What would have to happen to restore the middle class in the U.S., to how

[begin_within]

it was in the 1960s-1970s?

[napi21]

1. First is a new US monitary policy!

Second is to penalize instead of reward Companies for outsourcing jobs.

And THOSE are just a small start!

[Just Me]

2. Tax the f*ck outta' corps profitteering from slave labor overseas.

For a start.

[William769]

5. Amen to that!

[spindrifter]

3. Jobs, health care, public education, old age pensions

We need to take back every step along the inroads in the above areas. Meaningful jobs need to exist where the middle class can fill them. People need to be able to count on the ability to pay for health care. Without a strong public education system a nation of creativity is lost. If the elderly don't have financial ability, the final years will be ones of grim desperation and many will just opt out.

[Vanje]

4. For starts

We might reestablish the old practise of taxing the profits of rich people.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. a government by and for the people

Even back in 1968, when I read "Who Rules America?" it was obvious that corporations and their lobbyists had a strong foothold in the halls of Congress and even the White House. But it wasn't as bad as it is now. Unions were strong and people expected the government to do things for them.

[leftofthedial]

7. eat the rich

[femrap]

19. And they're tasty, too!

I love that bumper sticker....

Seriously, this nation needs to start work on new technologies for alternative energy...that would create good jobs.

And bring back REGULATION! When Reagan started this deregulation crap, it was letting the fox guard the chicken house. There are absolutely no limits on GREED.

[Loonman]

8. Middle class tax cut

No bastard has ever delivered on that. Not Clinton, not anybody.

[BillZBubb]

10. Baloney.

The answer isn't in tax cuts. That's right wing bullshit. Tax rates were higher in the '60s and '70s, but there were lots of high paying middle class jobs available even to non-college graduates.

The answer is in creating an excess supply of real middle class jobs. First and foremost would be a total rejection of "globalism" as now practiced. We must cut the heart out of the right wing corporatist beast that is destroying us. Tax cuts have nothing to do with that--in fact they would make the situation worse.

[Loonman]

16. Giving workers more money?

Middle class merchants, and so forth more money to pay their employees and take home instead of stealing it from their paychecks is bad?


Giving the super idle rich huge tax makes no sense, letting the American worker keep more money does.

[ArkDem]

9. Define middle class.

[begin_within]

11. People who can afford to buy a 3-bedroom house in 30 years with one job.

[Just Me]

17. Geez. When you put it that way,...

,...it makes crystal clear how small the middle-class has become. :cry:

[begin_within]

28. When I was a kid, every house on our block had one working parent, who

worked 40 hours a week, and one non-working parent, usually the wife but not always, who stayed home and took care of the kids, and everyone owned their house and two cars, and some houses even had a boat, and there were swimming pools in some of the backyards. This was not a wealthy neighborhood, or a poor one. It was a middle class neighborhood in Orange, California, and the people who had jobs were either teachers, aerospace employees, county employees, realtors, etc. - what I consider middle-class jobs, not CEOs or movie stars or anything. This was "normal" in those days and life was pretty good for these people - and there were plenty of them. Now it seems almost impossible for that life for anyone but the lucky few.

[Loonman]

20. LOL

:spray:

So like CEOs of multi-million dollar companies are the new Middle Class.

[Coastie for Truth]

22. I'd go a step further

1. People who can afford to buy a 3-bedroom house in 30 years with one job.

2. People who can afford to put two kids through college at a state university with 30 years with one job for one parent, and 15 years with one job for the other.

3. People who can afford health insurance with 30 - 45 years with one job for one member, and 15 - 25 years with one job for the other.

4. People who can afford to save for a proper retirement with 30 - 45 years with one job for one member, and 15 - 25 years with one job for the other.

The "Greatest Generation" (survived the Great Depression", won WW2, built a GI Bill House, etc.) had it. We don't.

