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TechnoratiWhither the Working Class Hero?
"A working class hero is something to be" - John Lennon
Dear John,
What do you think about a "Working Class Hero" remix? Maybe change the chorus a bit. "A working class hero was something to be..."
In the years before your death, compassionate politics focused on the poor and the working class. The politics of today, at least the "compassionate conservative" variety, has cut-and-run from the "War on Poverty," proclaiming the half-hearted effort a failure. In the new millennium, the "War on the Middle Class" is all the rage.
Oddly enough, John, serious people -- mostly Art Laffer lovin,' Ron Paul Republicans -- still argue we live in a "classless society," which means you're considered a "radical" provocateur of "class warfare" if you talk about class out loud. It's classy not to talk about class. Apparently, panhandling policies geared toward removing the poor from sight aren't enough. Now, we don't want to even hear from poor folk. Today's motto is: the poor should not be seen, or heard. Next stop: eugenics. Survival of the richest.
It's no longer compassionate to serve the poor anything other than a nice, warm cup of shut-the-hell-up to go with their healthy portion of Bill Cosby sermon. Outside of pious worship services and stop-gap charity organizations, you can't talk about poverty without explicitly or implicitly implying that the poor deserve to be poor because they're stupid and lazy.
Even the leading Democrat candidates are careful not to utter the words "poor" or "working-class" in their speeches. It's all about "the middle class" -- a phrase more slippery than a hockey rink covered in Crisco.
Of course, there's lots of vague and vacuous verbiage slithering out of politicians mouths. Words like "change" and "hope" and "experience." And "middle class" -- for which, there's simply no consensus on how to clearly define. Ask the world's economists for a definition, line their answers up next to each other, and you still couldn't reach a conclusion.
OK, that's an exaggeration. Economists have a squishy sense of what kind of loot qualifies as middle-class. But even that's misleading because being middle-class isn't just about income. What's middle-class on Cape Cod is different than what's middle-class in Charlotte, N.C. or Marin Country, California, for example. Depending on where you live, the price of middle-class life varies.
And depending on what expert you ask, middle-class income ranges from $40,000 to $100,000 a year, give or take. But if you ask Mr. and Mrs. Average American, you'll get a much different picture. According to the National Opinion Research Center, 50 percent of families who earn between $20,000 and $40,000 a year think of themselves as "working class" or "middle-class." Nearly 40 percent of families earning between $40,000 and $60,000 annually, and 16 percent of families who earn over $110,000 a year, think of themselves as "middle class."
Congress recently asked its research service to define "middle class." Using 2005 Census Bureau data, and beginning with a look at income levels, CRS found 40 percent of the nearly 115 million households in the U.S. earned less than $36,000 a year. The next 40 percent rung up the economic ladder made between $36,000 and $91,705 annually. The top 20 percent made $91,705 or more.
But, as MSNBC reported, "those numbers don't adequately reflect the state of mind of those who consider themselves middle class. Surveys have shown that, while people consider $40,000 a year to be the low end of what it takes to buy a middle-class life, some people who make as much as $200,000 a year still consider themselves middle class."
The popular middle-class state-of-mind may explain why politicians pander to the mushy middle but that shouldn't be confused with populism or appealing to the true American majority. Close to half of all American households are bringing in less than $36K a year!
Of course, John, it's ridiculous to think the life-opportunities for a family earning $40,000 annually -- a quarter of which might go to pay daycare expenses -- is even in the same ballpark as 200K a year families. And that's what's got me scratching my head.
When presidential candidates talk about "the middle class," are they talking 200K or the 20 to 40K range? It would be interesting (and maybe disheartening) to hear the candidates get more specific about which "middle-class" they're referring.
I won't hold my breath, waiting for an answer. So I figured I'd write to you, John, because you have a better view. Maybe you can tell me: where's the working-class hero?
Sean Gonsalves is a syndicated columnist and assistant news editor with the Cape Cod Times. He can be reached at sgonsalves@capecodonline.com
67 Comments so far
Show Allhttp://www.trafford.com/07-2440
Dear Sirs and Mesdames,
This subject, in my mind, is the most immediate most urgent and serious matter confronting the Human Race. Despite the fact that many great minds, philosophers, politicians, academics and economists, have all created eminent careers based on their knowledge and understanding of how free enterprise, national economies and the human race interact, they have all failed to admit the obvious. It is glaringly obvious that we have large swathes of the human race that do not have access to money; it is that simple.
Therefore we need a system of economy that literally accommodates the needs and aspirations of every human being. A system that will not rely on taxing others' in order to provide all the multifarious forms of infrastructures, as well as our human and social obligations. A system of taxation in which the haves are continually being pressured to claw back those taxes from the have-nots. We must face the fact, once and for all; this system can never provide all human needs and infrastructures.
We have allowed right-wing ideology to dictate the terms and even if or when large swathes of populations may be fed and housed or have health needs addressed. We tolerate the fact that we have millions of working poor who will never earn enough to meet all of life's basic costs. Many of these are struggling to raise families the bedrock of our future. Those who work lead the most precarious of lives.
Precarious, because their work and income has become the plaything of corporate power, which moves production to lower waged economies. This makes the executives and the shareholders richer but at the cost of the misery they leave behind. Wages go down, but not prices, or costs of living, and the formerly free "social wage entitlements" are removed.
This is the "rationalized" world directed by Corporate Power and implemented by our Governments, the world of "user pays".
Take it or suffer the consequences. The Government calls this "work choices". Hear the Corporate applause? The consequences are total destitution for some; they could buy none of life's essential services.
