At the kitchen table...

[OneGrassRoot]

I just saw a piece on ABC World News, a new segment they're evidently doing on economic issues facing America's "middle" class. With the way the gap between haves and have-nots (or have-little) is increasing daily, there really is no such thing as the middle class any longer; or, it simply doesn't mean what it used to.

There have been many threads here of late, and I've started and contributed to a few, with regard to what I shall go ahead and refer to as the modern-day American feudal system.

This segment I just watched happened to involve a family who live 15 minutes from me, in Clayton, a suburb of Raleigh, North Carolina.

Their story is typical: two incomes but barely getting by; mortgage rate increases brought them to the point that it's a daily choice between food, gas (in order to make money to put food on the table), and paying utilities.

It wasn't until the network stepped in that the mortgage company agreed to negotiate and settle on a lower interest rate. The couple had been doing so for months and months, but it wasn't until someone of "power" stepped in that they agreed to deal with the "little people."

I call bullshit.

Our entire country has become a huge consumer beware nightmare, with no recourse for the average consumer. Whether it's what's being "sold" in mainstream media, what's "sold" in the form of healthcare or education...it's all a huge consumer rip-off.

I wish people would wake up and speak out about the fact that there IS indeed class warfare in play. Hell, it's been in play for decades, but the end game is finally here. The Powers That Be have worked long and hard to gain the control they now have over all of our resources and daily activities; they won't let it go without a struggle. Pretty soon the only "news" we'll be fed is which celebrity went to rehab and which politician offended a celebrity. "No need to bother your beautiful minds with things of importance. You wouldn't understand anyway," THEY shall say with a sneer.

Acknowledging its existence is the first step...diagnosing the disease. Only then can we effectively work to heal it. However, as many of us have experienced, things often have to get so much worse before it truly gets better and then begins to heal. But to not acknowledge the disease, trying to avoid the painful healing, is asking for a slow death and a complete surrender to the possibility of well-being.


IF YOU'RE NOT OUTRAGED, YOU'RE NOT PAYING ATTENTION

[Iris]

1. people love capitalism

or maybe they idea that one day they'll be one of the rich guys.

I'm constantly dismayed that so few people see things as you've spelled them out in your post.

[Two Americas]

3. a certain range

Very few people get up to or over $70,000 annual household income or so, yet many aspire to that. I liked how Edwards talked about a "safe zone" for the income range of $70,000 - $250,000 where people would not be taxed at the higher rates. It doesn't affect many people in reality, but it affects the dreams of many people to call that range "rich" and hit them at the same rates that we do the people who are making a million a week or more.

Most people think of their own little business or farm, or the little business or farm they dream of, when they think of "capitalism." Small business owners are much, much closer to working class then they are to the tycoons and corporate royalty. Democrats fail to make a clear distinction there, and make this mistake in many areas. If you are not "organic" or "CSA" for example, you are Monsanto in the minds of many liberals. If you own a gun and hunt, you might as well be the NRA. If you go to church, you might as well be Pat Robertson. If you don't (can't) ride a bike to work, you are a gas-guzzling moran.

Reagan fooled them. They thought he was going to help the small business person, but the program was to help big finance and entrenched wealth and destroy the small business person.

FDR made these distinctions clear.

[fenriswolf]

2. when the top 1 million citizens of america

combined finances total 30 TRILLION dollars you better believe their is class warfare. When on average in 2007 our income increased 1% and theirs increase 14% something is very FSking wrong.