Through all the debates, speeches, and interviews, I had not heard one candidate speak about the middle class in terms that make sense to me until Palin debated against Biden last Thursday.
The political candidates have pulled heartbreaking stories from campaign scripts, depicting the middle class as deprived blue collar workers, hoping to borrow the Visa from big daddy government. Maybe it all comes down to the different mindsets of liberals and conservatives, but I am sick of people talking about the middle class as if we can’t take care of ourselves anymore.
What happened to the America that forged the way through wild and deadly land to make a better home for their families? What happened to the men and women who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps? According to Obama, we lost that ability.
Obama sarcastically attributed the statement, “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, even if you don’t have boots. You’re on your own,” to the “Republican philosophy.”
Speaking on a purely governmental basis, in the history of America, every citizen, with boots or not, has always been on their own. The constitution guarantees rights — the right to speak, practice religion, vote, carry a gun, etc. People want to argue that the constitution gives us the “right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” which somehow gets converted into free handouts and health care.
What these people usually forget is that, first of all, they’re quoting the Declaration of Independence! And second of all, never anywhere, in any document, are we ever guaranteed the means to obtain those things. You have a right to it. The government cannot take away your life, your liberty, or your happiness, but they are not going to give it to you, either.
However, speaking on a purely humanitarian basis, poor Americans have never been on their own. Every citizen has the responsibility to invoke that forgotten civic virtue and help those in need. If someone doesn’t have boots, you should lift a finger, search through your walk-in closet, and hand them a pair.
My husband and I were far below poverty during our first two years of marriage. We lived without health care, working part-time minimum wage jobs, while eating angel food and deer meat. Believe me, when milk crept past four dollars a gallon, I nearly passed out. But we held on. We took out loans and grants and finished college. We slept on a futon and lived on a budget.
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Doug Hunter
Nice article, this is much the same way as I grew up viewing the world and most people that believe in the American dream as you laid out vote Republican as I often do. Great preaching to the choir, the problem is that those who don't agree with you won't be swayed by your arguments (true as they may be).
A large percentage of the population has been trained to believe they can't make it on their own, that the deck is stacked against them. They've been told they can't make it because rich people are out to get them, whites are out to get them, religious people hate them, men won't allow them to rise to a certain level, etc.
If you've been trained to believe you can't make it on your own you likely never will. The American dream and victimhood are both self fulfilling prophecies making either true from it's own vantagepoint. The question is how you can cross that divide and convince someone who believes they are a victim that they are in control of what has happened in their life. Now there's an article I'd like to read!
2 - Joanne Huspek
Great piece. Unfortunately, the people with their hands out or hoping for a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow aren't going to listen, much less believe you.
3 - David LaFerney
I think that you are right in that the American middle class (and the American working class for that matter) don't want or need a government hand out - I know that I don't. I also agree that we've been living in a financial orgy of over extension where so many people have used credit to live far beyond their means - including our government.
My family has lived in the same modest home for almost 25 years despite plenty of chances to step up to a much more lavish lifestyle. Because of that we've been able to save money and at least try to secure our own future.
But if you want to see what a capitalist utopia looks like all you have to do is look at places like the Dubai free enterprise zone where business is largly untaxed and unregulated. The rich live in lavish palaces built by people who are grindingly, hopelessly impoverished. Sure, tremendous numbers of jobs have been created, and opportunity abounds in such an environment if one is able (with money, education, skill, luck)to take advantage of it.
So, am I (Joe Six pack as it were) for government micromanagement of my life and business? Of course not, very, very few people are. But I am for decent schools, and a clean environment, and a fair playing field so that being born rich isn't a prerequisite for success - even if it means that I have to pay taxes, and comply with business regulations. BTW, I've been self employed for over twenty years.
I believe that the vast number of Americans, both Democrat and Republican agree on these things.
4 - Cindy D
Have you ever looked at income quintiles and distribution of wealth and its movement over time?
No, I didn't think so.
Your opinion seems to be based on rhetoric rather than actual facts.
Looking out for the middle class doesn't mean giving everyone hand outs. When you have a system that continually moves wealth upward accumulating it with those who have the most you begin to starve the bulk of the population. They begin to lose wealth.
That's what is happening now. That's why people are getting pissed off.
I'm glad you are doing fine now yourself. Carry on with your empty rhetoric.
