The Middle Class

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny

OWS got me thinking today about the great American middle class. That group of hard working and intelligent people that propelled this nation forward to become the greatest {super} power the world has ever known. Those millions of individuals that worked diligently to secure their own as well as their nation's rational self interest.

Today we have a growing economic oligarchy. Then there is OWS. The dissonance, if not resolved has the capcity to destroy our nation.

(Middle Class) A nation’s productive—and moral, and intellectual—top is the middle class. It is a broad reservoir of energy, it is a country’s motor and lifeblood, which feeds the rest. The common denominator of its members, on their various levels of ability, is: independence. The upper classes are merely a nation’s past; the middle class is its future.

The middle class is the heart, the lifeblood, the energy source of a free, industrial economy, i.e., of capitalism; it did not and cannot exist under any other system; it is the product of upward mobility, incompatible with frozen social castes. Do not ask, therefore, for whom the bell of inflation is tolling; it tolls for you. It is not at the destruction of a handful of the rich that inflation is aimed (the rich are mostly in the vanguard of the destroyers), but at the middle class.

I'm wondering... Just what is today's modern liberals take on the above, as well as today's modern {so called} conservatives? It should prove interesting.

Via: Memeorandum

Comments

  1. Jersey McJonesSun Nov 20, 12:00:00 AM EST

    "Just what is today's modern liberals take on the above, as well as today's modern {so called} conservatives.(?)"

    Development.

    Investment in schools, roads, rails, wires, satellites, medicine, physics, space, energy, and everything else it takes to be a world class power.

    Our taxes should be paying for that. Not colonial empire.

    JMJ

    ReplyDelete
  2. Shaw KenaweSun Nov 20, 12:15:00 AM EST

    What JMJ said. Wish I knew how to say it in Cuban.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ema NymtonSun Nov 20, 07:11:00 AM EST

    .

    "The middle class is the heart, the lifeblood, the energy source of a free, industrial economy, i.e., of capitalism; it did not and cannot exist under any other system; it is the product of upward mobility, incompatible with frozen social castes."

    The 'middle-class' existed in all parts of the world and in every form of government/society. It is not a modern day creation of capitalism. The people in the 'middle class' come and go as their wealth waxes and wanes. Worry not for the 'middle class'.

    "The dissonance, if not resolved has the capcity to destroy our nation."

    Not even close. The system has been gamed by the few for their own nefarious benefit and is out of balance. The dissonance will help the system to correct itself.

    The system's status in quo is unacceptable to a great number of people. It will be changed.

    Ema Nymton
    ~@:o?
    .

    ReplyDelete
  4. SilverfiddleSun Nov 20, 08:37:00 AM EST

    @ Shaw: Wish I knew how to say it in Cuban.

    As the Obamessiah to translate it into Austrian for you. (Yes, when he was on one of his European jaunts he really did comment that he did not speak Austrian.)

    And Jersey: We can't invest in Jack when millions are unemployed. Obamanomics is killing this nation.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Les CarpenterSun Nov 20, 10:15:00 AM EST

    Emma - You missed the point methinks.

    And...Changed o What?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Joe HagstromSun Nov 20, 11:32:00 AM EST

    The American Dream has been for the vast majority of us a nice home with a two car garage and a secure job with a decent pension. That was attainable until Reaganomics and the war on the lower classes by the wealthiest among us.

    I have no problem with wealth. I work on becoming wealthier every day. The problem as I see it Les is that hard work and good new ideas are not how the wealthy are getting wealthier. It's robbing from the poor and middle class. It's gaming the stock markets. It's creating new investment classifications to screw people with. It's big businesses getting ridiculous tax breaks and government subsidies and paying ridiculous bonuses to the executives running these scams. Money for nothing. Then demanding the people who will be relying on Social Security and Medicare for a secure retirement pay for the deficits run up by these programs and stupid tax cuts that benefit the wealthiest.


    A problem is the dupes who buy into the republican nonsense and parrot it even though they are getting the shaft. They're stabbing themselves.

    A problem is the lies told by almost all our politicians. They're not working hard in Washington to make our country better. Too many of them are enriching themselves while telling us whatever crap they think we want to hear. Insider trading is legal for Congressmen.

    ReplyDelete
  7. dmarksSun Nov 20, 12:00:00 PM EST

    "The American Dream has been for the vast majority of us a nice home with a two car garage and a secure job with a decent pension. That was attainable until Reaganomics and the war on the lower classes by the wealthiest among us."

    At which point it became even more attainable. For example, did you know that the black middle class grew significantly during the Reagan administration, and as a result of his policies?

    "It's big businesses getting ridiculous tax breaks and government subsidies"

    I have no problem with tax breaks, which merely mean that the government plunders less of someone's own property. And under Reagan and the republicans since him, the middle class gets most of the tax breaks. That's great! But I'd rather see the subsidies set to zero. None at all.

    ReplyDelete
  8. The GriperSun Nov 20, 12:23:00 PM EST

    Oligarchies have been the form of any government since the beginning of governments. it is the nature of any government.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The GriperSun Nov 20, 12:36:00 PM EST

    might also ask is why everything is always measured by money these days. that has always been a socialistic form of measurement

    might also add that i was taught that the American dream was found in these basic rights; life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, not in the possession of material goods.

    ReplyDelete
  10. dmarksSun Nov 20, 01:14:00 PM EST

    griper said: "might also ask is why everything is always measured by money these days. that has always been a socialistic form of measurement"

    Exactly. You have pointed out the socialists' obsession with money; an ideology that excels in the idea of coveting it. That managing money is something that only the rulers are qualified to do.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Joe HagstromSun Nov 20, 01:26:00 PM EST

    So having no home or job or security, but simply the pursuit is your idea of the American Dream Griper?


    You're nuts dude.

    I was unaware the Civil Rights act and affirmative action programs were reagan ideas Dmarks.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Les CarpenterSun Nov 20, 06:56:00 PM EST

    Joe - of the three, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, nor natural law gives a "right" to anything material.

    What they do infer based on a classical liberal view is the right {think right to opportunity} to pursue ones life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

    The choices individuals make in life are the primary determining factor as to what degree of success they achieve they enjoying in achieving them.

    I too thought the Civil Rights Act preceded Reagan and affirmative action was a primarily a product of the "60's."

    Could be wrong though.

    The Reagan years really were pretty good years for the middle class though.

    ReplyDelete
  13. The GriperSun Nov 20, 07:26:00 PM EST

    joe,
    there is nothing said in my comment that would lead a person to the conclusion you came to, explicit or implicit.

    money cannot buy happiness and you should know that as well as any person. if it could the rich would be the happiest persons in the world and the poor would be the most miserable. this is a false assumption that only someone with a socialistic mindset like yours would like everyone to believe.

    ReplyDelete
  14. dmarksMon Nov 21, 08:39:00 AM EST

    Joe said: "I was unaware the Civil Rights act and affirmative action programs were reagan ideas Dmarks."

    The civil rights movement is great, but affirmative action treats Blacks as inferior social cripples and "breeds" people who won't try as hard. It makes people lazy.

    Reagan caused the black middle class to grow by providing black people (along with white people) an environment of economic opportunity.

    ReplyDelete
  15. dmarksMon Nov 21, 05:59:00 PM EST

    jersey said: "Our taxes should be paying for that. Not colonial empire."

    I conpletely agree. Thankfully, we've had no empire since before WW2.

    ReplyDelete

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