read your paragraphs and that would be that. How dare you reduce my bullshit to such a point of clarity! A pox on your house. Now I am out of a job.

[jdj]

4. So very true.

Thanks for those terms.

I think most of the debtors have been lulled into the spider's parlor.

My mother and I had a horrible argument where she accused me of choosing to be poor and insisted that her and my father are "comfortable". Which would be okay if dad wasn't on disability and they didn't insist on voting republican. They live paycheck to paycheck and have no savings. They spend every dime. She has a 401k benefit but doesn't utilize it, or a Roth IRA or anything. The will be totally dependent on Uncle Sam when she retires in 5 years. But they are "comfortable." (Oh, and they have a $90,000 mortgage.)

[greenpagan]

5. TO HAVE & HAVE NOT

The HAVE-MORES: The Power Elite/Masterclass.
The HAVES: The uppermost echelons of the Wealthy Middleclass.
The HAVE NOTS: Wage-slaves (Working-class) & the Underclass (“lumpenproletariate”).
The DEBTORS: Debt-slaves (frequently members of both the working-class & the underclass).

(At least…That’s the way I feel about it…)

[JanMichael]

10. Probably a little more accurate.

But maybe separating The HAVE-MORES with The HAVES is unnecessary?

Either way the bulk of the population is HAVE NOTS and DEBTORS. It's either a top 10% or top 5% that fall in the other economic world.

[Career Prole]

6. When DEBTORS want to buy something from the HAVES

the HAVES make them pay through the nose and DEBTORS do so because of that "perceived value" you mentioned, yet sadly when DEBTORS sell their time to the HAVES they let the HAVES set the price and will accept whatever the HAVES will give them and be glad for it.
Why is the perceived value of some trinket more than the perceived value of the very sand in their hourglasses?
Don't they realize the true value of the hours of life they're peddling for 5 or 6 dollars each?
You think we'd put up a better fight.

[Yavin4]

7. It Hasn't Always Been That Way

Up until the start of the Reagan era, most Americans were suspicious of the "HAVES". That's why the "HAVE NOTS" formed unions and fought to get real value for their labor, which briefly created a true middle class, which was the "HAVE NOTS" getting some real equity and control over their economic lives.

[LSparkle]

9. "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters" by Elton John

comes to mind:

As Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
Sons of bankers, sons of lawyers
Turn around and say good morning to the night
For unless they see the sky
But they can't and that is why
They know not if it's dark outside or light.

No life. Just work. Sick sick sick.

[Deja Q]

8. College? What for? VBeing home for a month and watching what 'colleges'

are peddling, all of the fields involved are being offshored. Game programming to IT to graphic arts... it's a joke. There is no future.

And now the credit card banks and their congressional whores will change the laws to truly stick swords in the backs of those they preyed upon.

What's left in America worthy of securing? :cry: