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The Cultural Contradictions That Have Crippled The Great American Middle Class
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
The decline of middle class capital is partly self-inflicted.
Conventional explorations of why the middle class is shrinking focus on economic issues such as the decline of unions and manufacturing, the increasing premiums paid to the highest-paid workers and the rising costs of higher education and healthcare.
All of these factors have a role, but few comment on the non-economic factors, specifically the values that underpin the accumulation of capital that is the one essential project of middle class households.
Daniel Bell's landmark 1976 book The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism held that "capitalism--and the culture it creates--harbors the seeds of its own downfall by creating a need among successful people for personal gratification--a need that corrodes the work ethic that led to their success in the first place."
I would phrase this in the language of values and capital:
The primary cultural contradiction of the Great American Middle Class is the disconnect between the values needed to build capital and those of gratification via debt-based consumption.
Accumulating capital--not just financial capital but human and social capital-- requires a distinct set of values and soft skills:
1. Sacrifice of current consumption in favor of accumulating capital to be invested.
2. Thrift: repairing broken items, buying used replacements, waiting for deep discounts, etc.
3. Personal integrity and trustworthiness above all else. One's word is one's bond.
4. Self-discipline/self-control in service of long-term goals and the other values.
5. Humility: there is always more to learn; pride goeth before a fall.
6. Lifelong learning: human capital is skills and experience. Adding skills and experience takes work, focus, accountability--what I call the eight essential skills in my book Get a Job, Build a Real Career and Defy a Bewildering Economy.
7. Accumulating the social capital of emotional intelligence and trustworthy collaborators.
8. Setting and achieving long-term goals: saving enough money to buy a home or investment property with a 50% down payment, saving enough to pay for college in cash (with the student working part-time in the academic term and fulltime in summers), etc.
9. The desire to own productive assets rather than unproductive bling such as luxury vehicles or a fancy home.
10. Work-family-leisure balance: avoid burnout and maintain strong family/friends ties.
Arrayed against these capital-accumulation-disciplined values are the consumerist values of instant gratification, short-term horizons, lack of long-term goals, self-indulgence, impulse buying, keeping up with the Joneses (i.e. competitive consumption), and an obsessive focus on the social/consumption pecking order of one's peers, all of which incentivize debt-based consumption that spends future earnings today on non-essentials.
I was astonished to read in $100,000 and up is not enough – even the 'rich' live paycheck to paycheck that busy couples spend $2,000 to $2,600 per month eating out. That's roughly $30,000 a year, the equivalent of a brand-new vehicle plus a used car or one year of college--or a down payment on a rental home in a non-bubble locale.
The article contends that "Many 'rich' people have problems accepting that they aren’t really that wealthy and the money will not last forever."
This is an excellent summary of the consumerist mentality: income, wealth and financial security are all grossly over-estimated while debt is under-estimated.
Conventional Americans may wonder how recent legal immigrants with modest-paying jobs buy homes and pay off the mortgage in a few years and then send their kids to university with zero student loans. In a conventional consumerist household earning two times as much annual gross income, this is viewed as "impossible."
The point is the decline of middle class capital is partly self-inflicted. Yes, wages are stagnant, the system encourages consumption, and our self-serving politicos encourage the view that if we stop buying on credit the nation will collapse. Yes, we will experience a recession, but that is simply the order of things when debt-based consumption runs ahead of productivity. The nation will survive, and those who are prepared may finally be able to buy assets at fair-market values.
We can't change the system on our own, but we can change the way we respond to rising inequality and insecurity: we can consume/borrow our way to poverty or we can accumulate capital, skills, moxie and productive assets. Learning more valuable skills is now essentially free. What it requires is a value system that supports long-term goals, self-discipline and a desire to solve problems rather than indulge in the self-destructive pleasures of indignation.
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Cognitive Dissonance anyone?
The single greatest obstacle between where "We the People" are and where we need to be is the ever present pain of our Cognitive Dissonance as we discover what we were conditioned to 'believe' is far from what clearly is reality.
Therefore the reason Empire persists is because we continue to support Empire in ways large and small, if only from our desire to avoid the pain of our Cognitive Dissonance. We learned as children to scrub the wound to avoid infection. A little pain now precludes lots of pain later. Emotionally we are not ready to do so politically, mentally and emotionally with our cultural infection.
When do the gangrene amputations begin?
Given that the current generation never suffered real loss (e.g. major war or economic depression), the memory of sacrifice, and what real needs are has faded. We (I am 60) have never not had enough. My father came from a Greek Jewish family, left after the war after the Germans had destroyed my grandfather's newspaper and came to Canada to make a new life. Sacrificed a lot to give his kids a good, safe life without want. Would never spend frivolously - in fact was physically unable to...
Me, on the other hand? Perhaps quite a bit more frivolous that he was - but have a house paid off, a good job, and $300k in the bank. And courtesy of his saving through life, an inheritance in process (he passed last spring) that will leave me without worries in retirement.
Seems to me that the war drums are beating more loudly as fewer and fewer remain alive (in the west) that truly lived through WW2 - and the suffering and economic displacements that took place.
