| Who is really..."middle class?" | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jun 4 2012, 03:46 PM (102 Views) | |
| Joan Foster | Jun 4 2012, 03:46 PM Post #1 |
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"With significant proportions of those who live in poverty—as well as those who draw six-figure incomes—claiming the same middle-class designation, it ought to be obvious that they share common values that count as more important than economic circumstances. Many families struggling at the edge of survival (including, no doubt, many immigrant families) feel proud of practicing middle-class virtues, and feel confident those virtues will bring their ultimate financial reality more in line with their cultural aspirations. Many other Americans (like the famous “Millionaires Next Door” celebrated in a series of bestselling books) may have earned enough to leave bourgeois life behind but still they still choose to toil away at the daily grind, spending sparingly, attending church, saving for the future and otherwise honoring their middle class roots. Those roots feature a range of behaviors and characteristics—frugality, hard work, faith, marriage, personal accountability, respect for authority—more commonly associated with the conservative side of the political spectrum. In fact, those values have historically drawn contempt both from academic and media elites as well as the urban poor, who mock that segment for its timidity, materialism, and conformity. The suburbs—natural habitat for the middle-class species—regularly draw contempt in pop culture, derided by urban activists as greedy, bland, and soulless while New Class sophisticates shun a universe of SUVs, soccer leagues, and second mortgages. No one can mistake the way that Manhattan, exclusive enclave of the very rich and the very poor, looks down on the middle-class neighborhoods of Queens or Staten Island." snip And nothing offends those sensibilities more profoundly than profligate spending and runaway debt. In a memorable column about food-stamp fraud, Warren Kozak writes: “My grandmother did not serve on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. She did not have an MBA from Harvard. She never went to high school because she had to go to work to support her family. But she gave me an astute piece of financial advice when I was about to enter the world. ‘Never,’ she told me, ‘spend more than you earn’ and ‘always try and save a little something.’” Nearly every middle-class American has heard similar advice from a grandparent, parent, uncle, or godfather, and on this basis Mitt Romney might actually claim the advantage over his presidential rival when it comes to staying in touch with middle-class values. Despite their vast wealth, the Romneys famously live below their means, flying coach class when they use commercial airlines, with Mitt idiosyncratically ironing his own shirts in hotel rooms rather than sending them out to be pressed. During his early childhood, the candidate’s father (who never earned a college degree) struggled to make his way in business, while Obama’s parents were both globe-trotting, left-leaning academics who ignored financial considerations while pursuing their research and advanced degrees. For Romney, even the infamous dog-on-the-roof vacation was a long road trip in the family station wagon—the sort of car that a chic, sophisticated, big-city couple like the Obamas would scrupulously avoid. Even as a recent law-school graduate, young Barack managed to take Michelle on an exotic and expensive extended vacation in Bali. By his own account, he chose to launch his ambitious and costly state-senate campaigns before he’d made much dent in paying off tens of thousands of student loans—the sort of bold, arguably irresponsible move that defies the essence of bourgeois caution." http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/06/04/mitt-romney-s-advantage-square-frugal-identity.html Great article...and this is a potent tactic to take against our Arrogant Elitists currently throwing our money around and laughing our our values! |
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| Lodge Pro 345 | Jun 4 2012, 04:04 PM Post #2 |
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. How many families making 99 or 100k have less than two weeks pay in the bank? Even the people that have jobs are close to the edge. . |
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2:33 PM Jul 11