Complete and total destitution for many unless they work, no shelter, no food, no health care, and no education, none of life's necessities.
So we need a system, which provides equal opportunity and care for all, overlaid with free enterprise. At the same time we can put in place a fair and equitable industrial relations system that eliminates employer employee antagonisms.
Our democracy is in serious trouble. Rich people and corporations channel funds into political parties in order to achieve their own commercial or ideological ends cleverly bypassing democratic inputs. It is happening in all democracies but that does not make it "worlds best practice" or "right". We can correct that quite easily. We make so-called free trade agreements under which corporations are exempted from government regulation that control workers rights, pay and working conditions. Is this democracy, is this really necessary, should corporations have such unbridled power, where will it end?
Introduction of The Universal Economy will immediately and substantially impact and improve such questions as Poverty, provision of universal education, health care, pensions, unemployment, housing and all public infrastructure (roads bridges schools hospitals etc). None of this will require the imposition of taxation.
The concept of The Universal Economy will be easy to introduce, because it benefits everyone, everyone will want it to work. It will be hardest to implement in third world nations, not impossible, just slower to implement. It will kick start economies wherever it is introduced.
This is a concept for the twenty-first century. Put to one side traditional thought processes and embedded conventions see only the greater-good and benefit of mankind then you will support this enterprise with the open heart and mind it deserves. Adopt this concept for the good of humanity.
Give your support, not money.
Yours Faithfully, THOMAS W ADAMS.
Don't forget about the 47 million people without access to health care. When one of the candidates starts talking about a reasonable plan to address the 9 trillion dollar debt that this administration leaves for the citizens of this country to pay, then I will have a reason to vote.
Unfortunately, being a worker doesn't necessarily mean food on the table anymore. There's a new class called the "working poor" who increasingly need food assistance. I would recommend not eliminating charitable contributions until one is forced to be on the receiving end, freia. It could happen to any one of us.
Some Rise, Some Fall, Some Climb to get to Terrapin.
MiMiCcS January 13th, 2008 3:54 am
"Candy Bars were 5 cents and much bigger, a bottle of coke in a vending machine (12 oz) cost 10 cents, movie tickets were 75 cents, a slice of pizza 10 cents, many familes had 5-7 kids, many workers had health care insurance and pensions, local burger joints offered 6 for 1 hamburgers specials, unemployment rate was a real 3% (today including discouraged workers not yet on welfare it is over 12%). Some of this is by memory."
MiMiCcS
Those were much better days as far as I'm concerned. I can remember getting my 25 cent allowance and immediately going down to the corner store to get some of those 5 cent candy bars along with a little brown bag full of penny candies. And that pizza from Regina Pizza in the north end was out of this world!
We didn't have a lot of "things" back then but people were much happier and far more grateful for what they did have.
F V HORN -- Thank you, as knowing more of this world of higher than the sky finance is crucial, not just to survival, but revival.
And a delicious irony!
Thanks Mijari. Wow, how insightful and inciteful!
Lennon's "Working Class Hero" wasn't about honoring common working people. It was about the cranking out of automatons to serve the ruling class. Today, his words are more poignant than ever:
Working Class Hero - John Lennon
As soon as your born they make you feel small,
By giving you no time instead of it all,
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all,
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.
They hurt you at home and they hit you at school,
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool,
Till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules,
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.
When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years,
Then they expect you to pick a career,
When you can't really function you're so full of fear,
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.
Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV,
And you think you're so clever and classless and free,
But you're still fucking peasents as far as I can see,
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.
There's room at the top they are telling you still,
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,
If you want to be like the folks on the hill,
A working class hero is something to be.
A working class hero is something to be.
If you want to be a hero well just follow me,
If you want to be a hero well just follow me.
Thanks COMarc. I've been reading CD for several years now and just thought it would be interesting to chime in now and then. I find CD to be quite insightful and stimulating. I plan on sticking around a bit - or at least until I get tired of the occasional name calling.
"Once in a while you can get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right" ~Robert Hunter
rtdrury wrote: Poverty is good for you.
While sounding good in theory, self-sufficiency is extremely difficult, if not impossible for MOST people.
I jumped off the consum er bandwagon in the 70s. In the 80s, I became heavily involved in LETS (Local Energy Transfer System), and have been bartering ever since. I "retired" some years ago and moved into a trailer in the NM mountains. I have 500 sq ft of cold frames where I grow vegetables and local herbs/flowers/succulents that I barter with local shamans in return for corn and other vegetables. I tutor local kids in maths and science in return for feed for the abused animals that I rescue. I still do some consulting for universities and the Govt which pays for health insurance, this confuser and internet connection, and occasional upgrades to my all-DC powered home. I generate sufficient electricity that I contribute to the grid and receive a quarterly check from the power company. I bicycle to/from town 5 miles away where I do most of my shopping and social interactions.
It has taken many years to achieve this state of grace. If y'all think it can take place overnight, or in 1 year, or even 5 years, y'all are sadly mistaken.
Time to go muck out the stables. 7 days of work. Sundays I take it easy.
The WTO and World Bank have been engaged in systematically destroying the economies and currencies of countries around the world - (remember the "Asia economic crisis"?) The same thing is happening in the US today.
Regarding the enrichment of the rich and the further impoverishment of the poor, it is a mathematical fact (ignored by the so-called economists) that the larger the population, the greater the disparity in wealth. Globalization is the ultimate goal and the middle class just gets squeezed out.
Enjoy.