My question to them is what is wrong with you people, you ‘leaders’ of what are touted as the most advanced, educated and prosperous civilizations the world has ever seen? Are you insane? Are you hallucinating? Are you mentally ill? Are you willing to yet again risk destroying the entire world and cultures in your implacable desire to destroy ‘The Russias’? You must be one of the three if not all of them.
http://thesaker.is/the-ukraine-is-dead/
What does Russia have to do with any of this?
Globalism and one world gov't pushed by the CFR has everything to do with this post and what has happened to the US middle class because of these horribly destructive policies.
There is no (or vanishingly few) opportunities for capital accumulation with a middle class income. It's either be front run (HFT), undercut(NAFTA, etc), outbid(discount window free money), or regulated to oblivion. BOOM. Mystery solved.
The author cites a book written in 1976, 5 years after Nixon abolished the last remnants of honest money. US gov. debt back in 1971 was only $390 billion. They just added that much more US debt within the last 2 months! Honest money keeps people honest. Fiat money (stealing from the future) turns Bedford Falls into Pottersville. Welcome to Pottersville. GFY!/sarc
They have fattened up the cows (in most cases literally). Now it's the time to slowly slaughter.
Unfortunately, most of the cows are already too addicted to their lifestyles to adopt that "new" set of values and soft skills.
"Are you insane? Are you hallucinating? Are you mentally ill? Are you willing to yet again risk destroying the entire world....."
Yes.... we are insane. Welcome to the Insane Asylum.
Like Americans, many Canadians are delusional and completely ignorant when it come to foreign policy and geopolitical issues.
They drink deeply from the fountain of MSM Kool Aid and have absolutely no fucking idea what is going on around the world.
Yesterday, a Toronto paper claimed that Assad created ISIS in order to become the 'hero saving Syria'. Uh, right.
Also, Canadians are so bullshit proud that we aren't 'fighting' ISIS but offering humanitarian assistance, but yesterday, a US general said it was British and CANADIAN commandos who blew up some ISIS stronghold.
Justin Trudeau is the wisest, smartest, bestest Prime Minister we've ever had, plus he's so dreamy looking. The 21st century belongs to Canada!
We are the same bone-wielding proto-Neanderthals we have always been, except now we have more advanced weaponry and other tools... the Germans were the most advanced and highly cultured peoples in Europe and yet they destroyed themselves with not one but two world wars and a hyperinflation. Education is no guarantee against poor choices. The dreams of EMPIRE die hard when empire is your entitlement.
Re-read Eisenhower's farewell warning about the military-industrial-(education) complex and extrapolate that to the rest of the worlds' political elitists tribal rulers, Russian imperialists included, and you will see why peace is an age old dream and not a reality.
Work now for peace, where ever you are.
The Germans were destroyed by invaders, not themselves.
Your statements should be posted on billboards...
You struck at the heart of the matter. Extended lack of hardship breeds - (fill-in-the-blanks...) It's plain & simple human nature. It is why the U.S. is at where it's at right now socially - and by extension, politically, economically and geopolitically.
First, I am surprised the usual gang of idiots hasn't descended on you for your religion.
Second, your story just serves to underline the age-old truism "From rags to rags in three generations". You haven't mentioned children, but if you have them, I suspet they are a quite a bit - QUITE a bit - more frivolous than you.
Peace to you and yours. Canada was such a great country, once.
Nobody wants to answer that particular question CD.
And therein lies the rub...
It is always about YOU isn't it? </sarc>
LOL
Mrs. Cog thinks so. :-)
Well over 6 years ago, when ZH was still young and mostly a financial blog, I was naive enough to think I could make a difference and wished to select a 'name' that would always be recognized as an irritant. We scratch itches, not clear healthy skin. I wanted to be an irritant, to get people to think beyond the surface, to dig deep.
Have I succeeded?
Yes. (Long calamine lotion)
Since we are in worse shape than in 2009. NO. But not from lack of effort. I'm Done with my effort of trying. You are better man than me to keep at it.
I'm the irritant, not the solution.
Perhaps you should direct your attention to those who are actually trying to climb into the rescue boat rather than those floating around in the water complaining no on is helping them get into the boat or those oblivious to their dire situation.
The first step is to place the oxygen mask on yourself, then your family around you, then those nearest who want help. That should take the rest of your lifetime.
Or as Tyler Durden said.....
Tyler Durden:
[pointing at an emergency instruction manual on a plane]
You know why they put oxygen masks on planes?
Narrator:
So you can breathe.
Tyler Durden:
Oxygen gets you high. In a catastrophic emergency, you're taking giant
panicked breaths. Suddenly you become euphoric, docile. You accept your
fate. It's all right here. Emergency water landing - 600 miles an hour.
Blank faces, calm as Hindu cows.
Narrator:
That's, um... That's an interesting theory.
Funny how that runs through my mind when flying out to Maui. :)
Indeed you have Cog, and kudos to ya!
