Victor Thorn
American Free Press
Over the course of this three part series, the American Free Press takes a hard look at who the middle class is and what it would mean should the heart and soul of America be sacrificed for the benefit of globalism and the moneyed elite.
What is the Middle Class?
With so many analysts and commentators proclaiming the death of America’s middle class, it’s worth asking the question: Who exactly makes up the middle class in 2012?
On May 3, this writer interviewed one of the most often-cited writers today, Michael Snyder of the popular website The Economic Collapse.
When queried as to how he’d define the middle class, Snyder said: “If you asked 10 different economists, you’d get 10 different answers. When growing up, my way of thinking was that somebody would be middle class if they were working to make payments on a home, had one or two vehicles and could afford the basic things of life.”
Snyder added: “Being middle class meant pursuing the American dream that arose after WWII from the 1950s to 1970s. During that era, people didn’t live in poverty, but they weren’t tremendously wealthy either. Most importantly, people were independent and not reliant on the government.”
However, as Snyder wrote in a Dec. 30, 2011 article, “Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most vibrant middle class that the world had ever seen. Unfortunately, that is rapidly changing before our eyes.”
Snyder told AFP: “It’s different today. To live the American dream, a lot of people have to work two jobs. Plus, globalization has forced those in the U.S. to compete with workers all over the world, especially ones earning ‘slave labor’ wages.”
Outsourcing has proven to be a major factor in eroding the American middle class, as Snyder so adroitly conveyed.
“Big corporations setting up operations in the U.S. pay $15-20 an hour, plus benefits,” he said. “On the other side of the world, there are fewer regulations and benefits, in addition to no minimum wage or environmental concerns. If you only pay workers $1 an hour, all the rest is profit. Many huge corporations only care about the bottom line and don’t hold any personal feelings for employees, so they increasingly view workers as a liability. We need to face facts. Big business doesn’t have to hire U.S. workers anymore. The power structure has changed, and labor has been devalued. Therefore, incomes aren’t rising for middle-class families, and they’re being forced to move toward lower-wage jobs.”
If that weren’t bad enough, technology is making humans expendable, if not obsolete.
“Nothing can alter that reality,” Snyder stressed. “In the olden days, factories were labor intensive. But with robotics, computers and automation, the labor market is decreasing.”
It doesn’t stop there.
Snyder continued, “If an American company moves their factory or office overseas, Wall Street rewards them because stock prices shoot up. It’s a bad deal for American workers, particularly when U.S. politicians keep piling on more regulations, red tape, paperwork and taxes. U.S. workers are at a tremendous disadvantage. Unless we fundamentally change our policies, it will never again work out for the U.S. middle class.”
This symbiotic relationship between big government and big business has created a situation where both forces benefit, creating what is known today as the one percenters.
In addition, a strange phenomenon has occurred today wherein propagandists working for big business utilize a divide-and-conquer strategy among the left and the right that perpetually fuels partisan animosity.
Stated differently, whereas liberal Democrats mostly blame greedy Wall Street bankers for America’s problems, conservative Republicans point to bloated government and unions as the source of our woes. So, while Republicans and Democrats tear each other apart, the elite one-percent in Washington and New York City continue to get wealthier.
What the mainstream media refuses to illustrate is that both of these seemingly disparate factions work together. They’re on the same team. They belong to the same club.
It’s like the joke says: A corporate executive, a tea party member and a union worker are all sitting at a table when a plate with a dozen cookies arrives. Before anyone else can make a move, the CEO reaches out to rake in 11 of the cookies. When the other two look at him in surprise, the CEO locks eyes with the tea party member. “You better watch him,” the executive says with a nod toward the union worker. “He wants a piece of your cookie.”
Throw in politicians who are funded by Wall Street and big business, and it makes for even more trouble for Main Street America.
Snyder agrees: “Government and Wall Street feed off each other. Businesses make donations to politicians, who in turn write laws that benefit corporations. It’s a symbiotic relationship.”
Snyder said that our country, at its inception, frowned upon such government enablers.
“Our Founding Fathers were suspicious of anyone trying to concentrate power,” he said. “Not only did they place limits on central government, there were also strict limits on corporations. The biggest danger to the middle class today is any form of concentrated power. I don’t think it’s surprising that the three counties surrounding Washington, D.C. are the three wealthiest counties in America.”
Whereas Barack Obama symbolizes massive government and Mitt Romney symbolizes big business, neither one of them has any incentive to alter the status quo. Why should they? It benefits their supporters, who epitomize the one percent. In this regard, Obama socialists and Romney capitalists are more than content to let the middle class founder as long as they remain in the upper tier.
Or, as Snyder said: “There’s more wealth and power in the hands of a few. The only way to alleviate this situation and allow small businesses to thrive once again is to break up the size of both government and corporations.”
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