Watching the middle class of America slowly dying the last 4 to 5 years or so has been very scary for everyone. Though there appears to be more of a middle class growing in the BRIC nations of Brazil, Russia, India and China which are growing fast the last 4 to 5 years. But watching the demise of the middle class in the U.S. and Europe has been fairly terrifying for most people not only because of the individual harm it does to individuals and families, but because of what it does to people's rights and privileges in nations where their middle classes are languishing. I was quoting and commenting on an article regarding
College Grads put off marriage and children to pay... which details the problems of getting student loans without good jobs available to be able to pay them back and you can see how this whole thing is getting worse.
However, if young people continue to forge ahead with college and student loans in a climate of no jobs (unless they are entrepreneurial) and create their own jobs this just spells trouble. So, it is sad to watch young people sometimes destroy their potential futures by getting student loans. However, also I must say that anyone I know who has perservered to get a Bachelor's degree or more and has the discipline to do that usually finds a way to create a better life ongoing than those who don't have that level of discipline. However, that being said if you can't pay off your student loan because you work at MacDonalds at age 30 and can't afford to get married because 60% or more of your money is going to pay off your student loans and you live in the basement of your parents home and can't afford to travel or expand your horizons because of this then a new strategy has to be found.
So, basically when I look upon the world I see a less upwardly mobile society within the U.S. and Europe. However, in countries like India, and China and Brazil it looks like the Wild West with opportunities and risks abounding everywhere. Part of the problem in the U.S. is the rich trying to protect their richness who have become terrified by what has happened the last 5 years or so. This has caused a lot of problems. But I would say the biggest cause to all the problems in the U.S. would have been caused by the Reagan, Clinton and Bush Administrations for allowing the dismantling of all the protections like the
and other protections put in place after the horrors of the Great Depression. And it is my own judgement that until we put in place stiff protections and penalties that protect everyone from the mismanagement of money at high levels that we will remain a two tiered society which might take us to Banana Republic Status within 20 years.
The problem as I see it is the solutions of the Republicans and the Democrats are only a smokescreen that doesn't solve any of our core issues. It would be like wondering what color to paint your toenails when you were drowning. The real problems are not being addressed by ANY Party because the rich of the U.S. and Europe don't want it to be addressed. This can only cause the middle class on down to become poorer in both the U.S. and Europe at the very least. And because of the trickle down effect to the rest of the world what causes downward mobility in the U.S. and Europe causes starvation and death in much of the Third World.
I was speaking to my wife about writing about this and she was saying what I'm writing about is mostly within urban and suburban settings. She thought that it was important to note that within the U.S. because it is just so big a place, after all, that there are various microcosms of society that all function slightly differently. For example, in Unemployment rates by State Nationwide
you have states with as low as 1% unemployment with groups of ranges from 1% to 5 % and then you have ranges of states from 5% to 8 or 9% and then you have states like Nevada with 12% unemployment (the highest) and states like California with about 10% or more unemployment. However, in places like California where I live on the north coast there are still boom places like Los Angeles where if you are in the movie industry there is a lot of money to be made and Silicon Valley which is in total boom times as well. So, there is this paradox that California has become. I don't live in Nevada even though I have been to Reno and Las Vegas many times I really can't speak entirely to what is going on there but I do know from living in California that we actually have the highest number of people making over $250,000 a year likely more any other state. So, California looked at in this way becomes a complete paradox as far as the rest of the world looks at us right now. So, people in California who are doing well are doing Very well and those who aren't are in trouble because of the high cost of living, (especially rents and buying houses) on the coast. Also, because of high Gasoline taxes of between 50cents to 1 dollar a gallon depending upon the city or county, gasoline costs are very high. However, if you go to Oregon which doesn't tax gasoline to repair their roads like California does, gas might be 50 cents to a dollar less a gallon sometimes. And Oregon gives their people jobs pumping gas because it is illegal to pump your own gas in Oregon so almost anyone can get a job doing that in Oregon. So, in the end (at least in the U.S.) every state, every county, every city and every area is different. However, I'm still really worried about the obvious death and dying of the middle class in the U.S. and Europe because that spells trouble for everyone.
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