Kali Protochronia y'all,
Spoctor Din
OBTW: None of the financial prognostications work because the prognosticators are not very good at taking into account the disintegration of our collective morality. The idjits models assume that people are basically good and will act in accordance. HA!
Nah, you are milk toast.
Way too intellectual for most 'Murricans, way too wordy, and way too fucking polite.
Some times, telling people to go fuck themselves with a barbed wire baseball bat covered with flaming napalm is the only way you can get through to them.
Especially in a world where food is contaminated with GMO's, herbicides, pesticides, growth hormones, antibiotics, sewage, frack water, and God only knows what else.
Especially in a world where we drink fluoride in our water, smoke chemicals in our tobacco, drink crud in our alcohol, need a bucket of prescriptions to keep our lives from killing us outright, breathe pollution from industry and lifestyle.
So, get fucking right down aggressive next year. Tell people to shove bare extension cord wire ends up their asses, and plug the other end into the wall.
Shock people out of complacency into action. You have the gift of thought, get the fuck out there, and ram a few choice ones down the dying 'Murrican throats.
Perhaps wordsmith force feeding and shock therapy are the only ways to get through to the few folks worth saving out of a herd of complacent sheeple and muppets waiting in the slaughterhouse for the bolt gun to smack them in the foreheads.
So, get down and get dirty there, Cog Man.
Fight Club, and the Bitchez need - SOME TOUGH LOVE.
Affectionately yours, from the Geddon.
Fuck procreate you! :-)
I have found honey attracts those who wish to listen better than hay-makers. In fact, those who respond to abuse often will respond with abuse...and play directly into the strength of Empire. The secret is simple. Empire is designed to fight fire with even more fire, but is powerless to respond to withdrawal.
But your comment was hilarious and had Mrs Cog and I laughing out loud. Thank you.
Fine.
Good then.
Slather up your boxing gloves with verbal honey, but still go for the nut punch that staggers the scraps of soul and spirit that a few folks still possess.
I think that more accurately represents the tack you need to take to shock some folks still worth saving off of the side lines, and into the game before time's up.
The world needs a velvet sledge hammer, not the Gotterdammerung that may be coming.
Gotterdammerung
I think I said that once when I was climbing a ladder...
;-)
Fuck velvet.
It's time to get in people's faces and yell, "WAKE THE FUCK UP YOU ASSHOLES"
Do it often, do it mercilessly. THERE IS NO TIME LEFT TO WAIT.
We either wake up NOW, or we fucking DIE. That is what we face; no sense beating around the bush any more.
And FUCK fear. Remember ANGER. Channel it. Changes must be made, and NOW.
So, WAKE UP YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES. The time to be *nice* is OVER.
I have come to realize that some are attracted to honey; others, rotten tomatoes. Some are better in producing one than the other.
Keep the honey flowing. :)
Amen.
When a person loses all hope, that person will become engaged. A person, who believes is walking dead, will take action and get revenge.
You can bet your sweep bippy that you have made a difference CD and started the awakening of thousands, I am sure...
http://www.fool.com/retirement/general/2015/12/28/heres-how-much-the-ave...
the one essential value of Middle class : A good salary and a prospect of work; the same for their children.
Capitalism a means to an end not an end in itself; which it has become for a 1% and cancerous for the others. Now the middle calls gets double phucked : low salaries low savings and children without a decent salaried future; too much debt. Capitalism has cannibalised the work force.
ZH continues to perpetuate the cultural mYth of the very thing that brings around neo-feudal inequality : unbridled capitalism.
any good reading materials on ideas for bridled global capitalism, besides pikkety?
Just keep praying for more magical pixie dust ...
(that will keep WALMART full)
By sending jobs overseas since 2000 at an accelerating speed, US Govt policymakers are decimating it's middle class. Now, US Govt is playing with it's financial systems by QE and bailouts since 2008 which wil create much more declines in the economy and the ever reducing middle class in the decades ahead...
By moving jobs to China, the US Govt has actually helped acelerate the rise of the middle class and the growth and associated rise of China!
Here are some facts on the rise of the Chinese middle class which is simply astonishing and unbelievable!
If I can see and forecast this, then why can't the US Govt see it?.... This means that this is all being done by design!
Some of the data coming out of the most recent research about China's future growth opportunity and potential are simply mind blowing!China will add the entire population of Spain EVERY YEAR (between 2010 and 2020) to it's affluent class (from lower middle class to the super wealthy)! Spain has a population of approx 46m.
China will add 10 times the population of Ireland (Ireland population approx 4.6m) just to it's affluent class over the 2010-2020 decade EACH YEAR!
While US affluent class peaked at 61% of it's entire population in the year 2000, which was approx 175 million out of a total population of 290m in that year. Currently, US affluent class has declined to just 50% of it's population which is 160 million based on a population of 320 million and has been steadily declining each year....
30% of all households in China (which is 450 million to 470 million people) will become affluent by 2020. This is MORE THAN THE ENTIRE POPULATION of USA and almost 300% more than the affluent class of USA.
Just the affluent class in China will be bigger than any other country in the world EXCEPT the ENTIRE population of India and China.