Oh gawd, another long comment trying to convince us that corporate rule by a leader who had a (D) after their name is so very much better than corporate rule by a leader who had a (R) after their name. And that its so much better that we should just throw away our dreams of a free nation and a government of the people, by the people and for the people and run and embrace the Democrats.
This by the way is the pure toxicity of the Kucinich campaign. Now you'll see all the Evilcrat supporters (they claim to be a party of evil, just of the slightly lesser variety) saying that we had our chance with the pathetic Kucinich campaign in their rigged game, so now we all need to line up like good little sheep and support corporate government.
CosmicCharlie, how do you do?
Hope you stick around a bit, and that's not your mama calling you.
:)
(hmmm, need emoticon that looks like a dancing bear!)
Actually what has increased the most is baseball cards. 1967 about a nickel for 5 cards, 2007 about $3.95 for the same 5 cards. So that is what 7900%
I know that I have listed this site before, but if you haven't checked it out, please do.
http://www.inequality.org/
Click on "By the Numbers" and page down to the pie charts that show wealth distribution and stock ownership for 2004.
In 2004, 10% of people in this country had over 70% of the wealth; 10% of people owned nearly 80% of the stock market.
This was 2004. I would bet that is is even more skewed now. With this wealth distribution, how can we talk about equality of power or opportunity? The term "We the People" becomes a farce.
rtdrury January 13th, 2008 12:59 am: "Poverty is good for you"
Yep, it's the ultimate "reality check". It humbles you to get knocked down a few notches now and then.
It's time for the middle class to take a good hard look at what's really important and realize that the American Dream has become American "Greed". When things turn ugly you'll be on your own. No one will feed you, no one will clothe you. Time to break away from "stuff"
Buy that piece of land with a modest house and a good well.
Live a simpler life; try being more self-sufficient; leave less of a carbon footprint. When you begin to work the soil and run your hands through the dirt, it will ground you. Welcome to the "New/old" Working Class.
Even Democratic voters have turned a blind eye to the one candidate with real plans, Kucinich, so the rest of this election is about trying to salvage the next presidency with electing a Democrat over a Republican, and that is all. There is a difference, as Bush and Gore taught us.
This time, though, Gore has shamed himself by really turning his back on his country and his cause by sitting this election out, as no-one is addressing the Environment among the goddamn rich star "journalists" of the MSM. For example, the League of Conservation Voters found only 3 questions out of 3,000 addressed to the candidates on even the hot topic of Global Warming on the MSM talk shows in 2007.
So once again, the biosphere that enables anyone and everyone to live at all, is treated with the same contept shown to Kucinich, even when every single problem on Earth is a result of environmental peril, ownership, and destruction. Maybe America and the world deserve destruction when the massive amount of trapped frozen methane just bubbles out of the Arctic Ocean and rolls down and snuffs out life on Earth forever. But let's talk about who saw a flying saucer!
As for Edwards, he talks a good talk, but his platform is weak, and his old one-term Senate voting record does not at all inspire confidence that he has deeply-held Progressive and Environmentally-friendly beliefs. And when his home state of South Carolina hands him a third place among Democrats, he will be over. He seems to many people I know to be reminiscent of a used-car salesman, or dare I say slick Southern lawyer, who will say anything to get the sale.
Here is a bit of platform I would like to hear from Edwards or anyone:
First of all, the government MUST take the Federal Reserve back from the Bankers that run it... such as the criminal, Neo-Con Randian-Objectivist Mole and Banking-Interest Stooge, Greenspan, who created trillions of dollars and gave it as corporate welfare to bankers, single-handedly creating the mortgage bubble we see today. And with his Bank rule-making powers created many other criminal corporate-welfare policies too numerous to name.
The Fed SETS the interest that banks pay the Fed, period. So much for the "Free" Market baloney. Just watch Wall Street pay attention to every little word the Fed Chairman speaks. Because interest is SET by the Fed. BUT ONLY FOR BANKS, not our very own government that has to BORROW FROM THE RICH at a cost almost TEN TIMES HIGHER when lost taxes are included. In fact, there is a specific rule that banks can't use Fed money to just buy government securities, or that circle jerk is ALL THEY WOULD HAVE TO DO! And by the way, since banks are in hock to the Fed, the Fed owns most of America when you get right down to it. This BONDage must be eliminated.
Second, then have the Fed redeem ALL goverment debt... federal, state, county. These loans will be paid back to the Fed INTEREST-FREE. And further borrowing, (done now via the bond market), will be from the Fed and will also be INTEREST FREE, but responsibly paid back to the Fed. This will eliminate this tax break for the RICH, and the farce of borrowing from the rich and paying them their money back with tax-free interest, instead of simply taxing them for necessary public funding. This will save governments I believe over ONE TRILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR in interest and lost taxes, money that has to come from taxpayers OTHER than the rich or that has to be borrowed again to pay this interest upon interest upon interest, in an insane spiral. Talk about regressive taxation. Here is Robin Hood in Reverse, tax the poor to pay the rich. You talk about your welfare queens... there they are.
Third, make Compound Interest ILLEGAL. Interest upon interest upon interest is Usury. See the short video on YouTube, ARE HUMANS SMARTER THAN YEAST?, to see what I mean about exponential or Compound interest. (This video also applies to the overpopulation problem we now face. Sure, we may be able to feed everyone, NOW, but double the population and there is once again no solution but war and death. And as for some suggesting humble living will solve the problem, we see many Unhappy examples of too-humble living in the world today! Then ask Americans if they want to see their children live like that... see what answer you get, and from anywhere else on the globe.)
