Thread: How the middle class became the underclass

Originally Posted by bandaidwoman

1. No true affordable health care, since 3/4 of all personal bankruptcies due to medical costs started with health insurance one major injury or sickness can send a upper middle class family into the ranks of poverty. We employers are also finding it harder and harder to afford health care coverage for our employees. And my premiums went up 300% over ten years before obama was elected.

thank you for stating this...many are just catching on to this whole increased health-care cost thing while some of us have been watching premiums rise far above the cost of inflation for decades..

Originally Posted by LAM

thank you for stating this...many are just catching on to this whole increased health-care cost thing while some of us have been watching premiums rise far above the cost of inflation for decades..

It is one of the "hidden" costs that both parties don't realize is another spurring of offshore companies.

When an american company sees their second highest overhead go up 125%-300% in ten years , and profit margins have not increased by the same amount, why wouldn't you go offshore? You have disgruntled employees working for toxic companies and bosses because they can't afford to change employers ( which affects the productivity) , you have start up, more innovative companies dreading to get established because they cannot bargain collectively as well as larger companies to provide this service to their employees and so on. I look to taiwan, my home country where I consider ourselves just as innovative and captilastic as americans.


Taiwan gets healthy | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Originally Posted by bandaidwoman

First, of all, I have never understood how my personal income tax breaks helps me provide jobs, the trickle down theory does not work . I am not the one sustaining the luxury car market. I have a saying "I've always wanted a BMW until I could afford one."

Like the article said, a true middle class cannot exist in a free market system. Americans have been living a middleclass lifestyle on workingclass wages and bridging the gap with credit. And it's over.


My opinion, the decline of the middle class can also be attributed to the following:

1. No true affordable health care, since 3/4 of all personal bankruptcies due to medical costs started with health insurance one major injury or sickness can send a upper middle class family into the ranks of poverty. We employers are also finding it harder and harder to afford health care coverage for our employees. And my premiums went up 300% over ten years before obama was elected.

2. What middle class american can afford to send their kid to college? ( and not a web based) I personally don't expect my kids to get full academic scholarships like I did since a perfect grade point average is not a true measure of a person's capabilities in say engineering, sceintific research, architecture etc. ( In fact many brilliant Ph.d scientists I worked with had relatively poor GPAs compared to their pre med counterparts.) And I mean real colleges, not web based. There is no way I could have learned analytical chemistry and advanced organic thermodynamics over the web. I needed the laboratories and personal one on one with my professors. Before you discourage your kids from going to college, I thought I was going to major in business or linguistics ( and I do have a knack) but fell in love with chemistry and mathmatics. Without an upper level college degree with some extraordinary skills, your potential for income is much, much less. Our colleges and grad schools are some of the best in the world and the average, potential brilliant Joe, cannot afford it.


3. As the above said, the declining power of lobbying power by unions. They were necessary during the robber baaron age of true liberterian abuse of power and they did artificially inflate wages.

4. We are not preparing our kids to compete globally, from basics such as not promoting solid mathmatics and science education, valuing getting a law degree over a degree that actually makes and produces new products, to the insane notion that our kids don't need to be taught multiple languages . My brother is trilingual ( english, mandarin, spanish) and just doubled his 6 figure salary because he joined a actuarial company and they needed him to develop some acturial corporate offices in the Pacific Rim and the beautiful city of Santiago. ( his major was physics and mathmatics and spanish). He will never hurt for a job.

Well said. The notion of the middle class is just that, a notion.

Originally Posted by bandaidwoman

This makes absolutely no sense . My property tax last year is more than his $ 1,200. How is he contributing to the economy by paying less in property tax?

That's what I complain about, I am proud and appluad the fact he makes this money but he really doesn't need that break.

The same guys who defend the rich are against the blue collar union workers getting benefits.

Originally Posted by min0 lee

Yankees star Alex Rodriguez will pay virtually no property tax for a $6 million apartment he is buying on the upper West Side.

Rodriguez will be billed around $1,200 this year in real estate tax for his 3,000-square-foot, five-bedroom penthouse with spectacular views of the Hudson River.

Over the next 10 years Rodriguez and his fellow residents will continue to receive huge discounts on their tax, a city housing official said.



Read more: Tax breaks on real estate deals for people like A-Rod cost city 900M a year

I don't blame him...but I would be pissed at the city gov if I was a new yorker

Originally Posted by lnvanry

I don't blame him...but I would be pissed at the city gov if I was a new yorker

You can't blame him at all, he does have a strong union anyway.