There is a lot of research and lot of data on this subject from McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, Economist etc.
But I will provide you just a few of those.
Rise of the affluent in China's smaller cities
Chinese consumption - in numbers
US$6.5 TRILLION
The size of China's consumer economy by 2020, even if its annual economic growth slows to 5.5 per cent over the next five years. It will be second to the United States' consumer market, which is forecast to expand to US$15 trillion (S$21 trillion).
1.3 TIMES
The US$2.3 trillion increase in China's consumption by 2020 alone will be comparable to adding a consumer market 1.3 times that of Germany or Britain. The spike will come from the rise of upper-middle-class and affluent households, younger consumers and e-commerce.
30 PER CENT
The share of upper-middle-class and affluent households - those with more than US$24,000 in annual disposable income - in China by 2020. These households now make up 17 per cent of all urban households, up from 7 per cent in 2010.
17 PER CENT
Yearly consumption growth among upper-middle-class and affluent households, compared to 5 per cent among lower-earning households.
53 PER CENT
The share of total consumption by China's youth - those born in the 1980s and later. Consumption by the younger generation is growing at 14 per cent annually, twice that of consumers older than age 35.
24 PER CENT
The e-commerce market's share of total private consumption by 2020. Online transactions now account for 15 per cent of domestic consumption, up from 3 per cent in 2010.
http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/rise-of-the-affluent-in-chinas-smaller-cities
The New China Playbook Young, Affluent, E-savvy Consumers Will Fuel Growth
But the fastest growth will be in small cities. Of the 46 million additional upper-middle-class and affluent households that will emerge in China by 2020, half will likely be located outside the top 100 cities. We classify these cities as tier 4 or lower.
We project that by 2020, the number of upper-middle-class and affluent households will double to 100 million and account for 30% of all urban households, compared with 17% today and only 7% in 2010. Furthermore, upper-middle-class and affluent households will account for 55% of Chinese urban consumption and 81% of its incremental growth over the next five years.
https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/articles/globalization-growth-new-china-playbook-young-affluent-e-savvy-consumers/#chapter1
The wild, wild east
Apple expects China soon to become a bigger market for its products than America. In the quarter ending in June, its sales in greater Chinawere 112% up on the same period a year earlier. Six of its ten busiest stores across the globe are in China.
BCG reckons that urban private consumption will rise from $3.2 trillion today to $5.6 trillion in 2020.
http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21663328-booming-middle-class-creating-worlds-most-dynamic-consumer-market-wild-wild
Fascinating stats and thanks for posting them. At the same time, 50% of their "affluent" hope to "get out" of China. Also, much of thier internet is blocked which hampers progress, creativity and thought, as well as freedom.
Thanks mate.
While I agree that millions of Chinese wish to leave for education or safety or whatever reasons to the West, but thousands are also returning to start Tech or whatever businesses...partly because West is not exactly thriving over the last decade.
50% of hundreds of millions is a large number. I believe in reality about 1-2m come to US, 1-2m come to Europe and about 100k go to Canada and perhaps another 1-2m go other places. That's barely 5m per annum. This is not even the number of graduates per annum or children born in China annually!
Western media makes a living out of such misleading data. Yes, some million Chinese leave China but there are so many million who also go back. This happens around the world and percentage wise these numbers are so insignificant that they really do not matter!
Same in America, or England, or France, percentage wise more are leaving who are affluent.....
Internet blocking is actually a great thing for China!
This has allowed them to create a very successful and world class alternative to everything from Google to Amazon and everything in between.
China is the only nation except US who has all TOP 15 sites accessed by their population that are domestic. Now they are going global like Alibaba, Wechat, Baidu etc. They have signed agreements with various countries like Russia, Brazil, Portugal, India etc. http://uk.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-on-the-top-15-websites-aroun...
China’s Internet: behind the Great Firewalldupe
OK, sounds logical, but 70% of the people at the golf course I was at in Ohio on Christmas day were Chinese. Clogged the damn place up!
Were you at a Chinese golf course?! ;)
Chinese are everywhere....more than 500 million trips are made by Chinese to outside of China and am sure some of them make it to the golf course....:)
We will all work under a Chinaman by the next decade! :)
I agree with alot you say DubaiBanker. Here's another article you might enjoy:
From NYC to Harvard: the war on Asian successExcept most Asian-American parents, that is. They tend to oversee their children’s homework, stress the importance of earning high grades and instill the belief that hard work is the ticket to a better life.
And it pays off. Their children are soaring academically.
The outrage is that instead of embracing the example of these Asian families, school authorities and non-Asian parents want to rig the system to hold them back. It’s happening here in New York City, in suburban New Jersey and across the nation.
As a group, Americans need to take a page from the Asian parents’ playbook. American teens rank a dismal 28th in math and science knowledge, compared with teens in other countries — even poor countries. Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan are at the top.
I have quite a few Asian friends in the engineering field...all extremely bright and super workers and all but one amiable folks. As far as returning, I know several who felt they would be more comfortable there where they grew up (Mainland) and returned for top positions there with American companies. They feel "at home" there and as you say, many more are going back. If the PRC 'loosens up' a bit more, as well as cleans up the pollution, I suspect many many more would return.
