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"The downfall of the middle class is the downfall of everyone except the super-rich. " a) There was no 'downfall' of the middle class and b) Everyone with a j
by jariel 6y ago
"The downfall of the middle class is the downfall of everyone except the super-rich. "
a) There was no 'downfall' of the middle class and
b) Everyone with a job got materially richer, just not in assets like the 'super rich'.
We used to have smaller working + bigger middle + smaller upper, but now it's levelled out but a lot of middle class people have moved up.
Material surpluses for anyone with a job have gone up dramatically. Walmart has increased the material standard of living of working people hugely.
For those 'without jobs' - it's been hard.
And those with assets - it's been disproportionately good.
But the material surpluses in the form of better products and lower real prices to the masses means higher standard of living.
- sebmellen 6y agoThere definitely was a downfall of the middle class! Why do you think we had Occupy Wall Street, and why are populists on the left and right, like Sanders and Trump, gaining in popularity? Why did Andrew Yang and Bernie Sanders poll highest among Trump voters? It's because the real middle class of blue- and white-collar work at a stable career has been vanishing. Much of this is due to bad trade and jobs policy, some is due to automation. The number skills that are useful today are also less than they used to be. The need for actually skilled manual labor has been outsourced to China, Taiwan, and increasingly India. And don't forget the swindle of universities — 18 year olds signing themselves away to lifelong debt to party, drink, and learn at an institution that couldn't care less about their future prospects. People who leave college with degrees in anything but highly desirable fields are learning they've been lied to about the importance of a degree.