OT: Rust Belt's Economic Anxiety

[Warspite]

The last time i was in michigan i didnt see any middle class houses. When people lose there house they rent instead of buying a house in the hood.

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[Manocad]

The last time i was in michigan i didnt see any middle class houses. When people lose there house they rent instead of buying a house in the hood.

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Maybe you should visit more often. All the new home construction in Michigan is middle to upper class houses.

If the middle class was being eliminated the average household income would be dropping--it's not. This is not rocket science.

[mattao313]

The middle class is shrinking the loss of manufacturing jobs, decrease in pay, and technological advancement has made it this way. Those manufacturing jobs that families could live off of comfortably are moving or cutting employees. The only thing growing is rich people and poor people.

[Uncle Mxy]

If WNBA players started getting paid 77% of what the NBA players were, with a WNBA team for every NBA team, would NBA players be getting paid what they are today?

Yeah, that's a silly question I probably wouldn't have asked if this weren't a sports board.. But, I think any discussion of "squeezing of the middle class" and "economic anxiety" over time that doesn't account for that spike in the raw employment numbers doesn't really give the whole picture. 50% more women (adjusted for population growth) work now than they did in the 70s. A couple generations ago, the middle class dad had his middle class job, his wife at home wearing the pearls cooking dinner, and 2.3 kids. That entire family would've been construed as "middle class". These days, odds are that family would be considered poor/lower-middle-class -- a notch down, Disproportionate historical job growth has been in work that are more about supplemental income than traditional primary breadwinner, even as more single-parent families (mostly mothers) emerged who need that.

[BadMofoPimp]

If WNBA players started getting paid 77% of what the NBA players were, with a WNBA team for every NBA team, would NBA players be getting paid what they are today?

Yeah, that's a silly question I probably wouldn't have asked if this weren't a sports board.. But, I think any discussion of "squeezing of the middle class" and "economic anxiety" over time that doesn't account for that spike in the raw employment numbers doesn't really give the whole picture. 50% more women (adjusted for population growth) work now than they did in the 70s. A couple generations ago, the middle class dad had his middle class job, his wife at home wearing the pearls cooking dinner, and 2.3 kids. That entire family would've been construed as "middle class". These days, odds are that family would be considered poor/lower-middle-class -- a notch down, Disproportionate historical job growth has been in work that are more about supplemental income than traditional primary breadwinner, even as more single-parent families (mostly mothers) emerged who need that.

Also, back then most homes were single car families and didn't have cell phone bills or cable boxes for every person in the family or car insurance for multiple family members and most importantly, they had cheaper health insurance..

[Manocad]

The middle class is shrinking the loss of manufacturing jobs, decrease in pay, and technological advancement has made it this way. Those manufacturing jobs that families could live off of comfortably are moving or cutting employees. The only thing growing is rich people and poor people.

Bernie, is that you?

[Manocad]

If WNBA players started getting paid 77% of what the NBA players were, with a WNBA team for every NBA team, would NBA players be getting paid what they are today?

Yeah, that's a silly question I probably wouldn't have asked if this weren't a sports board.. But, I think any discussion of "squeezing of the middle class" and "economic anxiety" over time that doesn't account for that spike in the raw employment numbers doesn't really give the whole picture. 50% more women (adjusted for population growth) work now than they did in the 70s. A couple generations ago, the middle class dad had his middle class job, his wife at home wearing the pearls cooking dinner, and 2.3 kids. That entire family would've been construed as "middle class". These days, odds are that family would be considered poor/lower-middle-class -- a notch down, Disproportionate historical job growth has been in work that are more about supplemental income than traditional primary breadwinner, even as more single-parent families (mostly mothers) emerged who need that.

Also, back then most homes were single car families and didn't have cell phone bills or cable boxes for every person in the family or car insurance for multiple family members and most importantly, they had cheaper health insurance..

Bingo. What we call "poor" now is how I and everyone else in my neighborhood grew up.

[Uncle Mxy]

Right, and there's a big reason for that -- middle class got redefined as more double-income parent situations (including single mom working + separate father working) emerged. As families have more money to spend, stuff starts costing proportionately more (and disproportionately more with education), and it gets to where your family need to do more paying work than ever to keep up. For women who rightly want pay equity, assume that at least half the time, that means the man's salary is cut and everyone gets paid a crap wage, relatively speaking (or as some economist would call it -- a stagnant middle class).

Cell phones aren't such a great example, though. What it cost for one landline in the good old days gets you a (cheap) cell phone/plan for many family members now. Healthcare's disproportionate growth in costs is tied more to other things. Quite frankly, if someone found a cost-free cure for cancer today, we couldn't afford people living longer. And, it's more likely that we find a cure for some specific cancer that costs a ton and provides a costly-but-miserable existence for an extra year. Free market economic theory doesn't work well here.