Is There a War on the Middle Class?
Judging by the slur du jour, every politician in America is hard at work waging war on the middle class. Policies and agendas can do real economic damage, of course. But in the frenzy over which ideology will destroy everything good and sacred about the United States, an important story is getting lost.
Is the middle class really under so much strain because our mores are shifting in a way that makes middle class life seem like more of a bad deal? Grown-ups are competing to shove their kids into the upper reaches of the socioeconomic pyramid. Kids are taking a long, hard look at the tradeoffs involved in working for the man, even in the information age. Entrepreneurship feels too risky in theory and too awkward in practice. And lifelong marriage and biological family seem no longer to hold the appeal they once did as among the biggest fruits or rewards of a middle class life.
A growing number of Americans turned off by the obligations and benefits of middle-class life may or may not make for a horrible cultural development. But surely it's a horrible sociological development, because our political economy -- and our sense of reality -- is geared so strongly around what we continue to think of as the traditional middle class. It's an open question as to how democratic welfare capitalism can recognizably function if the cultural preconditions of a traditional middle class start falling away.
I'm pondering these matters at greater length over at The Daily Caller.
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Sep '10
Re: Is There a War on the Middle Class?
I think the Democrats use the term middle class to mean union members but I am not sure. In fact I really have no idea what the term means at all. This weekend I attended the Packers v Panthers professional football game in Charlottte NC. I saw a lot of people I regard as not poor but not wealthy, including myself, and we were all engaged in a whole lot of frivilous, silliness that involved mostly spending a whole lot of money. I'm sure I could have found evidence of the recession if I'd looked hard enough but I didn't see it.
Aug '11
Re: Is There a War on the Middle Class?
Yes, there is, and it began with Saul Alinski: "Organization for action will now and in the decade ahead center upon America's white middle class. That is where the power is. ... Our rebels have contemptuously rejected the values and the way of life of the middle class. They have stigmatized it as materialistic, decadent, bourgeois, degenerate, imperialistic, war-mongering, brutalized and corrupt. They are right; but we must begin from where we are if we are to build power for change, and the power and the people are in the middle class majority."
Alinki's vision was to build a power base upon the backs of the dependent poor and guilt-ridden white politicians and then to reduce the middle class itself to dependency.
President Obama and his ilk have followed Alinski's plan, to the point that millions of middle-class Americans have descended into poverty.
May '10
Re: Is There a War on the Middle Class?
I'm not sure it's just the politicians. I think your premise ties in indirectly with the concern expressed in iWc's Men Have Quit. Without vibrant competitive masculinity and its complementary leadership, the difficulty of acquiring and maintaining a middle class life may seem like, well, too much work. A successful marriage, raising children well, advancing in a business or starting one, all require work and investment of one's energies, taking risks, accepting correction, and putting others ahead of self. A significant portion of our nation's young men seem to be tuning out.
Sep '10
Re: Is There a War on the Middle Class?
Perhaps this is the natural consequence of cultural mindset that questions—even scorns—competency and any form of competition outside of sports.
Jul '10
Re: Is There a War on the Middle Class?
"But surely it's a horrible sociological development, because our political economy -- and our sense of reality -- is geared so strongly around what we continue to think of as the traditional middle class."
It's more serious. It's a War on America, Herself.