Fourth, make the 30-year mortgage illegal. Set the top at 20 years or below. This will have the effect of collapsing housing prices back to a reasonable level, instead of the debt-and-speculator-driven madness of home prices today. A mortgage is debt-bondage and a contract for indentured servitude. Your bank owns the house you think you own, and they say so right on the window when they claim X billions in assets - your homes (just miss a few payments and see who 'owns' your home!). And 30 years is a working Lifetime. Too much. A mortgage is like a MARGIN contract, you put a little down and the bank fronts you the rest. But now it is like putting $3 down and borrowing the rest to 'own' $100 of stock. Highly Inflationary. The ridiculousness of this can be seen in allowing, say, 1,000 year mortgages (why not!), and placing the next generations of your family in BONDage.
Sixth, utilities must be returned to states and municipalities. No more privatization of the common basis of civilized life. This will also be funded by the New Fed.
Seventh, tax policy will be re-directed towards the goal of a healthy environnment. And busting up excessive accumulations of personal and corporate wealth, which has led too much piggish behavior in America today. (Maybe ALL college courses in Business Ethics should be shut down as abject failures!)
Eighth, NAFTA, the World Bank, the North American Trade Union, and the IMF have got to go. These agreements and institutions have now been set up or written by corporate attorneys, who get royally paid to make sure the fix is in for their corporate clients. In this sense Edwards is right. But he has not put this necessity forward. And as an attorney, he never dismantled or changed coporate culture, just got corporate money for his clients for corporate bad behavior.
These are just suggestions, but I think implementation would eradicate the $66 Thousand-Billion-Dollar Debt the Crony-corporate Republicans have imposed on the future of this country and its people AND which NOBODY MENTIONS in this election cycle. And these ideas help eliminate the speculators and manipulators from the cost of life itself on the people.
And the nuts and bolts of this goal, of a version of what Scaninavian Socialism has achieved, is NOT what I am hearing from Edwards. I hear only more platitudes about fighting the corporations. Sadly, no real Progressive is now going to be President. So the best we can now hope for is, I believe, a Republican-beating Hillary Clinton presidency with Hillary a wiser person than she has been, and one which will surprise us with Progressive policies... well, she is more likely to than any of the Republican Cretins running.
To quote the recipient of this letter..."You think you're so clever and classeless and free, but You're still f*cking peasants as far as I can see"
Right on John..Rest in Peace
In 1967, the median home price in the US was 22,700
In 2004, the median home price in the US was 221,000
Factor 2004/1967, 9.73
According to BLS, 100 dollars in 1967 would be worth 565. (or 1219 if you calculate it according to 1980 methodolgy)
In 1967, the median household income of the middle 3rd fifth was 7,077 (mainly one worker)
In 2004, the median houshold income was 44,411 (many 2 income households)
Factor 2004/1967 = 6.27
So either homes prices increased too much (means you believe in governments CPI) , or houshold income is lagging inflation (CPI is a lie since early 1980's and especially since early 1990's)
Gasoline in 1967, 30 cents/gallon
Gasoline in 2007, 3 dollars/gallon
Factor 10
Cup of coffe in 1967, 10 cents
Cup of coffee in 2007, over 2 dollars
Factor 20+
Comic book in 1967, 12 cents
Comic Book today, over 2.50 dollars
Factor: 20+
Crude Oil in 1967 3.20 per barrel
Crude oil today 94. per barrel
Factor +25
Bleacher seats at Fenway: 1 dollar
Bleacher seats 2006: 12 dollars
Factor: 12
Gold 1967 = 35/oz
Today = 890/oz
Factor +25
Candy Bars were 5 cents and much bigger, a bottle of coke in a vending machine (12 oz) cost 10 cents, movie tickets were 75 cents, a slice of pizza 10 cents, many familes had 5-7 kids, many workers had health care insurance and pensions, local burger joints offered 6 for 1 hamburgers specials, unemployment rate was a real 3% (today including discouraged workers not yet on welfare it is over 12%). Some of this is by memory.
There were actually state usury laws that limited interest rates over 10%.
A number of states still did not have a sales tax. The Federal Debt was 360 billion (today is 9.2 trillion)
I would say the median housefold is screwed compared to 40 years ago. But I guess if you do not know it, it ain't too bad. Enjoy.
and there's
It's time we all take a good hard look at just what the @#%!is going on in the world.
MikeBin82I've sent money to 2 of the candidates you've mentioned here.
I think it's vital that we keep in mind ALL the men that are standing up to the "New World Order" for no matter what our differences "We the People" must unite NOW for the sake of our children.
Sean's letter to John Lennon ends with -
Maybe you can tell me: where's the working-class hero?
Well here's a few things a working-class hero might say -
"Corporate Greed has gotten its way in Washington for 25 years and our elected leaders let it happen. If we elect another president appointed by the status quo or just trade corporate Democrats for corporate Republicans the middle class will fall further behind and our children will pay the price." John Edwards
"Here's what's happened corporate greed and political calculation have taken over our government and sold out the middle class. Washington isn't looking out for the middle class because Washington doesn't work for the middle class anymore ... that is wrong. It doesn't say life, liberty and the pursuit of endless corporate profit in the Declaration of Independence. America is about opportunity for you ... and your families, your children. But our government is selling out their future at the command of lobbyists and their corporate clients and we have to rise up together and stop it. We have to rise up and say, no more. Not on our watch.