"They feel "at home" there and as you say, many more are going back. If the PRC 'loosens up' a bit more, as well as cleans up the pollution, I suspect many many more would return."
Not a chance. Humans are a creature of habit. Unless there is a huge downturn in the US economy and upswing in China's, they will never learn their mother tongue, much less return to their mother land.
This is only anecdotal, so I understand the need to take it with a few grains of salt..
Everyone - EVERY ONE - that I have spoken to that ordered something from a Chinese website has had issues. No product shipped, wrong product shipped, no (English) customer service, wrong billing, wrong/extra shipping charges, customs issues, etc. etc. ad nauseum.
It will be a long time before I buy anything through Alibaba or Baidu, no matter how enticing the price.
It was clear as bell to anyone but a fool back before NAFTA. Ross Perot spelled it out for everyone but they made fun of his big ears and high voice--Idiocracy style--a fool nation far down the road to self-destruction, or passively shuffling along on the road to engineered destruction.
Er, after NAFTA was finally passed, there was a boom in the economies of Mexico, Canada, and the US. This is what free market economics predicted. (And yes, I realize that even with NAFTA, trade is not exactly 'free' in any sense, but it's 'free-er').
It isn't free trade that is killing Western economies. It's a combination of automation (no more monkey jobs), lousy education (making more monkeys), continued erosion of the family unit via "no man in the house" welfare laws (making more, and more stupid, and more violent, monkeys), and extension of FSA benefits (monkey food that lets them keep breeding more monkeys).
Please note in all the above that there are plenty of WHITE monkeys - it isn't racist code, it's my way of describing people who can't create a thing, are barely literate/numerate, and who seek immediate personal gratification above all else.
I sincerely think TPTB see this, and are engineering a global conflict whose main goal is global monkey-cide.
I just hope I remember to shave after it starts.
If I can get on Jeopardy then I will win big and no longer be in the lower economic class. I've been trying for the last 12 years and for some reason they got a restraining order which I think expired. Every time I apply as a contestant they send a reply letter saying "Thank you for your interest in Jeopardy God, unfortunately.... blah, blah. 2016 I'm going to get on Jeopardy!
Topic: Fringe Blogs
"I'd like to make that a true Daily Double Alex...I will bet it all"
Who are the joos Alex!
Dude, why go to all that trouble--just buy a Lotto ticket.
True story: I appeared on Jeopardy! a few years back. (I lost) At the end of the show, Alex comes over to your podium, and has a picture taken with you as a souvenir. As he took his arm off my shoulder, he actually reached down, took a good handful of my ass and squeezed.
I was a 50-year old man, and fairly chubby. To say I was shocked was an understatement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u1J6EEhkyM
What about immigrants, how can anyone discuss the shrinking middle class without pointing the finger at immigration?
Or does millions upon millions of slave workers flooding into a country not drive down wages?
Why did our country's white political class, made of white males, push for a feminist agenda to which mass numbers of women left raising the next generation to make $$$? Exchanging the truth for the lie.
Because they saw the opportunity to make money and control people by disrupting the fabric of a society, the nuclear family, and to gain more tax revenue and use wage suppression as a tool to divide and to conquer men against women and we all have lost, particularly the children.
What would happen if people got married to stay married and the women stayed home to raise a godly generation & made a home a "home" (they are much more talented than men in that area by design) and the men were focused on earning a living?
The answer is quite obvious and the reason for destroying that part of the culture is quite obvious and the result was very predictable.
Kefeer--Women had to work because one salary no longer supported a family. Sending women to work outside the home wasn't the result of some grand conspiracy but a result of decades of killing off unions and shipping jobs and factories overseas. Of course the corporations found ways to make more money from this.
Unfortunately the only solution I see is a revolution among the middle and lower classes that scares the crap out of our corrupt officials.
or did women pouring into the workforce drive down wages? Maybe a little of both?
That is a natural and predictable outcome. That movement has roots in evolution and ridding society of the lessor form of man, namely the African American population. One of the dangers of evolution taught as fact and science is the natural outcome is there are a group who are superior and that group will decide who lives and who does not, thus the practice of eugenics, infanticide and genocide. Agenda 21 has, as a stated goal, to reduce population, to 500 million, based on the idea of millions and billions of years and finite resources and saving man and nature from man by getting rid of the "inferiors" (anyone not with power, authority, privilege & influence)..most of us. It is a perfectly logical and rational conclusion IF evolution were true.
No honest scientist believes we evolved from apes or the universe came by pure chance; the goal is and always has been to deny the truth found in the biblical account of creation. Again, many will disagree, but truth transcends all things in the end.
The simplest explanation is usually the best one. It's the the former. For proof, just speculate on the hypothetical economic consequences of removing all females from today's work force.
You wanna dilute male influence? Get non-gentile Betty Friedan on the blower, and in thirty years time, you'll have mission accomplished.
You do not know the history of the feminist movement in the United States.
