six things i hate about you...

#6- where’s the middle class?

The large and prosperous middle class that arose from the ashes of WWII is perhaps one of the greatest achievements in America’s history.  It produced one of the biggest booms in population, wealth, health, technology and fashion faux pas the world has ever seen. For most of human history- the middle class was non-existent.  Societies tended to be comprised of a small and super-rich ruling class and then hoards of dirt-poor, filthy, uncouth extras from Oliver Twist.   But as a result of FDR’s New Deal and the uniting effect WWII had on America, we emerged from that conflict on a rapid upward trajectory. 

My grandfather fought WWII, survived and went to work on the Pennsylvania railroad (does it get more blue collar?), owned a home and raised 1,002 [read: 7] children along with my grandmother (who didn’t work but made a mean pot roast).  If I tried to do what my grandparents did now, I would be on welfare, food stamps and eventually the show Cops.  The truth is that the world my grandparents lived in doesn’t exist anymore.  We’ve been had.  Where has the middle class gone?  Is it dying because America’s economy is dying?  Is it being killed by terrorism or drugs or gangs?  No.  America’s economy, though currently in the shithouse, is by no means dead.  We remain one of the world’s leading producers of technology AND useless crap.  And terrorism, drugs and gangs don’t cause poverty- they are the result of poverty.  So what the eff happened? 

What happened is corporate greed.  It’s a simple equation.  Americans have been working as hard and as much as they always have- in fact, we’ve been working harder.  But a greater and greater percentage of the money we make goes to the CEO’s and Presidents of the bigger and bigger corporations.  The money has floated out of the mattress my Italian grandmother stuffed it in for 50 years and into the pockets of the people she called “Fat Cat Sonsabitches”.  Getting our money back will be no easy feat, but it’s the only way the reclaim our place in America, thereby helping America reclaim her place as the Land of Opportunity.