5 - Clavos
Great article, Janica.
You are entirely correct that the "can do" spirit of America, the spirit that created the wealthiest society in history out of a vast wilderness, the spirit that stopped the menace of the Axis powers in WW II, and the spirit that defeated the Soviet Union has been overwhelmed.
Overwhelmed by the quagmire of entitlements and a malaise, endemic in one segment of the population, of helplessness and dependency, while another segment bristles with a determination to mold the role of government into that of everyone's nanny.
Caught in the middle: what remains of the storied middle class that built the greatest, if still imperfect, example of freedom and prosperity in the history of humanity.
Your article is a fitting tribute to that fast dwindling segment of our population. Unfortunately, as others have noted, those who most need to absorb your argument, won't.
Whining is easier.
6 - bliffle
While these writers dream their dreams and brag about their individual self-sufficiency the US government has taken sides against them on behalf of the financial behemoths of Wall street by instituting corporate socialism. The poor little corps went whining to their congress-slaves to get hundreds of billions of dollars of welfare entitlements.
What happened to the willingness of corps to struggle and sacrifice? Is all the struggle and sacrifice reserved for individuals?
7 - Matthew T. Sussman
Theories of fixing wealth distribution and not nannying the middle class - can they not be mutually exclusive?
8 - Mark Saleski
Whining is easier.
sneering condescension is even easier than that.
9 - Clavos
What happened to the willingness of corps to struggle and sacrifice? Is all the struggle and sacrifice reserved for individuals?
It followed, as night must day, the loss of individual gumption about which Janica writes.
10 - Lee Richards
Your article makes a good many valid points. It also plays down Bush/McCain policies and beliefs that weaken the middle class, and have led to more government interference in our lives rather than less.
Where I think you are completely wrong is on Palin. It's all an act. Like 9 out of 10 politicians, she is a con artist. She has perfected the con game that works best for her in beating the suckers. It worked in Alaska and now she is running the same game on the rest of the country in support of McCain's con, that he has worked on successfully all these years. If you can fake sincerity, you've got it made.
Are Democrats running their own cons? Of course.
11 - Baritone
One thing that many of you state, but seem to ignore is just what Clav states:
"that fast dwindling segment of our population"
The so called middle class is indeed "fast dwindling." Over the past several years hundreds of thousands of "middle class" jobs have disappeared, replaced (if at all) by significantly lower paying service oriented jobs. Thousands of decent paying middle management, and manufacturing jobs have been eliminated - jobs wherein people were making say, $35000 to perhaps $75000 or more (or the equivalent.) The "Would you like fries with that?" or "Welcome to Wal Mart" cliche's have become a sad reality for a lot of people. A large number of these people feel betrayed. For a variety of reasons, both good and bad, these people have been left behind while a small segment of our society is making hay from other people's loss.
If you have a family working and making collectively, say $75000 to a $100000 or more, enabling them to purchase a home, who suddenly find themselves out of work or forced to work for far less due to layoffs, plant closings, outsourcing, etc., they will likely be in serious danger of losing that home. They weren't greedy. They weren't living above their means. They simply believed that their economic situation would remain sound, that their jobs and consequently, their incomes would be there for them.
That is what we are all told to expect in this great land of ours. Unfortunately, it is not always true. In fact, it has become almost expontentially less true over the past 20 to 30 years or so. We want to be positive, to be hopeful for the future, but so often now that hope is dashed so that a small number of people can make huge amounts of money and live lavishly often at the expense of their former employees, sometimes at the expense of the entire company.
There is a vital role for government in all this. It's not about becoming a "nanny" state. It is about finding ways to bridge the gap for people suddenly tossed out in the cold as it were. It is about government stepping in and stopping rampant fraud and other abuses by the rich.
Sadly, there are those in government who are all too often part of that fraud and abuse. The reason why our economy is at the brink of failure is NOT because of greedy mortgagors. It is because of greedy, manipulating and poorly regulated people who grabbed all they could for themselves not giving a rat's ass about the consequences for everyone else.
The private sector has proven wholly incapable of monitoring and policing itself. Would that it were, but alas. Government oversite is not a great answer, but it is apparently the ONLY viable answer left to us.
B
12 - Clavos
@#8:
sneering condescension is even easier than that.
@#5:
Unfortunately, as others have noted, those who most need to absorb your argument, won't.
