There's a lot of talk about the middle class disappearing, but let's talk about the class that actually DID disappear. The working class. No one talks about the working class any more.
At one time, there was the upper class - the independently wealthy and the middle class - the doctors, lawyers, merchants and other professionals - and the working class, the bricklayers, carpenters, farmers, construction workers, etc. etc. etc.
How did the "working class" disappear from our political discussions?
There's a lot of talk about the middle class disappearing, but let's talk about the class that actually DID disappear. The working class. No one talks about the working class any more.
At one time, there was the upper class - the independently wealthy and the middle class - the doctors, lawyers, merchants and other professionals - and the working class, the bricklayers, carpenters, farmers, construction workers, etc. etc. etc.
How did the "working class" disappear from our political discussions?
There's a lot of talk about the middle class disappearing, but let's talk about the class that actually DID disappear. The working class. No one talks about the working class any more.
At one time, there was the upper class - the independently wealthy and the middle class - the doctors, lawyers, merchants and other professionals - and the working class, the bricklayers, carpenters, farmers, construction workers, etc. etc. etc.
How did the "working class" disappear from our political discussions?
Through hard work of rational-thinking people who, unlike you, don't separate carpenters and farmers from professionals when they speak.There's a lot of talk about the middle class disappearing, but let's talk about the class that actually DID disappear. The working class. No one talks about the working class any more.
At one time, there was the upper class - the independently wealthy and the middle class - the doctors, lawyers, merchants and other professionals - and the working class, the bricklayers, carpenters, farmers, construction workers, etc. etc. etc.
How did the "working class" disappear from our political discussions?
There's a lot of talk about the middle class disappearing, but let's talk about the class that actually DID disappear. The working class. No one talks about the working class any more.
At one time, there was the upper class - the independently wealthy and the middle class - the doctors, lawyers, merchants and other professionals - and the working class, the bricklayers, carpenters, farmers, construction workers, etc. etc. etc.
How did the "working class" disappear from our political discussions?
The Trades have been ignored for the most part with the promotion of additional education to the coming generation. Assistants and Journeymen have been replaced with MBAs and PHDs.
Many trades are virtually barren, and those that do take up the trades don't seem to have the same pride in the quality of their work, unless you get someone who has been doing it for 20 years.
And Goshin is correct, many of the trade jobs that are left have been taken up by illegal aliens.
Through hard work of rational-thinking people who, unlike you, don't separate carpenters and farmers from professionals when they speak.
Truth is these classes you speak of never did exist, or if they exist in some form there's only the working class and the leach-off-the-system poor who need to start being productive or die off.
They have a new name now, Republicans refer to them as "leeches suckling from the government teet".
You just called yourself a on-rational-thinking person. Maybe you should learn something about sentence structure before coming back here?As a non-rational-thinking person, I'll remember your absurd lecture about our classless society next time I hear you mentioning "the middle class".
There's a lot of talk about the middle class disappearing, but let's talk about the class that actually DID disappear. The working class. No one talks about the working class any more.
At one time, there was the upper class - the independently wealthy and the middle class - the doctors, lawyers, merchants and other professionals - and the working class, the bricklayers, carpenters, farmers, construction workers, etc. etc. etc.
How did the "working class" disappear from our political discussions?
You just called yourself a on-rational-thinking person. Maybe you should learn something about sentence structure before coming back here?
Do they, now? I think you're confusing people who sit on their ass and collect welfare with people who work for a living. I'm not surprised given your political leaning since so many progressives think collecting welfare is as good as work.
We're still here, but we're now "the poor".... because most of our jobs are now held by illegal aliens, most of the factories we worked at have been relocated overseas, and the few jobs we've managed to hang onto pay 1990 wages even though in 2013 a dollar is only worth 40 cents, comparatively.
The complaints about illegal aliens is quite trumped up. Jobs that American workers did after the 1930s are not held by illegals. They pick fruit for a buck a day. Americans haven't done that since the New Deal. But the other two arguments are spot on. A lot of our labor has been shipped overseas, and our government has become increasingly subservient to business interests, so the labor exporting aspect of free trade has been protected. And wages have barely increased since the 1970s. But apparently we can't tax corporations on their overseas income, or increase the minimum wage. We're kind of stuck until the American middle class stops confusing the profit driven goals of corporations with their own goals, and stops catering to them.
Tis not shocking the "working class" is disappearing, we don't make anything here. Unions, taxes, legislation, litigation, etc made it unprofitable to manufacture here. Once an economy doesn't manufacture there aren't many jobs left. Now we're facing obamacare. A wiser man than me said, "if you thought health care was expensive before, just wait til it's free".
Republicans demonized them as lazy and stupid. Further, they didn't fit into conservative plans for capital flight to sweatshop nations. They specifically crafted to the treaties to globalize capital but not worker protection, and conservatives blocked any attempt to restrict outsourcing. Further, Republicans have made it harder and harder to unionize (and vilified unions), and unions were the means by which working people obtain some modicum of negotiating strength against business. Finally, the GOP cut taxes on the rich and blocked any attempt to raise taxes, which is the only way to make trade with sweatshop nations a good deal for working people here -- comparative advantage benefits trading nations in the aggregate, but not classes within each nation. Specifically the rich have gotten richer with trade, while workers income has dropped. The way to handle that is to increase taxes on the upper brackets and use that revenue to retrain and educate workers. But of course conservatives blocked that.
You act surprised.
We are even today the second largest manufacturing country with only China, with 4 times the population, ahead of us. What we lack is low level manufacturing which is very dated as an economic source. Its called progress. When you buy a $200 Ipod, 80% of that money is right here in America where we design, market and distribute.
The complaints about illegal aliens is quite trumped up. Jobs that American workers did after the 1930s are not held by illegals. They pick fruit for a buck a day. Americans haven't done that since the New Deal. But the other two arguments are spot on. A lot of our labor has been shipped overseas, and our government has become increasingly subservient to business interests, so the labor exporting aspect of free trade has been protected. And wages have barely increased since the 1970s. But apparently we can't tax corporations on their overseas income, or increase the minimum wage. We're kind of stuck until the American middle class stops confusing the profit driven goals of corporations with their own goals, and stops catering to them.
Well, the conservatives are not the ones who are trying to negotiate a TPP and a US-Europe trade agreement, Obama is, but let's blame George Bush for those too......
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