This is a small example. http://www.henrymakow.com/001904.html
And two "middle class" salaries today can't match one working class salary from that time.
You may have missed the point and the purpose; if women were raising the next generation teaching them godly morals, then the available workforce would be cut nearly in half and that would allow for the wage to keep up with rising costs. At the same time life, marriage and family are valued. Take those away and the society falls apart completely and that is what has, is and continues to happen.
Now with too many in the workforce, then the globalist control/suppress the wage and continue to purposely inflate goods and services to the point where it takes more than 2 working to keep up the same living standard; thus both the living standard decreases and the state controls the teaching of each subsequent generation to their liking since the parents are too busy.
The natural results are what we have witnessed over the past 100 years and at ever increasing speed. The end is predictable; many become totally dependent on the state and the family is destroyed and the future is like that of "Brave New World". That is how I see it; not everyone will agree and certainly there are circumstances that don't allow for a nuclear family, such as unexpected death or abusive spouse etc, but that should be the exception, not the rule.
In the U.S., the decline of the middle class was designed back in the last century.
We are simply witnessing the process and they will not stop it.
You cannot fucking have a feudal social structure with a fucking middle class and a feigned democracy in the way of wealth creation, hoarding and population control.
There will be the rich who consolidate their wealth and tell the Big Lie; there will be the poor who watch television and work themselves to death believing the Big Lie. At some point in the near future, there will be a revolution that will take it all down.
Here is a great summary of what is really going on over there:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/truly-big-shorts-john-m-cunningham?trk=pr...
Leave the Rock foundation from which your building stood and put it on a moral foundation of sand, then you get what you are witnessing and will continue to witness.
Since the foundation is corrupt, then the only way to "get ahead" in such a reprobate society is to be more cunning the the next person. It is why we can no longer trust scientists and doctors and the like; they will lie like anyone else to stay ahead and in the game; they must eat as well.
Money based on lies and corruption is the game and the end is eternal destruction. Better to be poor with integrity.
I second that motion...
I know a number of recent Americans, and they live in multi-generation households and everyone works and the ethnic communities support each other. I can't see how they could be possibly well off but they pay off the house and give expensive presents - $150 bottles of Scotch or expensive clothes/accessories. The only thing I can figure is that they regift like I do.
It can all be traced back to Calvinism, and the poisoned minds of the Whig historians.
Post Modernism. (Of which Cognitive Dissonance is a subset)
Intended Consequences (playing the Cognitive Dissonance card)
Unintended Consequences. (when Cognitive Dissonance prohibits critical thinking)
Cognitive Dissonance as the Intolerance of Intolerance.
Tolerance as acceptance (Cognitive Dissonance as Critical Theory)
Also I wanted to give a Liberland update. They still have not called me or invited me to join (even after they held elections!) so I'm pissed. I requested to get on the election ticket as President but they never responded! which is bullshit so I may plan to overthrow their government on the first day while it's still in chaos.
Here is their end of year letter.
Free Republic of Liberland
Dear God,
It has been an extremely adventurous and busy time since the founding of the Free Republic of Liberland on the 13th of April 2015. Allow me to briefly summarize the progress made to date, and to introduce our team through our Annual Brochure.
The Government of Liberland has been appointed during a diplomatic gala in Prague last weekend. We now have two strategically located vice presidents to help me cover the activities of Liberland globally; one in the U.S. and one in France. We have carefully selected the right people to manage key ministries, including Jan Purkrábek for the Ministry of Finance, Ond?ej P?íhonský for the Ministry of Interior and Monika Chlumská for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. These people represent the provisional Government of Liberland.
We have established over 60 representative offices across the globe - more than many large countries have.
In the near future we will see the preliminary shape of Liberland as designed by architects who will participate in a competition to select an urban architectural plan.
As a new nation, there is much more ahead of us than behind us. Our nearest goals include consolidating worldwide support for Liberland into active functioning local networks. Much of the Government’s efforts will be directed towards gaining territorial control. Having achieved that, we will start developing the infrastructure and building a prosperous economy.
To all supporters of Liberland, please receive our greetings. We hope you have pleasant and relaxing holidays. As 2015 is coming to an end, we wish you a happy and prosperous 2016!
Sincerely yours,
Vít Jedli?ka
President
Free Republic of Liberland
Strange, very strange.
Little Vit doesn't have a chance.
https://accidentalcamera.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/8244.jpg
Then I'm going to freeze his assets. He plans on letting Muslims into MyLiberland! It's going to be a terrorist hotbed unless he's stopped.
Wait till it is all built and the money spent then invade it and take it over, steal what wealth there is. Soon to come. Auction off the womens. Kill the mens.
You know, capitalism itself does not lead to greed. I know it is fashionable to blame capitalistic excesses for our problems, but I think it is more a problem with US and our priorities than it is with the system itself.
Capitalism just means that the system uses money to trade, and can use that money to make money in some circumstances. How you set up a system like that can differ...the reason we set it up this way is because we prioritize personal gain. So, the people using capitalism are using it for personal gain...of course the results won't be pretty...
