The Disappearing Middle Class

For as long as I’ve known there has always been a clear cut line separating the different classes in America.  We’ve always had the rich, the middle class and last but increasingly the poor.  Poverty in America was always something swept under the rug, because it was such a black eye on a “former” super power country.  I would turn on the T.V. and see a ton of feed the children of Africa or whatever else country they could plaster on the boob tube to distract us from what was going on in our own back yard.  It was easy to look away, when it wasn’t you or something you had to deal with.  I grew up in Bedstuy Brooklyn (Not what it used to be – Gentrified) and then South Side Jamaica Queens so poverty was abound.  I never had the luxury of turning a blind eye.  Now in recent years, especially with the middle class rapidly deteriorating, a lot of people who were exempt from having to witness the travesty of poverty in America are now joining its ranks.  What happen?  Who can we blame?  Isn’t it a shame that now that the middle class has to struggle to remain in the middle that we now need someone to blame?  It’s not brand new that the rich keep getting richer despite the failing middle class or that the poor just can’t move from where they’re at.  Growing up you were told that if you went to school got an education and worked hard you could live a good life, but there are American citizens walking around with college degrees and doe eyed vigor waiting for their chance at the “American Dream”.  Unfortunately, the dream may never come to fruition.  America has done an outstanding job at keeping the poor the poor and now they are working on making the middle class poor.  So who is to blame?  America itself is to blame, capitalism bit us in the ass.  At its birth in the mid-19^th century capitalism was exactly what the doctor ordered, the industrial revolution was in full swing and the average citizen was creating new industries and opportunities for their fellow man all the while amassing great wealth.  Then they got greedy, they realized that the biggest expense to their business was payroll.  They had to find a cheaper way of producing the same product but at a far cheaper rate, so enter CHINA. The big business owners discovered that while they were rich from starting off domestic, they could become richer by exporting jobs and importing goods.  When you’re on the bottom of the totem pole this just seem to make no sense at all.  Why would you take jobs away from your own people and outsource them to a politically communist country?  Because, you make more money paying them a fraction of what you would pay us to produce the same goods.  Is it wrong for us to want to get paid more? Well that’s another blog for another time.  It has gotten so bad in America that even the citizens that are technically above the poverty line are forced to live impoverished.  In the US, the poverty line rises or falls every year according to the Consumer Price Index and other factors. In 2006, a single person needed to earn a minimum of $9,800 ($12,250 if she lives in Alaska) a year to stay over the poverty line. A family of four needed a combined income of at least $20,000. According to these guidelines, more than 37 million people in the US are currently living below the poverty line.  But yet Congress only works 137 days a year but makes a minimum of $190,000 a year.  We elected these people, how many of them do you think actually know what’s going on with you!  That blows my mind!  So take this walk with me and tell me if someone’s math isn’t screwed up.  If you rent in Baltimore city (let’s say a bad neighborhood) and have a paid off car, you’re single and have no revolving debt and you make $10,000 a year, technically you’re not poor.  Rent will cost you a minimum of $500 a month; utilities if you’re lucky will run you about $60 a month ßthat’s wishful thinking.  Fuel to get back and forth to work monthly is ~$160.  Also factor in car insurance (a must) at $75 monthly. And finally $500 miscellaneous expenses i.e. laundry, car maintenance, and phone.  You are already living above your means, and you haven’t even eaten a meal yet.  We’ve reached pandemic levels of poverty in the US and yet we still make no strides to correct this.  We are circling the drain.  The 1% fills your head with these dreams of grandeur and success but there’s a reason they’re only 1%.  I can go on with this for days and days because this problem of our failed middle class is so much bigger than what I have space to comment on, poverty in our own country is at levels equal to some third world countries.  It brings a tear to my eye to witness a country I feel is the greatest country on the planet (True Patriot) have such short comings.  Wall Street and big business will recover and the rich will be spared the embarrassment of becoming the new middle class second to the super rich, but what of the class of people responsible for building and sustaining the country we all love.  Who will bail them out?  Who will help the Main Street citizens that only want the opportunity to live in an area not overran by crime and corruption?  Who would like not to be treated as a third class citizen because their credit score is less than perfect?  If I may digress for a moment, there should be an amnesty given for one year, allowing citizens to repay their debts without penalties which then in turn would stimulate growth in our economy.  Even America’s Credit score has dropped! Getting back on subject, this is a problem that no one person can solve on their own.  So stop looking for the president to wave some kind of magical wand and fix everything.  Start in your own community and expand from there.  Hire locally, buy American, and support your neighbor.  If you only make $20,000 a year you shouldn’t be driving a brand new BMW.  Think practical, I know everyone wants to live like Jay-Z and Beyoncé (congrats!) but they are now part of the 1% so they can afford the luxuries we can only dream about.  We all need to realign our priorities and focus, not on becoming super wealthy but becoming financially secure and responsible.  Ultimately we are all responsible for each other and what happens to our country, if we want it to become the land of dreams and opportunity again we have to bring opportunities back and we have to take care of our own proverbial home first.