Will the American Middle Class Die Out?

Interesting article about the pressures on the American middle class.

Do you think the American middle class is close to dying off? Why or why not?

What would the country look like without a middle class?

No, I don't think that it will die out.

I think that it will change - our entire infrastructure is going to need an overhaul to catch up with Europe's efficiency, and that could take up to 50 years. Changing America from a gas guzzling beast with interstate travel and commuters to travelling by high speed train and running their homes on clean power sources is going to take a good long while.

But what about all the forces arraigned against the American middle class? Are those just going to go away?

Who says it isn't already dead?

The sooner the complacent middle class dies out real revolution can begin.

Zephyr said:

The sooner the complacent middle class dies out real revolution can begin.

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Ugh, revolution usually means lots and lots of bloodshed. It sucks, otherwise I'd share your entheusiaism(sp?).

Paul Rusco said:

Ugh, revolution usually means lots and lots of bloodshed. It sucks, otherwise I'd share your entheusiaism(sp?).

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Desperate times, bro.

A division of wealth is taking place as we speak. New low paying jobs are being created all the time. Public property is being sold off because corporate elites run government, the situation is dire for the eroding middle class.

I've had conversations lately with average ordinary middle class americans
who all seem to agree that it looks like those in power are actively TRYING to get rid of the middle class.

It really is very hard to conclude anything else.

Unless we are to believe they are all just mindless self serving morons.

On the surface that may seem plausable,
but I doubt they are dumb enough to allow something to fold,
that would not be in THEIR OWN best interests.

They may be self serving,
but I doubt they would act as haphazard morons at their own expense.

angellous_evangellous said:

No, I don't think that it will die out.

I think that it will change - our entire infrastructure is going to need an overhaul to catch up with Europe's efficiency, and that could take up to 50 years. Changing America from a gas guzzling beast with interstate travel and commuters to travelling by high speed train and running their homes on clean power sources is going to take a good long while.

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LOL, Europe's efficiency???

I agree - we usually trail "behind" Europe in sociological trends - but I wouldn't say that's a good thing. Europe is cool in a lot of ways, but personally I appreciate the perks of property ownership (the 18 acres and 2700 square foot home I live in would be WAYYYYY out of my price range in most comparable places in Europe) and the middle class lifestyle I enjoy in the US - that would not be possible on my income in most of Europe.

The major economies in Europe are in a recession at least as alarming as the one here in the US - with no end in sight. Their taxes are spiraling out of control. Middle class in Europe? You talk about dissappearing - it's disappearing at a much faster rate than in the US.

Most 30 something year old Europeans will never own a home.

As for those fabulous European rail systems - impractical here in most of the US. We have more space (most people LIKE that by the way). Our urban centers are much more spread out. To build a rail system that replaces the road system for general use is a pipe dream as long as our population is so spread out. And I wouldn't trade my morning drive of ten minutes through the rolling hills of East Texas to my office, for a morning commute on a subway - not for anything in the world. Not voluntarily anyway.

I live in a small town in Texas. My neighbors live on 2 to 50 acre "spreads." We love it and we don't feel guilty about it - after all, the cost of living here is FANTASTICALLY LOW. By the way, what my place costs is less than the cost of a 900 square foot apartment in NYC, San Francisco, London, Paris, Brussels or Frankfurt. And for the middle class in most of Europe - there's simply nothing like what I have available in their real estate markets - at any price. At least not at a price the middle class could ever, ever afford.

Sure, I have to drive about three miles to the coffee shop, but hey - I'm really, really OK with that.

When our friends from Europe or Asia come to visit us, they walk around our house, our acreage, and our town with their jaws dropped. Our lifestyle is incredibly wealthy to them - and yet we make a lot less money than they do. They are very jealous - even though we tell them all the time how much we appreciate many things about their cultures that we don't have here.