But a capitalist system can also be used by people with different priorities, and perhaps would work better if the goal was something other than personal gain. (Believe it or not, there ARE many other things that provide personal satisfaction to people, it isn't always about profit or material gain.)
In fact, I would suggest that ANY system used by a greedy people will be a failure in the end, as most will be 'sheared' to provide all that gain for the few. Whether they are sheared under capitalism, communism, or any other 'ism' doesn't really matter to them, they are sheared nonetheless. And a capitalist oligarch is no better than a communist one, except to an ideologue...
We won't get a working system until we correct our faults, and get our priorities straight.
The problem isn't with the system we use...it is with US. No system will give us the economy we all say we want, because no system can correct for OUR faults
"Arrayed against these capital-accumulation-disciplined values are the consumerist values of instant gratification, short-term horizons, lack of long-term goals, self-indulgence, impulse buying, keeping up with the Joneses (i.e. competitive consumption), and an obsessive focus on the social/consumption pecking order of one's peers, all of which incentivize debt-based consumption that spends future earnings today on non-essentials."
Of course I agree with this. But remember, an entire huge industry, that attracts talent and uses research methods to improve itself, is engaged in selling instant gratification. Advertizing is one of the great industries we seem to forget has a major influence on all people. But the real aim is to reach the youth, and to influence them into becoming consumers and to be a true consumer you must want instant gratification. Lots of research goes on into how people's minds can be controlled for profit. The entire culture in America is now one of debt fueled consumerism.
In other words, slaves. Both to debt and taxes.
#WINNING!
Jack,
I agree with you. If I had not learned at age 7 to shovel the neighbor's sidewalk for $1.00 or remove his newspapers from his basement - to later sell them to the rag man, I would probably be when many are - treading water trying not drown in debt.
Fuck it. If you are over 50 and have no hope of ever getting debt-free, then given in to the grifters. Buy as much shit as you want on credit. When everything unravels, go bankrupt and start over. You will be given instant credit because you can not go broke for another 7 years. And, if you ask around and plan ahead, you will have been tutored in the art of keeping what you want and still go broke. You obviously did not plan your economic life. You might as well start over fresh with a good post-bankruptcy plan.
No one will hold a bankruptcy against you. Quite to the contrary, have a party one day after the judge gives you an 100% discharge of all debts. Invite everyone - even the judge. Then tell them the hows and whys you got into your fix and the hows and the whys of how you will not go that route again. If you falter, then keep marking the calendar like a guy a in jail for your release date - 7 years from your last bankruptcy.
The decline of the Middle Class is self inflicted? Bullshit.
I NEVER HAD A CHANCE to accumulate savings or capital. I've never been able to make enough money to have anything left over...no, I dont' have cable TV, no credit cards, no bling, no luxury anything. Cars all used, save one and necessity drove that purchase (it cost 15K new, and was paid off years ahead of the usurious 'schedule.') Everything costs so much and only gets more expensive that I have NEVER been able to save more than a few grand, and there's ALWAYS something to wipe that out unexpectedly...layoffs, car dies, etc, etc.
My wife and I are as thrifty as we can be short of going off the grid
Prior to 2007, most of us would never have been able to accumulate savings faster than the rise in home prices to get this mythical 50% down payment. Hell, I can't come up with enough to replace my beater Toyota which as a main seal leak...I just have to add a case of oil to my monthly expenses to keep it running.
I didn't create these price structures...the banks are the ones behind property values. I get the used cars I can afford. I don't get to buy the things I want, but rarely and always used (like that POS radial arm saw I wasted 250 on...it won't cut a proper kerf as something is worn or bent, dammitall.)
So exactly WHEN did I fuck up?
Try Pennzoil high mileage oil for your Toyota. High mileage oils contain seal swelling agents which MIGHT fix your problem or at least reduce the leakage. If you need a cheap yet quality oil to keep the car running, consider Walmart Super Tech grades. Super Tech oils are cheap and high quality and high mleage grades are available.
I am a retired mechanic and drove a lot of beater cars coming up. I have greater affection for my old beaters than the newish car we drive now. You could actually work on older cars.
Good luck to you friend :-)
you didnt have the street smarts to imbed yoursel into a P&L part of a business you worked in
The quest for 'more' is what drives humans forward, some follow and others lead but there is always the quest for 'more'.
More knowledge, more power, more 'moar'....
Difficult to save when we only take home 65% of our paycheck and pay inflated rents thanks to zoning, rent subsidies and housing costs. And we're lucky. I don't know how any household earning less than $100k survives in the NY metro area, much less the San Fran/San Jose area.
Chicago is right behind. My son just bought an 1800 sq ft "home" in Chicago with no front door (duplex entry from rear) in a sketchy neighborhood for $750K. He thinks he made a good investment. Insanity.
"The nation will survive, and those who are prepared may finally be able to buy assets at fair-market values."
THIS was the great scam perpetrated on young Americans by the Federal Reserve/Government over the past 7 years. To rescue banks (declines in the value of mortgage security threatened their existence) and bureaucrats (declines in the economy threatened tax revenues), our "leaders" reinflated the system, thereby putting a middle class lifestyle completely out of reach for millions of millennials, conveniently saving their own bacon in the process.
