Ever get the sense that the middle class is downwardly mobile, being pressed to the floor and squeezed to the limit? It’s not happening by accident. Someone is doing the squeezing: a new class of entertainment and tech plutocrats, cheered on and abetted by a priesthood of media, government and academic elites.
Joel Kotkin’s “The New Class Conflict” (Telos Press Publishing) paints a dire picture of the undeclared war on the middle class. What he calls the Oligarchy (Silicon Valley and Hollywood) and the Clerisy (the media, bureaucrats, universities and nonprofits) enrich themselves and gratify their own strange obsessions at the expense of the middle class.
This New Class, for instance, venerates the city and despises suburbia. They think you should feel the same way — and in innumerable magazine and newspaper pieces, they twist facts to make it sound as if America loves living in apartments and taking trains to work.

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When the dollar finally dies (and it's been dying since 1980), we will witness the greatest wealth transfer in man's history.  If the public wakes up like Icelanders did, then we may begin making corrections.  If not, it's a return to feudalism.

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[tinfoil] Agenda 21 [/tinfoil]

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Consider....

In the 1980s you were able to pay for a 3-4 night stay in the hospital to have a c-section delivery....in cash. It probably cost you about $600.

You were able to put money in a bank and get 4-5% interest on your savings (of course to borrow you were paying 15%... so few people borrowed. Few people had credit cards - people paid cash for things and guess what? things cost alot less accordingly.

You could pay for college by working part time and full time in the summers.

Regulatory burden was alot less and government was smaller. There were still some decent teachers around. Lots of WW2 vets in the local parades, people could go to high school, graduate and get a factory job that would pay $50,000 for life - one job for their entire adult lives.

Homes cost between $10,000 and $80,000 for the most part. Lots of folks were having note parties where they'd burn their note and get the deed from the bank - owning their home free and clear.

It was "morning in America" and despite the level best efforts of the Democrats, MEDIA (but I repeat myself), movies like "the day after" and all the Marxist 5th columns agitating for Sandinistas and calling Reagan a cowboy.....there was optimism. The conservative 'happy warrior' won 49 states....TWICE. Bush 1 and 2, Clinton and Obama never came close to that. Hell, neither did LBJ or JFK. The parties were blue (GOP) and Red (DNC).

The middle class was upwardly mobile and proud of America.

Now you need to be making well over $80,000 a year if you hope to have more than 2 kids and take care of them. You'd better not have any debt and a low mortgage too. Both man and wife would need to work of course.... and even then, 80,000 doesn't go very far. But then people are forced to borrow and live on borrowed time.

What we failed to realize is that the Marxists didn't just hate America because we were in the way of their utopia, they hated our goodness per se. They despised the nuclear family, peaceful marriages, safe childhoods....they promoted everything that would divide people, corrupt their minds, hearts, souls.... they promoted every perverted industry and sub-culture they could find.... all to not just prepare the road for the USSR's glorious conquest but out of a deep seated hatred of goodness.

We can't grok that. We think they want what we want...we're wrong. Misery loves company. If they can't be happy, then they sure as hell don't want anyone else to be happy.

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Look at median in income for doctors, airline pilots, owner/operator truckers, factory foreman, et al.  Many of the solid, "upper middle class" jobs average less than 20 years ago.  Lawyers make more, though... Imagine that!

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Consider....

In the 1980s you were able to pay for a 3-4 night stay in the hospital to have a c-section delivery....in cash. It probably cost you about $600.

You were able to put money in a bank and get 4-5% interest on your savings (of course to borrow you were paying 15%... so few people borrowed. Few people had credit cards - people paid cash for things and guess what? things cost alot less accordingly.

You could pay for college by working part time and full time in the summers.

Regulatory burden was alot less and government was smaller. There were still some decent teachers around. Lots of WW2 vets in the local parades, people could go to high school, graduate and get a factory job that would pay $50,000 for life - one job for their entire adult lives.

Homes cost between $10,000 and $80,000 for the most part. Lots of folks were having note parties where they'd burn their note and get the deed from the bank - owning their home free and clear.

It was "morning in America" and despite the level best efforts of the Democrats, MEDIA (but I repeat myself), movies like "the day after" and all the Marxist 5th columns agitating for Sandinistas and calling Reagan a cowboy.....there was optimism. The conservative 'happy warrior' won 49 states....TWICE. Bush 1 and 2, Clinton and Obama never came close to that. Hell, neither did LBJ or JFK. The parties were blue (GOP) and Red (DNC).

The middle class was upwardly mobile and proud of America.

Now you need to be making well over $80,000 a year if you hope to have more than 2 kids and take care of them. You'd better not have any debt and a low mortgage too. Both man and wife would need to work of course.... and even then, 80,000 doesn't go very far. But then people are forced to borrow and live on borrowed time.

What we failed to realize is that the Marxists didn't just hate America because we were in the way of their utopia, they hated our goodness per se. They despised the nuclear family, peaceful marriages, safe childhoods....they promoted everything that would divide people, corrupt their minds, hearts, souls.... they promoted every perverted industry and sub-culture they could find.... all to not just prepare the road for the USSR's glorious conquest but out of a deep seated hatred of goodness.

We can't grok that. We think they want what we want...we're wrong. Misery loves company. If they can't be happy, then they sure as hell don't want anyone else to be happy.

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Consider....

In the 1980s you were able to pay for a 3-4 night stay in the hospital to have a c-section delivery....in cash. It probably cost you about $600.

