quietgoesthedon wrote:I think it's really easy to blame the people, when the system has more to do with what's going on than individual choices. To a degree a system is made up by individuals and their actions, but in this case our system is controlled by a very, very small plutocracy, one with a vest interest in keeping most folks at each other's throats. There's been no increase in real, inflation adjusted, wages since the early 1970s. In the meantime, the middle class's share of the national wealth has declined from about 52 percent, down to about 47 percent, while the poor's share has fallen dramatically. All that money and power found its way into the hands of the richest 3-5%. The result is, for the working class, a real sense that they've lost control of their lives. Most 30 year olds today have little chance of having as good of life as their parents. The American dream, for them, died in the 1970s at (not coincidentially) the same time the banks convinced the federal government that cheap and easy credit (especially in terms of unsecured credit cards) was the best way to jump start the economy. The result was predictable. The working class ended up working for less. The middle class ended up being squeezed. What does it take for a family of three now to get by without any money worries at all? 65-70K?
We then told the younger generation the lie that a college education would mean an easy, good life. And it was okay if they took out massive loans because they would get good jobs and be able to pay all that money back, with ease.
So today lots of folks on the left and the right feel powerless and helpless. So they blame the "others." For the tea party that's poor Mexican migrants, elites who look down on their way of life, and moral deviants (gays and lesbians, along with others who want whatever alternative lifestyle). Those people have been manipulated by the elites in such a way to convince them that they are under siege, while never really delivering on anything they've been promising for a generation. All they've done is radicalize this group of people. It's no accident that there have been very few Republican leaders in Congress that have supported this mess in Nevada--because active violence is a bridge too far. They just want to generate outrage and support from claiming that the federal government is evil and out to get them.
On the left you have a dependency culture that's been created by a generation of Democrats who promised the moon, and if you couldn't quite make it that far we would at least make sure you don't fall too far, too hard.
It's sickening.
You're talking big, giant picture. I don't really disagree with what you said. But America is a huge place, and there are still areas that have a decent and sizable middle class. Like my neighborhood. And what I see happening here is:
1. People complain about everything.
2. News stories that confirm their bias towards every problem get trumpeted because that's what they want to read.
3. The perception of the neighborhood/area changes as more of these stories work their way through the larger population.
4. Word of mouth causes residents moving to the area to avoid this neighborhood.
5. Property values decline, the number of students declines, revenue for schools declines (state revenue here is partially based on # of students).
6. What started out as small or imagined problems have now turned into LEGIT problems to deal with. School closings, teacher layoffs, budget cuts, etc.
Even what I'm describing here is an oversimplification because the number of students is also declining just because people are having fewer kids.