[schmuls]

12. Bid ideas, I know, but.....

restore our country's manufacturing base. Get rid of Nafta and Cafta and start thinking about our own people for a change

get rid of the illegal Federal Reserve Note ("dollar bill") and the Federal Reserve system which manipulates interest rates to serve the interests of those who own it, and go back to where our currency is really backed by gold

Get rid of our rotten health care system where the rich and elite profit from the suffering of others and replace it with one based on fairness and common sense

Put honest people in charge of the government instead of criminals

This is only a start...

[Greyhound]

13. Withdraw from NAFTA and other "free trade treaties"

Drastically increase the minimum wage and make rules to allow for part-time and under-age exceptions
Purge the "CEO club" (the 400 or so of the ruling elite that sit on the boards and hold the top executive positions in the Fortune 500)
Repeal the Federal Reserve Act and ban private banking
Reinstate the original rules and practices of incorporation (a corporation is chartered for a specific purpose and once achieved the charter is revoked)
Specify that the 14th Amendment can only apply to living humans
Match trading partners import-export restrictions
Prohibit the passage of any law mandating citizen participation in a private industry
Take the military's big ticket toys away from them (star wars, osprey, etc.)
Amend the 18th Amendment to include all substances

That would give us a great start IMO.

[Armstead]

14. Start pursuing Anti-Trust regulation again

One of the big problems is that so many industries have been consolidated and are dominated heavily by monopolistic mega-corporations. Not onlt do those new Robber Barons take over one industry, they also swallow up other industries, to become multi-headed hydras.

When that happens, everyone gets screwed -- workers, consumers and the public interest. It also gives the surviving monsters too much clout because they have become "too big to fail."

We need to move back towards a more diverse economy, with a healthy mix of small, mid-sized and large companies, and real competition and accountability again. We also need to revive true entrepreneurial opportunity again, so people have options besides working on the corporate plantations.

[whatever4]

15. Legalize Cannabis

Seriously.

It's the cheapest crop I know of, and it would create new, cleaner industries, while providing bio-diesel (runs in conventional diesel engines) to potentially help transition us from petroleum. It would help put an end to the drug war, moving us away from putting so many people in prison. It's virtually as nutritious as soy, which would be an abundant crop to sell, helping our farmers, as well as staving off starvation in our own nation. Drought, floods and toxic chemicals have caused problems with the food supply, where as cannabis grows virtually anywhere, with little to no fertilizer requirements. Hemp can be made into fine cloth and paper, along with very many other products. The thc in cannabis has been found to be effective for the treatment of VERY many conditions, is non-toxic, not addictive, and we've seen HOW many problems from otc and other medications? Not to mention overdose, drug interactions and then, there is the price we pay for medicine, which all by itself ought to drive the effort. There are half a dozen other very good reasons and uses I can't even remember, there are so many.

To me, it's a no-brainer. It's the solution so obvious it's right under our noses. Sounds too good, in fact, we couldn't have dreamed one up better. Money grows on trees? In one plant we potentially solve the oil crisis, lessen our dependence on foreign oil, cut down vehicle emissions, help end national and perhaps worldwide starvation, step down our prison nation status/drug war, meet the need for medications that are safe and medications that are affordable, create badly needed new industries, help end global warming, stop cutting down so many trees, stop putting poisons in our environment AND gosh darn it, we'd all feel better too. It could, and would, save our economy and I think that would save our middle-class.

I really do.

[paparush]

21. Damn fine place to start!!!!

[Coastie for Truth]

18. Restore the "Social Contract"

My Daddy was a union lawyer for a big industrial union in a Rust Belt smoke stack community --- and the working Americans - with good jobs and good salaries - and good benefits - and the AFL-CIO were the backbone of the heavy Democratic pluralities.

1. Collective Bargaining

- Tilt the NLRB back in favor of working Americans.
- Stop screwing around with David-Bacon -- it is the law of the land.
- Defeat the Boobengrabber-Norquist "Prop 75" in California.