Lovely pontification. Too bad he just misses the mark.
The problem is and always has been that MONEY HAS BEEN DESTROYED. Addressing his points, by line:
1) When money does not retain value, the usefulness of savings are diminished.
2) See point #1. Furthermore, when the value/scarcity of money is distorted, credit--which this point addresses becomes artificially cheap!
3,4,5,6,7) Conflates personal values with market activity. Only tangentally related and beyond the issue at root.
8) Again, see #1. When savings lose value, savings are less valuable. When currency is inexorably inflated, accumlating savings is difficult for commoners with wage lag. Cheap credit, asset bubbles, and State intervention also incentivize acquiring durable goods today on credit rather than slow prudent accumulation.
9) Conflating personal values with market activity once more. When money is stable, the proportion of capital goods to consumer goods in a given economy *must* maintain equilibrium.
10) Symptom. When serfs are forced to use a money that holds no value and devalues the only asset most have--their labor, finding time to do much other than subsist becomes increasingly difficult.
We can't afford career politicians and growing government that squanders massively on wars when they're not screwing everything else up. Why blame citizens for spending too much?
Bullshit. What has killed the middle class is easy credit. Student loans, car loans, home loans, home equity loans, personal loans, corporate debt, city debt, state debt, US government debt...
How many people had fingers broken before they took on debt. Were shown a video of being drawn and quartered before they signed the credit contract. I have no sympathy for these people. They will live in the shadow of debt for these rest of their lives.
Charles - nice article today.
No double bullshit what has killed the middle class is Progressivism. We are too wealthy, we consume too much. It is not fair to the rest of the world. Solution outsource all "true production" and financialize everything under central control, after all they know better on how we should run our lives and conduct real commerce. Cut the Federal government by 50%. Audit the FED that should raise a few questions. Get out of ALL these international trade agreements and take the gloves off. Bring the jobs home. Put people to work. No more MIC interventions. Build everything, refineries, chem plants and everything. Stop tying our hands in order to benefit other countries. The point of no return is coming fast. Tell the banksters to find their profits overseas in other countries currencies and economies no longer raping the people here. Unelect anyone who stands in the way.
Yes ... and we are not even asking the BIG questions.
Personal money, the economy and even global governance are relatively small issues, made to seem large as a distraction from what is really important.
The single greatest detriment to this country is the welfare complex. It breeds illiteracy, personal moral deprivation, and child abuse. It is a feeder system for the foster care system, which is further damaging our culture. Between welfare and foster care, more than 1/3 of children are in unstable and abusive situations. The horrors of the welfare system are created as women rotate a series of ever worse men through their children's lives; in other words, welfare is the direct cause of the majority of child abuse in this country.
While there may be good foster care parents, many, many of those providing foster care Are doing so for the money or because of the opportunity for access (sexual) to very young children.
End all welfare. When people have to behave in order to have assistance from their families, friends, or local charities, they learn to behave real fast. Real fast.
Trillions in Fed Easy Money just made the rich even richer, the working classes poorer and the lazy poor more comfortable. What's so hard to understand?
"Money has never made man happy, nor will it, there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has the more one wants."
--- Benjamin Franklin
Sadly, I once was a victum of this consumerism fantasy, got into a lot of credit card debt (15k) mainly because I was young and dumb. Bought a new car right out of college and moved out of the rents house, boy was I in for a surprise when 6 months after graduation my 2 student loan payments started.
Happy to report I no longer have credit card debt. Only 1 student loan left to go and that will leave just the mortgage and car payment. Heading in the right direction, at least I think so.
Congrats!
I, too, got out of $15k of credit card debt. Took 5 years to pay off. Now, just student loans remain (making triple payments on them). Should have those paid off in 3 years. I'll be under 40 and debt-free, with a positive net worth. Looking forward to it.
Conventional explorations of why the middle class is shrinking focus on economic issues such as the decline of unions and manufacturing,
Up is down.
Inspection "focuses" on economic issues such as decline of unions and manufacturing.
If it were me, I would be focusing on union demands that started the whole chain reaction.
This is what's wrong...
Idiocracy Rules:
Woman who burned man's genitals with hot iron during sex set for Christmas behind bars(sundayworld.com)
Woman bit off husband's ear in fight over beer (fox35orlando.com)
Her attacker forced her to make a phone call — so she called 911(washingtonpost.com)
Dawn Meikle of Port St. Lucie, Florida, beats the crap out of her husband because he can't stop farting. She gets hauled off and he's left with the stench of the situation.
One story we here at DUMBASS DAILY have never heard of, is a wife beating the crap out of her husband because he's farting like a machine, almost nonstop one evening. Hubby calls the cops and she gets hauled off to jail.
There's more, and the world is over...
Happy New Year!
most of you goyim are loaded up with debt
dont have debt, you'll be fine
...between the values needed to build capital and...
That's funny - the vast majority has already been conditioned capital needn't be built anymore, as the Fed simply prints it.