A fact so simple that even Republicans should be able to understand it.

But if those who run companies eliminate the middle class due to their greed, they will find the products they make can not be afforded by their customers.

The elimination of the middle class is actually crucial to the goal. Wipe it out; the existence of a middle class shrinks profits. However, keep them working; that generates profits.

You have three economies; the upper economy where the wealthy cycle wealth between themselves, and the lower, extractive economy hwere hte poor / serf class spend what little bit they have on, I dunno, fast food or whatever; that money flushes upward in all cases. The third economy is export-based. The cheap, unregulated labor created by this system makes us an ideal location for foreign "invesment" and makes goods produced here nice and cheap on the global market.

THis is how China and India work, it's how the antebellum south worked, and so many other places.

I don't claim to be an economist and it appears you have far more knowledge than I do.

do consumers afford to consume?

If not, I just might have to steal that one.

retail businesses were doing anything and everything to keep a customer base. Huge sales, continual discounts.

Pretty much proof that outside of politics, even the businesses realize they can't do 'capitalism' all on their own.

The repug/corporate/teaparty, especially the corporations, know that China and India both have much bigger and growing middle classes than we do so they don't really care anymore whether consumers here can afford their products. They have larger, growing markets overseas. For example, I live in Las Vegas now, a one industry town, where the casino industry has really been hit hard by the downturn, which rippled over to the housing sector (many foreclosures) and all the other sectors of the local economy. Sheldon Adelson, Owner of the Sands Corporation and several casinos here, has opened up huge new locations in Macau which draw customers from mainland China and other Asian companies. Those customers used to come here but his handle in Macau is now 10 times bigger than his take here in Las Vegas. Steve Wynn is also doing the same thing. They basically have no use for us but to extract what's left out of the economy here. And if the name Sheldon Adelson sounds familiar, it should. He's one of Rmoney's big backers, he of the billions make in a foreign country. He was also there in Israel for Rmoney's fundraiser. They'll all on the same page as to who they're counting on for their corporate profits.