"That's what the American people have always done. Every time in our history that the American people have been faced with great challenges, they rose up and met them. They made certain that they left America better than they found it; they left their children a better life than they had. That's what your parents did. It's what your grandparents did. And it's what my parents did for me.
"I take it very personally when I see powerful, well-financed interests taking over this democracy, and taking it away from regular Americans, people like my parents. We have got to reclaim this democracy for them. For you. For your children. For your grandchildren. Because if we don't, we're going to have to look our children in the eye and say, "we're leaving this mess to you." Our parents didn't do that. Our grandparents didn't do it. Twenty generations of Americans who came before us didn't do it. And I'll tell you something: we're not going to do it. We're going to make absolutely certain that America rises again."
"During the Great Depression, FDR stood up to powerful, entrenched interests to lead this nation out of our darkest hour. We fought for change, and we changed history."
"When I was born, my parents had to borrow $50 to bring me home to a little house in a South Carolina mill village. My father would wake up, work 12 hours a day, doing hard, tedious work and then got up every morning for 36 years to do the same thing all over. Why did my parents do it? Why did your parents and grandparents do it? They did it so we could have a better life." John Edwards
Is there any doubt about why the corporate MSM keeps the Edwards, Kucinich, Gravel and yes even Paul's message off the air? They have already picked the chosen ones for you!
You should all give yourselves a chance to win by voting for Edwards. If Edwards doesn't win, you're going to get Obama or Hillary anyway, and a brokered convention might not be a bad idea. If Edwards stays in the race and nobody gets a clear majority, all the issues will be on the table.
John Edwards is the only one that they have left to fear, and they're doing all they can to fix that problem.
US Corporate Elite Fear Candidate Edwards
By Kevin Drawbaugh
Reuters
Check out the article over at TruthOut -
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011108T.shtml
EDWARDS '08
It's the BURGERS:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1070329053600562261
Poverty is good for you.
When you walk and ride bikes you get exercise.
When you take the bus instead of a car, you are helping the biosphere.
You also get more exercise when you repair your own house and other things instead of hiring contractors - body and mind exercise.
When you buy produce/bulks at the ethnic market, you're getting ten times the nutrition at one tenth the cost.
When you stay home with the family and count the stars in the sky, instead of go to the movies, you're feeding your soul.
When you minimize your income and pay fewer taxes, you are helping reign in the Pentagon.
When you are out of the rate race you can get some peace of mind. In the idiocy of this culture, the less money you make, the better off you are.
The only thing you really need is a chunk of land. Pay it off, then build your own shelter, grow your own food, have at most one kid, and let the kid self-teach instead of college. No health insurance is needed, no credit is needed.
So there are all the obvious benefits to the biosphere, to the society, and to the individual.
When the capitalist comes groveling up to your feet and begs you to buy some of his warez, resist the temptation. Stay self-sufficient. Poverty is the way of the future.
Paul -- Thank you, it's good to know another's point of view on this, especially as we share some pieces in this bizarre grab bag of existence. I really like O.S. and similarly view M$ as the bane of so many problems we face, and rejoice when Brazil and others go with OS for their people's PC.
nspire,
I used to go 100% into TIAA-CREF Social Choice, but then I discovered that they invested in Microsoft (I'm an open source linux programmer), and entities like JP Morgan. Most all of the other options invest in nuclear/tobacco/oil/sweatshops. I have no choice -- my TIAA-CREF outlay is as benign as possible: 100% money market.
In good times, it's probably the worst return on your investment. In bad times, like now, it's actually not all that bad.
Everyone seems to confuse the working class with the poor. Many of you appear to believe that if and when a fiscal crunch comes to the US, you will lose your status as "middle class" and become "working class". Nothing could be further from the truth. You will become poor, not working class. The working class will always exist because they are the true providers of society, and without which the wealthy and elite can exist. Orwell called them the proles. The Romans called them slaves. But at least they food on the table.
It will be very interesting to watch the dynamics of change to all these demographic classes in our society when the US economy begins to crumble. When the stock market tanks; when your 401 becomes worthless; when countries around globe choose the Euro instead of the dollar etc...
Even the wealthy will take the hit. The middle class will cease to exist most likely.
The social economic walls that define the classes will collapse. Except for the extremely rich, the American masses will be humbled as we all return to GO (without collecting $200)
Middle classers will have to learn to garden, ride their bikes and take responsibility for their own health issues - just as the poor have been doing for hundreds of years.
(Come on you lazy M.C.'s ; Pull yourself up by your bootstraps; get a job)
MarkMarshall wrote: the Marxist definition of working class is a good one: anyone who makes their living by selling their labour is working class.
I believe that was true when Marx thought that, but his concept of labor was physical toil in primary products (farming, mining) or manufacturing. Today, the US is largely a service-society, having out-sourced most manufacturing overseas, and farming and mining have been heavily automated and owned by huge companies.
I believe Marx thought of the middle class as service-providers; retailers, scientists, entertainers, professionals (lawyers, doctors, etc) because they do not provide the raw materials required for a society to exist. This is where most of US society falls; we provide nothing of importance.
PAUL B -- How are you positioning your TIAA/CREF portfolio?
I'm trying to better understand "equity vs. guaranteed", and doubt how much of the guaranteed is actually as solid as it is named.
I'm thinking of shifting to 100% guaranteed (0% equities), this month, but don't know if there's an even better position available.
What to you think?
freia, you and I are in the same leaky rowboat. I understand TOTALLY, as I imagine many who read this on CD are as well. My husband and I are both college grads, living in a depressed area in FL, where jobs are few and careers are nil. I have been a high school teacher and husband in law enforcement. And yet, despite our degrees and great resumes, we are not truly employable as we were when we lived in New England. I am working 3 part-time jobs and my husband is working one part-time and looking for more. It is incredible.
