Poof Goes The Middle Class

[DamianTV]

http://sorendreier.com/poof-goes-the-middle-class/


Imagine a future in which real wages for most workers decline year after year; a future in which middle-class jobs that disappeared in the Great Recession won’t be coming back; a future in which young Americans either squeeze into an increasingly wealthy elite or tumble to the bottom, with fewer and fewer in what we once called the middle class.

Actually, that’s a description of the present. The future looks even bleaker, according to libertarian economist Tyler Cowen.

For his new book, “Average Is Over,” Cowen projected current trends out over the next 20 years. His conclusion?

“Our future will bring more wealthy people than ever before, but also more poor people,” he writes. “Rather than balancing our budget with higher taxes or lower benefits, we will allow the real wages of many workers to fall — and thus we will allow the creation of a new underclass.”

Remember, Cowen isn’t adding or subtracting anything from what’s already happening. He’s merely forecasting based on current trends: middle-class American jobs being eliminated by automation and outsourcing, downward pressure on wages for all but the most skilled, growing inequality between the wealthy and everyone else, and elected officials who don’t seem capable of slowing those trends, let alone stopping them.

And that’s not all. Cowen foresees a future in which employers constantly measure individual workers’ performance “with oppressive precision,” the better to weed out underperformers quickly; a future in which retirees, their savings exhausted, move to newly built shantytowns (like “the better dwellings you might find in a Rio de Janeiro favela”) in low-cost states like Texas; a future in which the new underclass, instead of rebelling against the elite, consoles itself with online entertainment and scientifically improved narcotics to make life palatable.

OK, at this point you’re probably asking: What kind of monster is this guy?

Not a monster; merely an economist.

“I’m not prescribing these outcomes, I’m just predicting them,” he told me recently over lunch in a Korean restaurant near Virginia’s George Mason University, where he teaches. (When he’s not predicting a dystopian future, he maintains a website devoted to ethnic restaurants around Washington.)

“Think of it as an unvarnished version of reality,” he said. Besides, he adds, some things about the future look pretty good.

As the American economy becomes ruthlessly more efficient and more productive, he expects the economic elite to grow to as large as 15% of the population — people who will “live like millionaires,” even if they aren’t making a million dollars a year.

They’ll include the elites of today, plus technologically adept professionals in fields from robotics to healthcare whose jobs can’t be shipped overseas, plus an upper servant class of service workers to the rich.

The Rich get Richer, but they ran out of Poor so they went after the Middle Class.

The Term has evolved into this:

"The Rich get Richer, but the Middle Class and lower are left with NOTHING."

[Zippyjuan]

Do you have a suggestion as to how to expand the middle class?

[DamianTV]

Stop letting the Rich take everyone elses money could be a good start.

[brushfire]

Stop letting the Rich take everyone elses money could be a good start.

Yup- collusion with government and special breaks - off shore accounts - bailouts... They are also the benefactors of the FED policy, which allows them to purchase assets before all the other classes. When you're in the upper class, you can afford $6-$10 fuel prices. Maybe tell your personal pilot to fly at a higher altitude and take a longer glide path...

[Zippyjuan]

How do they get to buy assets before the rest of us? Can they get next year's cars before they hit the market? Do they get a cheaper price for doing so (if they can)?

[brushfire]

How do they get to buy assets before the rest of us? Can they get next year's cars before they hit the market? Do they get a cheaper price for doing so (if they can)?

Because they are at the apex of the pyramid. They are the first in line at the "printing press".

[Uriel999]

"And now its gone"

[eduardo89]

Yup- collusion with government and special breaks - off shore accounts - bailouts... They are also the benefactors of the FED policy, which allows them to purchase assets before all the other classes. When you're in the upper class, you can afford $6-$10 fuel prices. Maybe tell your personal pilot to fly at a higher altitude and take a longer glide path...

What's wrong with offshore accounts?

[heavenlyboy34]

What's wrong with offshore accounts?
+1

[dannno]

Do you have a suggestion as to how to expand the middle class?

End legalized theft and counterfeiting.

[dannno]

What's wrong with offshore accounts?

The rules for yee not being the same as for thee?

Nothing inherently wrong with them, of course.

[heavenlyboy34]

I'm not so sure a "middle class" is such a good thing anymore. It's pretty new in history. OP, why is the middle class important and needs to be saved?

[eduardo89]

The rules for yee not being the same as for thee?

Nothing inherently wrong with them, of course.

If you open an offshore account you're subject to all the same rules as all the other people who have accounts in that country.

[Zippyjuan]

Because they are at the apex of the pyramid. They are the first in line at the "printing press".

