Disappearing middle class

Posting this for a filmmaker...

Hi,

I am a documentary filmmaker based in Los Angeles and I am in
production for a new documentary called, "The Race to the Bottom" which will demonstrate how corporate greed is causing the disappearance of
America's middle class as jobs either get outsourced to foreign markets
for cheap labor or get replaced by foreign workers for less pay and no
benefits, or get downsized as part of a 'restructuring program'. The
documentary will expose the myths that if you have a college education
and work hard, you can live the 'American Dream'. The documentary will
also demonstrate how the government's interest is in supporting
corporations and big business, not the workers of America. The middle
class has always been the backbone of America but now, as they lose
their jobs, they also lose their health insurance, pensions, mortgages
and fall into the ranks of the unemployed or underemployed.

I will be in the Silicon Valley interviewing laid-off workers, politicians, representatives of corporations, etc. in mid-October. If you are interested in being interviewed, in being part of an important documentary, please contact me.

Thank you.

Joan Sekler
cell: 310 968-6566
www.unprecedented.org

 

There is more of a middle class today than there has ever been.

 

Quantify that statement

(sorry - its the engineer inside of me coming out. If you can't quantify a quantifiable statement, then it is meaningless. Sort of like saying that drug abuse is more of a problem today than it was in the 1970's. Prove it with numbers and studies completed by disinterested third parties)

 

I made no "quantifiable statement."

As an engineer, you certainly noticed the non-quantifiable opening contention of there being a disappearing middle class.

"Middle class" is a moving target. I was born in 1945. Though closer to poverty status, I grew up in a middle class area and those middle class people lived miserably deprived lives as compared to what is average today.

As an engineer, did you notice that Ms. Sekler begins with a contention for which she seeks evidence? As an engineer, what is your opinion of her approach to proofs?

 

One reason for the decline in the middle class is that health insurance is on the wane for people. Medical News Today reported that more employers are dropping health insurance for their employees(from 2000 to 2003 they reported that there was a drop of 3% in workers covered with health insurance. This equates to a drop to only 71% of workers covered). These are the things that the steelworker and autoworker fought for to even build a middle class back in the 30's and 40's.

Penn State University had an excellent article on Pennsylvania losing their middle class... http://cecd.aers.psu.edu/newsletter/rdvsum99.pdf

 

That is a very interesting perspective that I never considered and true as well.

As long as health costs are subsidized by the government, then health cost will continue to skyrocket. Government funding of health care artificially props up the price so fatcat middle men can make bigger and bigger profits. If the governmental subsidies were removed from the equation, then fatcat middle men would dry up and whither away. If the government were to remove itself from propping up the health care system, then the capitalistic law of supply and demand would cause the costs to equalize and to come down drastically.

Whenever the government gets involved in cost controls or propping up something, then it gets waaaaaaaay out of balance over time. The capitalistic law of supply and demand is the great equalizer and nothing is ultimately more effective.

Here I am receiving a government paycheck, but alas, the sweet teats of the government are endless and can never run dry. LOL

 

The great equalizer is the "peasant" class pitchfork in the form of revolution.

 

Bing

How did you like the MBA program at DH? I will complete my MBA in March of 2006. -- 3 classes this quarter and my capstone course next. Was the capstone course very hard?

Sorry to hijack the thread -- just curious.

I am pretty much middle class and have been throughout my life skirting from the lower middle class to somewhat upper middle class now -- but alas, most tech workers are one layoff away from near poverty. If it were not for equity, I would certainly be a poor boy in that were to ever happen.

What would you consider middle class? In the Bay Area, I would say that you would have to make at least $45K to even get a average apartment, with closer to $70K and over to afford a small condo in East PA or Oakland. I don't see how most of the operators at work can make it - I understand they make between $18-25 an hour depending on their backgrounds.

I have colleagues that made nearly 100K a year and can't afford the house that I live in -- (I bought it in 99 - just since then it was more than doubled in value)

 

Companies can always just drop health insurance as a benefit... and they will do so whenever they can get away with it. I think so-called "Socialist" universal health care doesn't just help individuals, it would help companies ... both big and small. It makes sense for companies to outsource jobs to places where they aren't forced to pay people's health insurance! I am in big favor of such a system because it would spread the costs of health care more equitably.

Currently, we all pay for uninsured people. If a desperately poor person is dying of cancer or about to give birth, a hospital must treat them, bill them, and then figure out some way of recovering that unpaid bill... Of course, uninsured people have a high incentive to put off preventative treatment as much as possible, because they'd have to pay for it out of pocket. The more preventative medicine gets put off, the more the probability of emergency crisis medicine increases. Personally I would rather pay more in taxes so EVERYONE in the city I live gets things like tuberculosis shots. It's not just the right thing to do, it's in my personal self-interest.

The "middle class" is almost impossible to define in this country so I don't necessarily have a position on that filmmaker's statement. In American no one ever says they're working class or upper class... it's always "lower middle class" or "upper middle class". Since everyone is in the middle class, it's pretty meaningless as a category.

However trends in healthcare, housing and individual saving habits are currently pretty depressing. Americans are still pretty well off compared to the rest of the world but if things get much worse, our bad savings habits means we have no buffer and things could downhill very very fast.

 

I liked the MBA program. I looked around at a number of schools. I think Baker, Colorado State, Regis, and CSUDH were all in the running then. I chose CSUDH because the tuition was such a deal.

I keep in contact with many of my cohorts today if you can believe it. Some of the cohorts did very well. One is now the CEO of a catalog company, mainly a woodworker when he started the MBA. Another one became a filmmaker and now is the head of a California museum. Another was a real estate agent and now is VP for one of the country's largest realtors. So, they didn't do too badly...and still had a CSUDH MBA. For me, I moved into management but have been busy trying to stay in school and be employable.

For me, I would say middle class is likely in the range of 70K/yr. It's relative to where one would live, though. My area is more expensive than many. I know some of the people doing manufacturing work in a few small towns in this area and I bet they can't make better than 12/hr. I don't know how they do it. Housing costs are not that low in their area and they are getting the overflow from here. Even if they purchased a manufactured home the cost is likely to be huge for them to the point that they cannot build savings. And...most of these guys barely have any decent health insurance, if they have any at all.

 

Not sure why this is posted here. Having said that what's the alternative? What does job preparation and hard work have to do with "corporate greed" anyway? A person can start their own company. That is the true "American Dream".

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/latimests/20051002/ts_latimes/filmmakersaresweptawaybyromania

She might start with her own industry.