QED
13 - Mark Saleski
it's official IronyDay here at bc. woo!
14 - Clavos
"Official" irony day.
Overseen by which overweening government bureaucracy?
15 - DaveNalle
Looking out for the middle class doesn't mean giving everyone hand outs. When you have a system that continually moves wealth upward accumulating it with those who have the most you begin to starve the bulk of the population. They begin to lose wealth.
When we have that system, do let me know, Cindy. We certainly don't have it now. What moves up in our current system is people. They move up in wealth and success from one quintile to the next and no more than 14% of them remain in the bottom quintile for more than a decade.
Dave
16 - Christopher Rose
Clavos, I was a bit surprised by your #5. The USA is not "the wealthiest society in history", the "spirit that stopped the menace of the Axis powers in WW II" was basically that of a mercenary army (don't forget the USA very nearly sided with Germany), nor did it in any sense "defeat the Soviet Union".
What is this - parallel universe day?
17 - Clavos
Apparently so, Chris. You need to bring yours into coherence with reality.
18 - Dr Dreadful
In terms of overall standard of living, Chris, and having travelled to places which make do with absurdly less, I am here to tell you that yes, the US is the wealthiest society in history.
Sure, the extreme loadedness of a handful of Middle Eastern princes may bump up the per capita income of such places a bit higher than America's, but the disparity between rich and poor is very much greater there.
Having said that, though... if, as Jessica opines, it is not the government's job to look out for the people, then what the hell is the government's job?
19 - zingzing
clavos... the "spirit that stopped the menace of the axis powers?" that would be soviet blood and american bombs. (ok, ok, and the d-day invasion was pretty important.) it certainly wasn't any "spirit." how much patriotism do you think there was on those transport boats? and how many sheep?
and we "defeated" the soviet union by spending them into economic obliteration. what did the american people do other than send their tax dollars? was it the cowering underneath our school desks? i don't really recall doing much about the soviet threat. the main american victims of the cold war were made victims by whatever "american spirit" you are describing.
really, clavos. when did you turn into such a patriot? or is it just that you're getting sentimental in your old age?
20 - Christopher Rose
Clavos, my statements are matters of fact and record, yours are wishful thinking in the extreme.
Doc D, it isn't relevant to bring in really poor countries. The claim was that the US is the wealthiest society in history. It may have some very rich individuals but that isn't the same thing at all. Even the richest man in the world is no longer an American.
21 - Dr Dreadful
was it the cowering underneath our school desks?
Heh.
I grew up way closer to the Soviets than any of you lot. I do remember the sirens going off occasionally when the fire department tested them - which was a bit nerveracking* especially as they never warned us beforehand that they were going to do it - but there were never any drills and no bomb shelters. What would have been the point?
Buncha wimps...! ;-)
* Looking at one's watch and counting four minutes...
22 - Dr Dreadful
Chris, you're widely travelled and you've visited the US. I'd be interested to hear where in the world you think the overall standard of living is, or was, comparable to that here.
Don't you ever wonder why Americans struggle so much when they visit other countries?
23 - Clavos
really, clavos. when did you turn into such a patriot? or is it just that you're getting sentimental in your old age?
Point taken, zing, although I meant my paean more in homage to the middle class group that's been dubbed the "Greatest Generation," rather than to the nation itself.
how much patriotism do you think there was on those transport boats?
I guess I'm not the most cynical guy on these threads after all...by most accounts, zing, there was way more patriotism than I or my fellow suckers in Nam had.
and we "defeated" the soviet union by spending them into economic obliteration. what did the american people do other than send their tax dollars?
More or less true, but their productivity post war made those dollars available for the task, and you're right, that's exactly how the Soviets were defeated...with remarkably little bloodshed.
Credit where due, zing.
24 - zingzing
"by most accounts, zing, there was way more patriotism than I or my fellow suckers in Nam had."
do you really believe that? i'm not so sure that you can take everything that has been written about ww2 at face value. patriotism may have been high at home, and it may have been high in comparison to vietnam (not that that takes much), but i can guarantee that it wasn't all john wayne and dan rather (or whoever) over there.
"Credit where due, zing."
well, i thank you. and credit due for credit due. i'm sure i shall return the gesture soon enough.
25 - Christopher Rose
Doc D, I refer you to the following Wikipedia entry, which shows the USA as 4th, 6th or 8th, depending on the source used.