How does that work? They get paid on Friday and I get paid on Friday. How do they get their money "sooner" and how does that benefit them? Do they get paid on Thursday and get an "early pay" bonus?

[DamianTV]

How do they get to buy assets before the rest of us? Can they get next year's cars before they hit the market? Do they get a cheaper price for doing so (if they can)?

When the Fed prints money, the Banksters and Wall St get access to that money before anyone else. The increase of that money when it hits the rest of the market is what causes inflation. Since they are the first to spend it, they get to spend it at the previous old and higher value. Well, thats my take on what happens.

[brushfire]

When the Fed prints money, the Banksters and Wall St get access to that money before anyone else. The increase of that money when it hits the rest of the market is what causes inflation. Since they are the first to spend it, they get to spend it at the previous old and higher value. Well, thats my take on what happens.

Zactly right... You disagree Zip?

[MelissaWV]

The concept of the ultra wealthy waiting for their Friday paycheck made me giggle. Thank you for that.

[WM_in_MO]

When the Fed prints money, the Banksters and Wall St get access to that money before anyone else. The increase of that money when it hits the rest of the market is what causes inflation. Since they are the first to spend it, they get to spend it at the previous old and higher value. Well, thats my take on what happens.

you nailed it. Thats what happens.

[brushfire]

What's wrong with offshore accounts?

Well, some are more accessible than others. The average middle class citizen does not have the same options, generally speaking, as those who are associated with the big banks. There are havens for income and assets - not bad, but simply not an option for most middle class folks.

[heavenlyboy34]

I'm not so sure a "middle class" is such a good thing anymore. It's pretty new in history. OP, why is the middle class important and needs to be saved?
Still awaiting eagerly your reply^^, damian!

[brushfire]

Still awaiting eagerly your reply^^, damian!

I happen to live there, and I'm a heluva lot closer to poorville than richville, should I be required to move.

[ctiger2]

How does that work? They get paid on Friday and I get paid on Friday. How do they get their money "sooner" and how does that benefit them? Do they get paid on Thursday and get an "early pay" bonus?

These people work in billions not thousands.

[Carson]

Allowing counterfeiting is what has killed the middle class and class in general.

Allowing the counterfeit some honest competition should bring it to a halt and restore the voice in the honest hard earned dollar.

Lots of you don't remember a time when you had a say with a real dollar and were needed to participate in your government and business. The counterfeit replaced us all.

All its power came through theft and has fueled a great conspiracy of minds that hate.

[Zippyjuan]

When the Fed prints money, the Banksters and Wall St get access to that money before anyone else. The increase of that money when it hits the rest of the market is what causes inflation. Since they are the first to spend it, they get to spend it at the previous old and higher value. Well, thats my take on what happens.

But they don't really get money before anybody else does. And how quickly do they actually spend it? The wealthy actually spend less money (as a percent of their income) on goods and services which means they may actually spend it later than everybody else. Any benefit to "getting paid first" would require prices rising really fast so they can get things before prices change.

[MelissaWV]

Still awaiting eagerly your reply^^, damian!

Replace "middle class" with "working class" and you will generally have your answer.

[Zippyjuan]

Allowing counterfeiting is what has killed the middle class and class in general.

Allowing the counterfeit some honest competition should bring it to a halt and restore the voice in the honest hard earned dollar.

Lots of you don't remember a time when you had a say with a real dollar and were needed to participate in your government and business. The counterfeit replaced us all.

All its power came through theft and has fueled a great conspiracy of minds that hate.

What times in history was the largest middle class in this country and what form of banking did we have?

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

Do you have a suggestion as to how to expand the middle class?

Build more Krispy Kremes and manufacture larger pants?

[heavenlyboy34]

Replace "middle class" with "working class" and you will generally have your answer.
How so?

[Tod]

Is the absence of a middle class indicative of an inability by the poor to improve their lives?

If the poor are unable to improve their lives through hard work and good habits, are they going to be more prone to resort to violence to get what they want?

[DamianTV]

Still awaiting eagerly your reply^^, damian!

I think I define "Middle Class" differently than others do. Govt wants to define "Middle Class" as people who have a certain Income level. Oh, and that "Income" is taxable. I think I may actually believe it to be something different. One who is self sufficient where survival is not obtained at the expense of others. So a Farmer that has zero money can survive. I'd define that as Middle Class. He keeps what he earns. Upper class thrives by depriving the people that create from that which they create. The "Lower Class" is not deprived of money, they are deprived of the ability and opportunity to provide for themselves. The "Lower Class" are typically enslaved to the Upper Class. The Lower Class tries to deprive the Middle Class but believe they always have to surrender ever increasingly larger and larger portions to the Upper Class.

