But we are traipsing far from our safe zone. We have done so many things to dismantle our own safety nets that we are courting disaster. We change our voting districts to make it where our states majority can get all the seats, (so in my fine state, about 40% of the people have no representation, they don't even have a candidate in the primaries). In states with large non-majority people eligible to vote, they do strange things to 1)make it harder to register to vote, 2)make it harder to get to the polls in the time allotted; if a site has 2-3 times the number of voters that can realistically get through, then 2/3 of that group have been eliminated from the vote. They make it harder to get on the ballot, make it known that no one that can't come up with as much money as the majority party to run a campaign is wasting their time. There are stories of non majority people being threatened if they run, with everything from not getting invited to the right events to physical violence to themselves and their loved ones. And the news? We now have a network whose news is so incredibly propagandist that it will raise a thinking person's blood pressure. That is not counting the dozen's of internet news sites that have no problem with printing the most outrageous, most ridiculous, most untrue things they can find. Big followings get more ads.
A lot of people assume that if you are not for the majority party in your state, you must be a huge fan of the other party. We are currently living in a world in which loyalty to a side is the most important thing. But what if you are just for doing what is best for everyone. Giving everyone a shot at a good life. Letting everyone have access to good preventative healthcare so their health does not derail their dreams. What if you really believe that everyone should have access to the same educational opportunities; that being born extra wealthy is not a requirement to have those special school experiences and that it is not just those 'token math whizzes that need their special gifts nurtured. Why not let everyone willing to put in the time and effort to get a college education have access to that, and not just at community colleges and vo-techs. No one is asking for a living stipend--that would be entirely too European for us--just the tuition and books. Of course, when people have to work full time while they go to school, that five year limit before their past credits start going away needs to be examined. It isn't like history and algebra have changed. It is more of a "get another dollar our of them" mode. Schools that receive financial aid for their students need to quit treating those students like goldmines and start focusing on what they are there for--providing a good education. If we examined closely the amount of money schools spend on marketing reps(also called admission reps) and financial aid specialists we would need to ask ourselves why so many of the adjunct professors and teachers are receiving less pay than those reps and specialists.Could it be those schools see themselves as providing a place to take in financial aid rather than a place to provide a good education?
And how about small businesses, small contractors, non-franchised restaurants. Why do we have strip malls and downtown stores and zoned business buildings standing empty while people that want nothing more than to start a business going day after day to a job they hate and are therefore not good at.
Too long, the aim of our nation, unspoken and deeply denied, is to keep the money with the moneyed and keep the poor with the poor. The middle class has become a joke. Two people work 40+ hours a week to pay their rent and groceries and car payment, or if they didn't ruin their credit on school and some awful period of unemployment, their mortgage. They send their kids to daycare as soon as the FMLA runs out, and live in fear that the daycare worker is mentally ill or on drugs or just plain mean. They live in fear of losing their job every time the child gets sick because, despite the fact that kids in daycare catch everything that goes around, they can't stay at daycare when they are sick. Jobs give paid time off for scheduled vacations or for illness, but not for taking care of children with a cold. For most people, the thought of trying to provide care for more than one or two children is enough to cause a panic attack.
Perhaps defining the middle class is part of the problem.
"fall between the working class and the upper class"
"the class between nobility and peasantry"
"professionals, managers, senior civil servants possessing significant human capital"
"labor aristocracy, professionals, white collar workers"
The size of the middle class depends on how it is defined, whether by education, wealth, environment of upbringing, social network, manners or values, etc. These are all related, but are far from deterministically dependent. The following factors are often ascribed in modern usage to a "middle class": (but describe by whom?)
- Achievement of tertiary education.
- Holding professional qualifications, including academics, lawyers, chartered engineers, politicians, and doctors, regardless of leisure or wealth.
- Belief in bourgeois values, such as high rates of house ownership and jobs which are perceived to be secure.
A physician is middle class. (average pay $170,000)
Lawyers are middle class. (average $130,000)
University Professor is middle class. (average $130,000)
Engineers are middle class (average $140,000)
Politicians are middle class (average $69,700) (lets break that down--they are not all equal)
Members of congress ($174,000)
About 20% of the USA population makes more than $100,000,
So, minus that "no doubt about it--we're wealthy" top 2%, that puts about 18% of the USA as genuinely middle-
class by money comparison.
But what about home ownership. It is currently around 65%. But the number is deceptive because people
living in other people's houses are not counted. Therefore the percent is elevated. There is nothing about
home ownership alone making a person middle class, or how much a house has to cost to make a person
middle class or whether it can be mortgaged to the hilt versus paid off. Maybe that is not a very good indicator.
I know plenty of farmers, truck drivers and plumbers with their own houses. I think that I like home ownership
as an indicator. It is probably the only way I make it there.
Which means that the majority of the country is neither wealthy or middle-class. We are a nation of working
class people that have lost their power. We are diverse. We are invisible. We are the walk-ons and crowds
of the movies. We are lost. We have lost touch with our roots. We've lost contact with the reality of our
existence. We grasp at anything that lets us put on airs and distance ourselves from those other working class
and poor people we see around us..
What do they say?
"the first step is admitting their is a problem"
"Houston, we have a problem"
Time to take back our power for future generations. We are are nation of the people, for the people,
by the people.
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