You were able to put money in a bank and get 4-5% interest on your savings (of course to borrow you were paying 15%... so few people borrowed. Few people had credit cards - people paid cash for things and guess what? things cost alot less accordingly.

You could pay for college by working part time and full time in the summers.

Regulatory burden was alot less and government was smaller. There were still some decent teachers around. Lots of WW2 vets in the local parades, people could go to high school, graduate and get a factory job that would pay $50,000 for life - one job for their entire adult lives.

Homes cost between $10,000 and $80,000 for the most part. Lots of folks were having note parties where they'd burn their note and get the deed from the bank - owning their home free and clear.

It was "morning in America" and despite the level best efforts of the Democrats, MEDIA (but I repeat myself), movies like "the day after" and all the Marxist 5th columns agitating for Sandinistas and calling Reagan a cowboy.....there was optimism. The conservative 'happy warrior' won 49 states....TWICE. Bush 1 and 2, Clinton and Obama never came close to that. Hell, neither did LBJ or JFK. The parties were blue (GOP) and Red (DNC).

The middle class was upwardly mobile and proud of America.

Now you need to be making well over $80,000 a year if you hope to have more than 2 kids and take care of them. You'd better not have any debt and a low mortgage too. Both man and wife would need to work of course.... and even then, 80,000 doesn't go very far. But then people are forced to borrow and live on borrowed time.

What we failed to realize is that the Marxists didn't just hate America because we were in the way of their utopia, they hated our goodness per se. They despised the nuclear family, peaceful marriages, safe childhoods....they promoted everything that would divide people, corrupt their minds, hearts, souls.... they promoted every perverted industry and sub-culture they could find.... all to not just prepare the road for the USSR's glorious conquest but out of a deep seated hatred of goodness.

We can't grok that. We think they want what we want...we're wrong. Misery loves company. If they can't be happy, then they sure as hell don't want anyone else to be happy.

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Consider....

In the 1980s you were able to pay for a 3-4 night stay in the hospital to have a c-section delivery....in cash. It probably cost you about $600.

You were able to put money in a bank and get 4-5% interest on your savings (of course to borrow you were paying 15%... so few people borrowed. Few people had credit cards - people paid cash for things and guess what? things cost alot less accordingly.

You could pay for college by working part time and full time in the summers.

Regulatory burden was alot less and government was smaller. There were still some decent teachers around. Lots of WW2 vets in the local parades, people could go to high school, graduate and get a factory job that would pay $50,000 for life - one job for their entire adult lives.

Homes cost between $10,000 and $80,000 for the most part. Lots of folks were having note parties where they'd burn their note and get the deed from the bank - owning their home free and clear.

It was "morning in America" and despite the level best efforts of the Democrats, MEDIA (but I repeat myself), movies like "the day after" and all the Marxist 5th columns agitating for Sandinistas and calling Reagan a cowboy.....there was optimism. The conservative 'happy warrior' won 49 states....TWICE. Bush 1 and 2, Clinton and Obama never came close to that. Hell, neither did LBJ or JFK. The parties were blue (GOP) and Red (DNC).

The middle class was upwardly mobile and proud of America.

Now you need to be making well over $80,000 a year if you hope to have more than 2 kids and take care of them. You'd better not have any debt and a low mortgage too. Both man and wife would need to work of course.... and even then, 80,000 doesn't go very far. But then people are forced to borrow and live on borrowed time.

What we failed to realize is that the Marxists didn't just hate America because we were in the way of their utopia, they hated our goodness per se. They despised the nuclear family, peaceful marriages, safe childhoods....they promoted everything that would divide people, corrupt their minds, hearts, souls.... they promoted every perverted industry and sub-culture they could find.... all to not just prepare the road for the USSR's glorious conquest but out of a deep seated hatred of goodness.

We can't grok that. We think they want what we want...we're wrong. Misery loves company. If they can't be happy, then they sure as hell don't want anyone else to be happy.

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I can't say I disagree with much of what is written in that article.  But this quote sums it up...

"We need to get over the childish notion that we don’t need a responsible leadership class, that power can be wielded directly by the people. America was governed best when it was governed by a porous, self-conscious and responsible elite.”

We need rulers.  

That's an old myth that has been perpetuated throughout history, by the ruling class, using every tool at their disposal, to convince us they were anything but ordinary people.  In ancient times, they actually proclaimed themselves gods.  But people woke up to that lie.  Then they used the tool of religion, which they manipulated to declare their "divine right" to rule.  Now they use "special credentials", and causes like environmentalism, terrorism, poverty, to increase fear and consolidate their status.

If you control capital your in the catbird seat.  Over the coming decades technology will eliminate more jobs then it creates.  That's what it has been doing, and that trend will continue.   Where once it took 50% of the workforce to produce the food we needed, it now take less then 2% of the labor force to produce a surplus of food.   Where once it took 40% of the labor force to manufacture the goods we consumed, now it take less then 8% and is falling.  Before we get through the halfway mark of this century, we won't need human's in the transportation industry, and automated smart systems will replace many professions, including primary care physicians, accountants, bankers, insurance professionals.  Call centers will be smart systems whose interactions will not be discernible from real people.  Many jobs in IT will be eliminated or relegated to low paid "dirty jobs", and before this century is out we'll have general purpose robots tied to smart system networks that that'll even be able to replace most hands on dirty jobs.    What do we do when we don't need as many people?

I don't know.  But what I do know is the only viable solution can come from free individuals able to engage in a free-market through voluntary exchange, and not from elite "central planners".