I just realized something about the current financial state of families...

[Writer]

and that is that financial mobility - or the upward mobility many American families experienced during the Twentieth Century - has also been commodified along with the hyper-commodification trends of neo-liberal capitalism.

What I mean by this is, for the last 15 years or so, instead of average workers receiving raises to keep up with inflation, those raises have in turn become commodities that we must pay for, in the form of easily-accessible credit for which interest is charged. Companies and large corporations have fought against raises in the minimum wage, for example, and have laid-off and cut benefits before cutting the salaries of those at the very top. The result of this is that the loss of raises developed a large demand for easily accessible credit to compensate for the middle-class family's inability to maintain their current lifestyle, while it also provided other middle-class families to continue that sensation of upward mobility as they purchased items with that credit that they otherwise could not afford.

This translated into further inflation that only continued the trend.

So what I see occurring here is a regression that will - and SHOULD - force policies that will press corporations to raise wages more while offering less easily-accessible credit. Financial institutions will earn less money off of the backs of the middle class, but the middle class in turn should have stronger buying power based on higher wages.

At least this is what SHOULD happen, and what we should fight for.

[sandnsea]

1. Us stupid workers realized it twenty years ago

We were told to get a better job.

And once again, now that a problem hits the middle class, it's suddenly the fault of a failed economy.

sigh

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. Yep. More education was the answer to EVERYTHING

[sandnsea]

6. Well actually it is

But they can't keep people in perpetual debt or make the education process so damn long that you can't get out of debt trying to make yourself marketable to somebody, and then have to do it all over again when the economy changes again.

[laughingliberal]

2. Rec. nt

[napi21]

3. A good solution to this is from Thom Hartmann.

Repeal the Reagan Tax cuts! Before Reagan, the upper income earners were taxed at 60%. Becausse prefrred to grow their business inso pal those taxes, most of the profits were oured back into the business instead of paying grossly inflated salaries to their excutives. Couple that with returning to charging an import duty on items purchased from other countries to force businesses to go back to making things in the US instead of relying on cheap labor elsewhere, and the US would be back orrecovery.

[sandnsea]

7. Exactly

I have argued that to people for years. Tax cuts for the rich do nothing for workers or business. It just encourages investment bubbles, otherwise known as gambling.

Tax cuts for truly small business, otoh, is a completely separate matter.

[Newest Reality]

4. I have seen some convincing data that

corroborates with with your point about the availability of credit in lieu of wage increases commensurate with cost of living. In fact, it is easy to see this in hindsight now that the fog has lifted. Citizens were given, and accepted, the mindset and brand of consumer to entrench their status as functional fixtures in an economic machine ruled by a plutocracy. Nobody seemed to notice as it was in progress, but some are now finding that being referred to in a collective sense as "consumer" is both offensive and derogatory. We the Consumers of the United States of America?

I do disagree about any hope or viability concerning a resurgence of the mega-consumption act that has reached its final act for a host of reasons. From my own perspective, the business round tables that collude with our management by government and our manipulation by media don't appear to be ill-informed, unaware and as taken aback by the systemic aspects of collapse and transition. If consumers mattered, en masse, so much and this system was so precious, we would see more action to that effect in the corporo-goverment alliance we behold as it raises its Gorgon-like head and peers down upon those who quake in confusion and tremble at the economic earthquake rumbling and ripping through the fabric of culture and consciousness, life and times, in slow motion.

We can say goodbye, IMHO, to the stronghold to our often arbitrary notion of a strong and influential middle-class here in the US primarily because they have proven, (so far) to be too docile, (read: civilized and domesticated) to react in any remarkable way to the dismantling in progress. But then, who can go up against the most powerful and well-armed military power in History, especially when it is there own? I am not even suggesting or advocating that, but it certainly removes any element of fear on the part of the perpetrators involved, or should we just continue to refer to them now as owners?

No, I think our most realistic efforts and reactions are going to involve getting used to the fact that, regardless of why this travesty of multifaceted, systemic collapse is being allowed to worsen and who is doing said, we are the ones who have to grok the circumstances and define our own place and way in the inevitable transition. Trying to get back what was may seem meaningful and important, but it is going to prove to be a nostalgic desire for a return to a comfort zone that enabled our owners to steer us to where we are now, anyway.

Again, my opinion, but as long as significant numbers of the population cling to the Ponzi-esque Simulation that what we call culture has become, along with all its benefits as well as trappings, the longer this will all drag out and the more difficult and utterly miserable the interim period on our way to finding balance and homeostasis as a post-capitalist, sustainable society. Oh, that is, if we don't fail and fall into a horrific miasma of unmitigated and permanent demise, first.

Optimistically, we have everything we need, mentally and physically, to willingly and cooperatively restructure our way of life and impact on our environment in a way that would be far less uncomfortable and abject than the slow road to Hell paved by the Status Quo and Powers That Be. By force or choice, life in the near future is going to be very, very different and adaptation will, as Darwin pointed out, be both highly valued and extremely essential.

How ironic in a time of such tremendous wealth, technology and resources in general, that "where there is a will, there is a way" would be both a revelation and a key to our current failure as a species, overall. I only emphasize that because we are at a Global tipping point and the future for all of us and any generations to come is being decided in this small window of opportunity in ways that no generation before us has beheld. Without the will, (on all levels) we will most likely lose our way and easily sacrifice the discovery of what is best for overall survival as the blind lead blind to sacrifice it all on the altar of life as capitalism pursuing profit above all else until there is nothing left to pursue.