2. Be American - Buy American

- American manufacturers - like the auto industry - have to make the cars that Americans want. Thirty year old CAFE standards open the market to imports.
- Wal-Mart -- a problem. I don't buy there.
- Failure to comply with American Labor Standards and Environmental Standards (minimum wage, child labor, benefits, etc.) should be deemed a form of "dumping" and subject to tariff penalties.

3. Close ERISA loopholes

- Full funding of Pension Plans.
- No ERISA escape clauses in health plans, post-retirement plans.
- Strict criminal fiduciary standards for ERISA plans.
- FPBCG aid should immediately trigger a full IRS Tax Fraud investigation, an SEC stock fraud investigation, and a DOJ criminal investigation.
And the penalties on management should be as severs as the burdens on individual who file for personal bankruptcy.

4. Health Care

- Single Payer, Universal Health Care -- not tied to employment status.

5. Taxes

- Tilt the relative burdens "corporate versus individual" back to the pre-Bush days.
- Rates - some degree of fairness.

6. Safety Net

- Stop the attack on Section VIII, Tile IX, Americans With Disabilities Act, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Family Medical Emergency Leave Act

[Just Me]

26. Damn fine platform for the middle class!!!

:yourock:

[Loonman]

23. Crack down on businesses that hire illegal aliens

They undercut wages.

[kath]

24. Boy,, you'd have to change a lot. Back in those days a family could

live reasonably well on ONE salary, instead of two, including buying a home (although a more modestly sized one than today - kids actually shared a bedroom back then). Heck, my uncle with only a HS diploma who worked in a mill (union job) in a small town outside of Pittsburgh owned a nice 3 bedroom two-story house and supported 5 kids, all on his income. I remember times when he was out on strike and the family got Govt. Surplus cheese and peanut butter and stuff, but they did okay. Uncle was born in 1931.

(on edit - I'm trying to think of when they bought the house. I know they lived in an apt. when I was little. Probably bought the house in the mid-60s.)

[Jed Dilligan]

25. Education, education, education

Public schools, for a start, could teach people how to read and write again. Public universities could be virtually free again. And then maybe we wouldn't have some blueblood prick outta Harvard or Yale, with no thought for anyone but him and his, running each and every large and small aspect of the country into the ground every second of every day.

I also like the cannabis thought.

[The Flaming Red Head]

27. You might try restoring the working class and bringing back unions

My dad was an engineer, he got his degree back in the 1950s, and he said that he didn’t start making real money until the unions came in and started the paying rank and file laborers more and then they had to raise pay for middle management to keep up. So bringing back unions and respecting everyone’s contributions would be a good start.

[applegrove]

29. Times are different. Times will be harder. Because the US is not

the only big dog in the world. In the 1960s the US didn't compete with the soviet block, Asian countries, or Europe that was rebuilding. US got access to the world's resources and didn't have to have any jobs go to the countries they traded with. Factories were begining to move around the world but many, for the American market & more, were at home.

It is a different world. All wind, sunshine & stars no longer favor the North American market alone. Other countries have gotten wise and have middle classes themselves. Middle classes a whole lot bigger than the US one (even if it was not shrunk by Bush policies).

We cannot go back to that time.

That being said - you do not have to favor only the wealthy and ask them never to sacrifice. You could have a plan for a knock-down amazing school system. You could have spent your debt doing that rather than war in Iraq.

Choices. And outcomes will be more stark.

We are in starker times. And the best way for the US to participate in the growing middle classes in Asia, Russian, India & Brazil (and the like) is to trade and get market share in some areas.

The only way to maintain any sort of wealthy economy - is to look towards those emerging middle classes with bravery.

This does not mean that norms around the world cannot include health care or monopoly for governments (in some industries) as they grow and develop middle classes. It does not have to be American corporate hegemony where people are not allowed any regulations that "bother" U.S. corporations. That neocon stuff is all Bull!