I am voting for John Edwards in this election.
He is the only candidate who gets it.
Moonshadow, that was a great letter!
I sent one to NBC, complaining about their reneging on their decision to let Kucinich debate. All I said was something like, "Since you're boycotting Dennis Kucinich, I'm boycotting any television program aired by you."
Don't imagine it's going to bother them much, though.
to frank:
I can relate to seeming poor on 50K. My wife and I seem to live on less than 30K. We used to be in your high dollar range.
We are both college educated slaves. We have what used to be high tech skills.
We prefer reading books to mass media.
Sometimes we veg out to a VHS movie. Yah you read that right. We don't have a DVD player. Last night we watched the Blues Brothers. Interesting to see what we thought at the time was Nazi America turn out in retrospect to be a kinder and gentler time than now.
We prefer to vote with the party that would rather let us die on our feet than live on our knees.
May all the universe grant you wisdom and grace. May you respect all living beings.
The ruling class already has their political party's, their newspapers and television stations, their supreme court, their justice system, their police, their military, their multinational corporations, their culture, and anything else they want.
The working class has their labor to sell, and with the money they make can buy( from the ruling class) those things they need to stay alive, and maybe a little something extra.
The working class does not need a hero, but rather a political party that will represent their independent interests. The working class needs their own newspaper, television station, supreme court, justice system, police, army, well you get the idea.
We are not all in this together.
I've gone through this discussion before, and it's worthwhile to check the Wikipedia here -- and note the differences between middle-class as defined in the US, what the rest of the world considers middle-class, Marxist thinking, etc.
"Class" first and foremost is a sliding-scale. Capitalists earn 100% of their income by skimming from the labors of others. Working class earn 100% of their income by trading their direct labor for money (always at a loss).
"Middle-class" is somewhere between these two extremes. If you get 50% of your income from investments/dividends/etc., then you're half capitalist and half working-class. Precisely at the middle-class.
Most of America is comprised of working-class wage slaves and they refuse to admit it. I got my TIAA-CREF year-end statement today, and it looks like I'm roughly 95% working-class and 5% capitalist.
The rift between the HAVES and USED-TO-HAVES is growing exponentially.
Such is the joy of Fascism. This is a "classless society" say the dictator class parasites refering to the muddle class wage slaves. When will we take our citizenship back from the corporations?
A working class hero? Hell, we need a Sparticus or a Salah al-Din to fix this trap we have stumbled into. UBL for president?
Yep, everyone should clean toilets and eat crappy food and, of course, be deprived of medical care. It will make you a stronger person, and especially not a dependent weenie. Oh, and don't forget the children, perhaps we should put them to work again in factories as well; no doubt those imprisoned in labor camps making Nike tennis shoes have better souls then the rest of us. Then there's the rich. Their great wealth shows that God has exempted them from such suffering by the fact that they've been born wealthy. Sorry, Stevieray, but it seems like your struggle only made your 'soul' hard and mean, and has made you regard others with contempt.
Geez. I had to read through 30 comments to get to one that reminds us that Edwards calls tackling POVERTY in America his "life's work." (It's true that the lower middle class, where I am, is having a bad time also, and Edwards now mentions "working families" which includes this group, I think.)
The super-rich oligarchs contracted many lawyers, politicians, economists and financiers to rig the system so that we fight among ourselves for their leftovers instead of placing the blame squarely on their laps where it belongs.
stevieray49: you say "screw the stupid". That is unfair. People who have low intelligence did not choose to be the way they are.
You also say "screw the lazy" - that I can at least understand. There is a kind of moral coherence to the sentiment (though I'm not sure I endorse it wholeheartedly - there are far worse things a person can be than lazy: selfish or intolerant, for example, as Tusconlib pointed out). But to say "screw the stupid" is like saying "screw the short", or "screw the left-handed", or "screw the green-eyed".
Mark Marshall
Toronto
For stevieray49:
So, "everyone starts out at the bottom", eh? Like, um, George Bush for example? This "annoying liberal" pities you for having to suffer through life with such a shriveled heart. Screw the stupid? I say screw the selfish and intolerant.
So, formernadervoter, you think it is acceptable for Kucinich to be censored, for our democracy to be manipulated by a couple of corporations? Ho hum, OK, I'll just sit back and let them choose. It's easier.
c'mon dennis fans, he cannot win under any scenario.
Edwards can and he routinely mentions the poor.
In the latest released national polls, John Edwards runs better than either Obama or Hillary against all Republicans.
You want a Working Class Hero? Well, there is one such candidate, as a matter of fact, and his name is Dennis Kucinich. But the way the corporate media and the DLC have barred him from network debates; The way some states are refusing to even place his name on the ballot; Clearly, he scares the s**t out of the power elite. Working Class Heroes will never be permitted to take their message to the people. Not in this country. Not any more....
"Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
Thats how it goes
Everybody knows"
- Leonard Cohen
Kucinich has enormous, documented support of voters, yet big media refuses to cover his campaign in a serious manner and does its best to exclude him from debate forums, which it opens to candidates acceptable to its owners. This is just more of the violent activity which has come to typify the ruling class. And this is activity which begets violence: if the people are prevented from using legal means of political action, they must resort to other means, or live as slaves.
