{"id":398155,"date":"2019-03-06T00:42:09","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T23:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/what-killed-the-middle-class\/"},"modified":"2019-03-06T00:42:09","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T23:42:09","slug":"what-killed-the-middle-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/what-killed-the-middle-class\/","title":{"rendered":"What Killed the Middle Class?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rounding up the usual suspects won\u2019t restore a vibrant middle class.<\/i><\/p>\n

What killed the middle class?<\/b>\u00a0The answer may well echo an Agatha Christie mystery: rather than there being one guilty party, it may be that each of the suspects participated in the demise of the middle class.<\/p>\n

If you doubt the middle class has expired, please consider the evidence:<\/b><\/p>\n

The Middle Class Is Shrinking Everywhere \u2014 In Chicago It\u2019s Almost Gone<\/a><\/p>\n

Wealth concentration returning to \u2018levels last seen during the Roaring Twenties,\u2019 according to new research<\/a><\/p>\n

People tend to self-report viewing themselves as middle class, but by the standards of previous eras, they lack the basics of middle class prosperity.<\/b>\u00a0I laid out 12 core characteristics of classic middle class security in\u00a0What Does It Take To Be Middle Class?<\/a>\u00a0(December 5, 2013)
\n\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/span>
\nGet a Job, Build a Rea…<\/a><\/span><\/span>
\nCharles Hugh Smith<\/span>
\nCheck Amazon for Pricing.<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/a><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

By these standards, perhaps one-third of American households have the same security and assets as previous generations who identified themselves as middle class:\u00a0Honey, I Shrunk the Middle Class: Perhaps 1\/3 of Households Qualify<\/a>\u00a0(December 28, 2015).<\/p>\n

The ten primary drivers of the erosion of the middle class are:<\/b><\/p>\n

1. The shifting of pension and healthcare costs and risks from the state and employers to employees. (see chart below)<\/p>\n

2. The decline of safe, secure high-yielding investments as central banks have driven savers into risky, crash-prone assets such as stocks and junk bonds.<\/p>\n

3. The decline of scarcity value in college diplomas that were once the ticket to middle class security.\u00a0How Many Slots Are Open in the Upper Middle Class? Not As Many As You Might Think<\/a>\u00a0(March 30, 2015).<\/p>\n

4. The inexorable rise in big-ticket costs: higher education,…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rounding up the usual suspects won\u2019t restore a vibrant middle class. What killed the middle class?\u00a0The answer may well echo an Agatha Christie mystery: rather than there being one guilty party, it may be that each of the suspects participated in the demise of the middle class. If you doubt the middle class has expired, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-398155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398155\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}