What is happening to the middle class?

[stevekerp]

Warm greetings to all --

I'm old enough to remember when taxes were a nuisance, but not a crushing burden. I remember when there were a lot of deductions so even though the rates were high, you still wound up with something.

What I have seen in the past 20-30 years is steady erosion, so that the hard-working folks in the middle class are getting squeezed harder and harder, and are becoming essentially 'working poor.' I think the middle class, as we have known it, will become as obsolete as the 'family farm.'

That's why I'm so concerned about "Transition." The old paradigm won't be around much longer, and I want to help as many people as possible to see what they MUST do, and what they must teach their children, in order to survive and THRIVE in the new century. The schools are still teaching the 'get a job' model, even while many jobs are either being phased out, farmed out, automated, or sent overseas.

We will not have a job-based economy much longer. We will see more and more people working from home, or developing business models to sell. Entrepreneurs and home-based business operators will do fine, "jobs" will be done by machines and computers, or by very low-paid wage slaves. A "safe secure job with benefits" will exist only in the funny papers.

If these working poor start receiving government welfare, that burden will be borne by -- guess who? -- the emerging Entrepreneurial class. This suggests to me that it will be in the best interests of all of us to help people out of the dying middle class and into the Entrepreneurial class as quickly as possible.

So if you have a job, great! And if you are looking for one, best wishes. But I strongly advise you to examine the new paradigm and at least start building a lifeboat - some sort of home-based business - so that as the job market continues to shrink, you will not be stranded.

Final thought: I am developing a web site that will offer free transition coaching, and also the best tools for people who are developing their entrepreneurial skills. If you are aware of any good resources, please let me know.

Very best,

[julian]

I have thought of this thing myself and got to a conclusion...a sad conclusion...and the people in my circle agreed to that: in the next 20-30 there will be no such thing as middle class anymore. There will be only too classes: dead-poor and filthy rich. After that, 10-20 years later, the poor will disappear and one third of the rich will become bankrupt, thus poor, and the other ones will have to restrain their business and become the new middle class.
Followed me? )

[stevekerp]

Julian --

I agree...IF.... if we 'maintain course and speed.' Obviously, if we keep doing what we've been doing, we will keep getting what we've been getting. And as you and I and many others have observed, what we've been getting is a dwindling middle class and a growing number of working poor, starving poor, or dead poor.

But there is always the possibility of a 'singularity' or a paradigm shift. A singularity might be an unforeseen technological advance that makes energy as accessible as air. OR a civil war. OR a significant number of people in the dying middle class who embrace a paradigm shift and stop depending on either 'the government' or 'a job' to take care of them.

The singularity most visibly dangled in front of the theologically shallow is the Second Coming of Christ, which many think will instantly elevate their particular group to the level of global royalty while consigning everyone else to God's wrath. A possible but unlikely scenario.

I'm of the opinion that if we change the way we think, we can change the way we live. That's why I offer the free book and newsletter. I hope you will sign up.

Thanks again for your comment.

Best,

[Randy]

if we change the way we think, we can change the way we live.

But therein is the problem, ain't it? We have the evil trinity of government, business, and organized religion all perpetuating the same myths and lies, still packaged and sold as the "American dream," still insisting it's about nothing more than pulling up those damned bootstraps, and all the rest that is truly just echoes of the past. Americans have been, and are, thoroughly institutionalized into believing that any and help must come from one of, or any combination of, those three non-entities.

So where business fails, they turn to government. When that fails, they turn to religion. When that fails, they turn to business. Mix-and-match as you please. It's gerbils on wheels.

There has always been a "ruling class" and then just "everyone else." What we seem to be witnessing now is a ruling class that's stupid beyond repair, that doesn't seem to understand that their wealth and power must, and will, erode completely away as the "everyone else" comes to having nothing.

So yes, the "thinking" must indeed change. But unless and until it comes to embrace a more humane notion that "we're all in this together," the end really is nothing more than a logical conclusion and, again, one has the luxury of choosing from many possible scenarios, none good, at least not for "humanity" as a whole....

[Pauloz]

stevekerp

The middle class has brought this on itself.

It never bothered to do much more than follow the life script while everything fell to bits.

Insularity is no defence, and it wasn't.

The decay started roughly when the greed started to outweigh judgment and when accountancy suddenly became more important than actual management. It became permanent when networking replaced talent.

Dumbing down everything was the fatal mistake. It affected all forms of education including business training. Academic standards went down in direct proportion to the emphasis on "communication".

It allowed real morons who would be lucky to tie both shoelaces in the same week to get degrees and become management scientists, and the rest is just sales spiel.

This is a whole series of methods of operation dedicated to prevention of achievement.

The constant disasters are largely because of pure, unadulterated, lack of intelligence, talent and any level of extended logic or professional skill.

These guys couldn't socially engineer an outhouse, let alone a new way of life for humanity. They never solve problems, particularly social problems. They just institutionalize them, and make careers out of them.

Another cultural blessing from Moron Central.

Really, you could see all this coming.

The middle class just did its usual spectator thing, said how terrible it all was, and then wondered why everything, including its method of making a living died on them.

Never mind the old paradigm, let's wish a quick grave for this one, its hypocrisy, and its non-existent values. It's devaluing the human race daily.

Quite agree about self employment.

Suggestion, though: don't call them "entrepreneurs". It's almost an insult.

That word has a track record, and if you try to advertise "entrepreneurs" you'll get an image anywhere from hedge fund to harlot. Not far; pretty narrow field of reference.

The Entrepreneurial Class are worthless as any sort of social asset. They're just a reworked version of the Merchant Class, a step backward, culturally. Dealmakers, one person Enrons, etc.

Something like "free spirits" or anything meaning "independents", people able to stand on their own and survive.