Even by that definition, the Middle Class has been nearly completely wiped out.

[libertyjam]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM&feature=player_embedded

http://www.utrend.tv/v/9-out-of-10-americans-are-completely-wrong-about-this-mind-blowing-fact/

[MRK]

I'm not so sure a "middle class" is such a good thing anymore. It's pretty new in history. OP, why is the middle class important and needs to be saved?

The middle class is a great demographic to target to take money from. Apparently this fat cash cow is getting looted dry and there's not much meat left on the bone.

[PaulConventionWV]

Is the absence of a middle class indicative of an inability by the poor to improve their lives?

If the poor are unable to improve their lives through hard work and good habits, are they going to be more prone to resort to violence to get what they want?

The answer is yes. The reason for a middle class is that it establishes a standard of living that the market allows most people to achieve through productive work.

[DamianTV]

Theft has been Fully Legalized for the 1% when any Middle Class disappears.

[angelatc]

The rules for yee not being the same as for thee?

Nothing inherently wrong with them, of course.


The rules being ..... ?

[DamianTV]

The rules for yee not being the same as for thee?

Nothing inherently wrong with them, of course.

Others have argued this point better than I have.


There's NO Rule of Law... when the crime that is charged, not based upon what law was broken, but by who committed it.

[angelatc]

Well, some are more accessible than others. The average middle class citizen does not have the same options, generally speaking, as those who are associated with the big banks. There are havens for income and assets - not bad, but simply not an option for most middle class folks.

Oh, let the class wars begin! I am guessing you've been reading the Huffington Post.

The left hates "offshore accounts" only because the money isn't taxed. Of course, they don't care that not a single American resource was used in creating the money that flows into these accounts.

If an American-owned company has a branch in Germany, and sells Germans the products that are made in that German plant, and puts the money into a Swiss bank there is no real justification for taxing it as American income.

[jllundqu]

http://sorendreier.com/poof-goes-the-middle-class/



The Rich get Richer, but they ran out of Poor so they went after the Middle Class.

The Term has evolved into this:

"The Rich get Richer, but the Middle Class and lower are left with NOTHING."

This article assumed a lot... mainly that we will have a functioning government in 20 years. Based on current economic models that include Unfunded Liabilities, we collapse as a nation well before then.

[DamianTV]

This article assumed a lot... mainly that we will have a functioning government in 20 years. Based on current economic models that include Unfunded Liabilities, we collapse as a nation well before then.

Well that and the idea that first we fund those liabilities, then turn around and use the funds for something completely unrelated to the purposes for which those funds were collected in the first place. Tax em on Social Security, and spend it on Seat Belt Prevention and Awareness, or $5000 Toilets.

[heavenlyboy34]

This article assumed a lot... mainly that we will have a functioning government in 20 years. Based on current economic models that include Unfunded Liabilities, we collapse as a nation well before then.
Do those models take into account the regime's military might (and thus its ability to push people around) and belligerence? /curious

[jllundqu]

Do those models take into account the regime's military might (and thus its ability to push people around) and belligerence? /curious

Military might dont mean squat when they are being paid in wheel-barrels full of devalued Zimbabwe/Weimar Republic Hyperinflated dollars....

[MelissaWV]

How so?

Traditionally, those who are gainfully employed to the extent that they have a little cushion of savings and are able to provide the basics for themselves with little/no debt wind up in the middle class. The rich are those that can provide themselves the basics but don't really have to work in the most traditional sense. The poor tend to be those who either don't own anything of their own or struggle to provide the basics for themselves, sometimes failing.

This abstract concept of what constitutes each class is deliberately vague; what's rich to one is not to another, and what's basic for one isn't basic for another. What is disappearing is the group of people who work for a living, try to keep debt free, and have a little spare money set aside for emergencies. They have the basics covered --- even by today's very strange definition of "basics" --- but are not considered poor enough to qualify for every subsidy in the book. Those are the taxation cash cows. On one hand the poor are incentivized to remain below a certain income level, and on the other end the "rich" will hoard and retreat into their own circles, sometimes using influence to write laws to look out for themselves. What's left there in the middle is a whole lot of people pulling the cart full of freeloaders, and more and more say "fuck it" and get in the cart.

[DamianTV]

The Poor have become Atlas and Atlas is Shrugging.

[nobody's_hero]

It sounds horrible, but I had more freedom when I was poor.

[MelissaWV]

It sounds horrible, but I had more freedom when I was poor.

Hence my comment about people giving up. At some point, it's easier to take the free ride, or at least be poor enough that people aren't trying to steal your stuff.