"When presidential candidates talk about "the middle class," are they talking 200K or the 20 to 40K range? It would be interesting (and maybe disheartening) to hear the candidates get more specific about which "middle-class" they're referring."
Well, according to the Small Business Service Bureau's "incomplete" list of presidential candidates and where they stand on taxes, here's what they said about the ones they chose to advertise in Vol.29 No6, which was published before Iowa and NH went to the voting polls:
"REPUBLICANS: Giulani, McCain and Romney want to make the Bush Tax Cuts "permanent".
DEMOCRATS: Clinton and Obama want to roll back tax cuts for families with incomes over $250,000. Edwards wants to repeal tax cuts for household incomes over $200,000."
Kucinich, who is still a candidate but not included in this SBSB list has every intention of rolling back the Bush tax cuts on high income brackets, but you will have to visit his website; I don't know what income level he will begin the roll back.
What constitutes "Middle Class" in the minds of these people is just one consideration to look at before we cast our final vote in November.
Other tax breaks intended for the wealthiest among us include:
Estate Taxes
Corporate Taxes; loopholes and tax havens.
Tax Breaks on Capital Gains, Dividends and Hedge Funds
Alternative Minimum Taxes
Educational and Child Tax Credits
freia,
A lot of middle class voters still believe it's "easy as turning a door knob" to get as "rich" as Donald Trump. For the most part, the middle class has long disappeared since Reagan took office in 1981 and you can thank the DUMBOcrats for playing go-along get-along even in Bill Clinton's time. The trouble with the party of the working class is it stopped being just that 15 years ago. Even now, major union leaders are going out of their way to endorse Hillary not that they care much that her husband was the one who passed NAFTA, China PNTR, and more union busting, privatization, deregulation to add to Reagan's and Bush's 12 years of it.
If you are in the working class, your heroics are limited to feeding your family and having a roof over your head.
The big, fat, belt-buckle snapping middle class is now limited to those few that the give the politician small donations.
The top heavy American Diet has gone to its head.
The rest of us - well we have been flushed down the toilet.
"...the poor deserve to be poor because they're stupid and lazy."
If that were the case, the present POTUS would be guzzlin' cheap whiskey from a brown bag in between naps on the sewer grate.
We are the middle class and we are struggling. This is an average family that makes about 50K a year, but once we subtract our bills, there is nothing left except for food and gas and an occasional class for our daughter. That is it. This is a family with no credit card debt and not living a plush lifestyle. Old car, old house,used clothing, frugal. We just got a 50 buck electric and gas bill increase. Guess where my 2% raise is going, exactly to cover the electric bill. We cut out all charity contribution and cable TV and we are still not getting ahead. I cannot even imagine how people making less get by. If the economy tanks, and it will, people will either be living on credit or never getting ahead, owing more and more and getting by with less and less. We all better get used to a lower standard of living. The way we live now is unsustainable.
Oh yeah, Doom n Gloom - I truly hope the Richfilth start screwing with their genetics as soon as possible. Scientific arrogance (read infantile ignorance) combined with our single reference linear model of genetic impact is a deadly combination. Remove any recessive and you remove the counterbalancing benefit. These IDIOTS consider between 30-40% of our genetic structure to be "JUNK" because they can't find how they impact the total structure. Go right ahead children, make your super Aryan. I pity the poor short-lived creatures their "parent" monstrous greed will produce. ARROGANT JUMPED-UP CHIMPANZEES (parents not offspring).
Gaia has special classes for such people. The classes are harsh, few survive, and no appeals to Yahweh will avail.
Peace.
The rift between the HAVES and HAVE-NOTS is growing exponentially.
Yes, who are/is the Middle Class?
With the direction this economy is taking, in five years we might find
that there is only the "very rich", and the "moderately poor to very Poor". Sadly, I don't hold much hope for a bright economic future.
Corporate greed continues to drag us down.
Hang on tight...
Peace~
Thanks Sean, It's Been A Hard Day's Night, And I been workin' like dog…
What a long strange trip it's been…
I dreamed I saw the silver spaceships flyin', in the yellow haze of the sun, there were colors flyin' and children cryin' all around the chosen ones, all in a dream, all in a dream, the loading had begun, flyin' Mother Nature's silver seed to a new home in the Sun….
To survive we must make a place for everyone at the table and reject war and conquest as a way of Life. To accomplish this we must eliminate our richfilth elites and centralized corporate control of our lives, they are a package. This can be done with legislation or with a guillotine. We refused in '64, we refuse to this day. The difference is that now, with total richfilth and corporate control, the dissidents, the ones who pissed people off, the ones that lead movements for economic and social justice, the ones who frightened the Masters – BECAUSE THEY WOULD LIMIT OR ELIMINATE MASTER'S CONTROL, have long since been silenced/bought, falsely imprisoned or executed. All of Master's Leader (Fuhrer) Class are taught to play nice, roll over, sit up & beg, and of course that wonderful show stopper, play dead.
It is the doom of men that we forget.
I PRAY THERE WILL BE Life after The Great Shattering.
Peace,
oops woes, not woe's
Conservatives (the comtemporary regressive variety anway) seem to ALL think they are middle class. My oldest daughter and son-in-law make more than 300K per year, live in a 600K house and have a full-time nanny (who herself makes more than 25k per year). They, and ALL their conservative friends in their posh suburb call themselves middle class and moan about the woe's of trying to make ends meet in "middle" America.
They think of my wife and I as living in near poverty as we "struggle" in their view to live on about 100k a year providing health (her) and legal (me) services to people really in need.
So, when you hear regressives talk about helping the middle class, they are talking about my daughter and son-in-law, who think they need deeper tax cuts and less labor regulation to increase their income. Regressives are not talking about their nanny or our clients.
Hi celebrity!
I checked out your link, and I was disgusted! They just get more and more blatant, don't they! So I submitted a question to the debate that basically asked where Dennis was and didn't they consider it a conflict of interest to exclude him. I also wrote the following to the Chairman and commisioners of the FCC, not that that will do any good:
Dear Sirs and Madam-
I am writing as a concerned American citizen and voter in regards to NBC's after-the-fact exclusion of Representative Dennis Kucinich from the Las Vegas debate being televised on their network. After publicly announcing that they would have the top four candidates debate, and after inviting Representative Kucinich, they then rescinded that nomination. As Representative Kucinich is an avowed anti-war candidate and NBC is owned by General Electric, a major defense contractor, it is not much of a stretch to assume that it is not in General Electric's interest for Representative Kucinich's views to be broadcast to the American people.
Increasingly, I find political debate in this country to be shaped by the media in ways that are unacceptable to me. The media appears to be deciding for us which candidates are electable well before the American people get much of a chance to actually find out much about a particular candidate's platform. Candidates who lack major corporate backing are routinely excluded and actively discredited, despite their qualifications and despite the fact that they are espousing views which need to be made known. If such "second-tier" candidates are actually allowed onto a televised debate, they are lucky to be allowed to speak for 30 seconds in an hour-long show. There is no intelligent debate of issues (which would take more than an hour or two in any event). Questions asked by moderators are empty of substance and are more worthy of tabloid magazines or infotainment shows like Entertainment Tonight.
The end result of these policies is that political debate in this country is now very obviously being controlled by the corporations that own the networks, and that they are doing this to further their own interests, rather than fulfilling their obligations to give political coverage in a manner that does not favor any one candidate. Given this situation, I think that it is past time that the American people started charging the major networks for the use of the airwaves that they profit so greatly from, so that we can release them from an obligation they have no intention of fulfilling properly. I do not truly expect any such action from you, Chairman Martin, given your recent decision to allow further media consolidation despite much protest from the people you ostensibly serve, but I cannot in good conscience let such obvious chicanery go unremarked upon.
I am not a Marxist, but I think the Marxist definition of working class is a good one: anyone who makes their living by selling their labour is working class. According to that definition, virtually all people who consider themselves "middle class" are in fact working class. And the vast majority of the populations of Canada, USA Australia and Europe are in fact working class.
Mark Marshall
Toronto
Since the Reagan revolution started in 1981, we have been in the process of re-defining heros as being those who have money, panache and bling rather than those who selflessly serve us all with work (except in Country Music where some songs still celebrate some workers.)
This will continue to be a trend until we elect a President, who, with words and actions, leads us to appreciate and care about our fruitpickers, hotel maids, restaurant workers, house-builders, store clerks, truck drivers, and all the similarly situated others who enable daily life in our country.
Hint: This will not be one of the guys now attempting to resurrect Ronald Reagan's ghost (policy) and run on it as though it was some kind of good record.
Eugenics is a serious topic. It was actively pursued in the U.S. from the turn of the century until the 1960's. Today Eugenics has morphed into Genetics. The concept was to forcibly sterilize the bottom ten percent of the population continuously until a Nordic ideal was realized. This idea is far from dead in the United States. Genetic manipulation is the goal. Building a child to order as one would build a new car is on the horizon. Racial purity will be the ideal. The costs of such a service will be very expensive thus enabling only the economic elites to build their master race. Others will be viewed as impure and untouchable. Imagine a real life world of Barbie and Ken !
Isn't it funny about Kerry supporting Obama. What a slap in the face for Edwards. It proves Kerry's choice of Edwards as a running mate was only a political calculation on his part. Makes you wonder if all politicians are really nothing but whore-dogs.
This article reminds of the Lou Dobbs program. While I admire Lou (agree or disagree) for speaking his mind, it has become offensive hearing about the "middle class" this and middle class that, about how they are losing financial ground, with hardly a mention of the working poor, who struggle every day just to feed and house themselves.
These people are truly marginalized in our society, and we basically ignore them because we dread the thought of being in their shoes. Some even believe that their poverty is evidence of God's disfavor. No wonder they are regarded with contempt by many. With the coming recession many more are likely to find themselves in similar circumstances, ironic though it may be.
As a girl friend said...we are all working class if we have to rely on salaries to provide for us. Which is why labor law protection is so important
I'll vote for Kucinich in the primary, but I'll never again vote for a status quo Dem like Kerry or the current front runners. Greens have McKinney and Nader as contenders. How about them apples?
Class consciousness continues to fade in our society. My guess is that this syndicated columnist will not get this piece published in any major newspaper. It'll be labeled "class warfare" and tossed out.
Class warfare is what the ruling global oligarchs are waging. What we need is a global movement to fight back. The Green Party already exists in many parts of the world, and its ten key values include social and economic justice. Capital is organized globally, and it's time ordinary world citizens unite for class struggle.
I routinely represented older Americans who had to choose between paying for their or their kids' medicine and paying their bills. In today's America, this not unusual. Many people are one layoff or one sickness away from bankruptcy and destitution. Our country has become a comfortable place for the wealthy. And an often impossible place for those who are not. Despite this fact, it's pretty unusual to have a reasonable discussion about this New Gilded Age. Unless we start to recognize how bad it's gotten for average Americans things will never change.
Edwards 08
Daniel: Well said! We as a society need to honor work not wealth.