Stuck in the Middle With You

I am not bitter at all, ok maybe just a little bit, but mostly I’m not bitter about being in the middle class, I take a certain amount of pride in my middle class status. Don’t get me wrong, if I happen to have the winning power ball ticket in my wallet right now I wouldn’t turn it down, like Arthur in the classic movie, I’m no dummy and I’ll take the money. But the point here is that I don’t aspire to be rich, and I’m thankful that I’m not poor, I also realize from my reading and learning about other cultures and civilizations how fortunate I am to be in the middle class in a modern, industrial, western society.

I don’t begrudge the wealthy and I don’t look down on the poor, but my values and ways of viewing the world comes from the perspective of being in the middle class, and I rather like that. In my world view, the middle class are the people that get up every morning and put in an honest day’s work, we pay our taxes, we generally follow the rules and live up to what is expected of us. We raise our families and are loyal to our spouses and friends, in short we pretty much do things the right way. The middle class is the heart and soul of our economy and of our culture. We spend money, sometimes more than we should be spending, but we are the ones going to the malls and restaurants and movie theatres and buying the stuff that helps to sustain economic growth.

We don’t generally complain too much, although that is certainly starting to change, and that is a good thing to my way of thinking because for too long we have been the silent class, sort of the societal equivalent of the middle child. All we really ask is that we get the chance to pursue and live our mostly humble version of the American dream, that we have the opportunity to do work that has some meaning, and that the work we do can allow us to raise our families in a secure and comfortable neighborhood, send our kids to quality schools, and have access to shopping and restaurants and outdoor activities. In short we’re not looking to live the life of luxury but we don’t want to be touched by poverty either.

We have always been inspired and motivated by the chance to pursue this dream and by the opportunity of upward mobility. It has been the story of the American middle class for well over a century now, and up until recently was something that we could count on in the same way that you could count on rising home values and stock values, or the ability to get a loan from the bank to buy a new car every few years or to buy a bigger house in a better neighborhood. Of course, all of this upward mobility has come to a screeching halt, and it is anybody’s guess as to whether or not this is a temporary blip on the chart or a more permanent and fundamental shift in the way our society and economy are structured.

One thing is for sure however, the middle class has stopped moving forward in most ways that can be measured, we seem to be perpetually stuck in the middle, between the poor, whose situation is never enviable and the rich, who despite taking a hit recently still enjoy the benefits and privileges of society at a disproportionate rate. The workers who have been both subsidizing the poor with the taxes we pay and enabling the fruits of the wealthy with the labor we produce have been getting squeezed for a few decades now. No doubt this economic recession has many causes, but I am convinced that one of the most fundamental causes is that the big squeeze has finally caught up with our economy as a whole.

Look, let’s be honest and admit that the middle class has also played an active role in its own demise. We have bought into the whole notion of consumerism, believing that we had to have more of everything and we had to have it as soon as possible. We’ve consciously rejected the philosophy of our parents and grandparents generations of saving first and buying later for a buy now and pay later mentality, and we are now literally and figuratively paying the price for many of those decisions. But we are also the victims of stagnant wages and increasing costs for basic necessities like food, gas, and utilities. Somebody has been getting rich over the last few decades, but it sure hasn’t been the common man and woman, we have been treading water and when you factor in the aforementioned inflation and rising health care costs we’ve actually fallen behind.

We propped ourselves up artificially thanks to inflated stock portfolios and home values, and with easy access to credit. We convinced ourselves that we could handle the additional debt because we could always cash in on our stock holdings or on our homes, but now that those fall backs are no longer there and the tap on easy credit has been shut off. As a consequence we’re out of options to keep up with the demand for an ever increasing standard of living. But it’s not just us that is up the proverbial creek without a paddle. The businesses that rely on our spending, and the poor that rely on our taxes to subsidize their rents and food and child care, and the rest of the world that relies on us to buy all their imported goods is also in the same boat.
As the middle class goes, so goes the nation, and as the wealthiest nation in the world with the most vibrant middle class, to a large degree so goes the world at large. The problem is, most of the policy makers and economic elites failed to realize this or just didn’t care so long as they were getting their big bonuses and generous stock option packages and getting reelected to office. The joke is that there is a political party that truly represents the middle class, that the Republicans are for the rich and the Democrats are for the common folk.

That’s the big rouse that gets those who think they’ll become rich one day to vote for the GOP and those who see themselves as the little guy to vote for the Democrats, but the reality is that neither political party gives a damn and likely never will. Obama was elected in the hopes of being a different kind of politician, but so far his campaign rhetoric and promises have proved to be as empty as so many houses that have fallen into foreclosure. Looks nice from the outside, but inside is just a shell, and just like the markets, Obama’s stock is sinking fast. Just like the hard crash that comes when an economic bubble pops, watch for the disillusionment from the citizenry when they realize that Obama, the guy they fell for head over heels, is no different than every other politician in the history of politicians.

Speeches and cleverness don’t pay the bills or put food on the table, and while Americans are sometimes a little slow on the draw when it comes to figuring things out (see the Iraq War as an example) once they get it they get it, and they’re not generally too happy when they realize they’ve been had. Granted it’s still early in the game and I am still hoping that the person I voted for will show up to work, but it had better happen soon because my skepticism is increasing at a rather quick rate.

I don’t have any solutions on a grand scale, and I suppose it wouldn’t matter even if I did. I’m just a lowly paid public servant and last time I checked there aren’t any decision makers reading these columns I post on my blog. The reality is that we as citizens in a democracy really only have a say every two to four years, the rest of the time in between elections the governments that we elect are pretty much free to do whatever the heck they please. Likewise, as employees we don’t have any say in the policies that are carried out in our workplaces, we just keep showing up on time, doing our jobs as best as we can, and hope that the ax doesn’t fall on us.

The only thing that I can do personally is to become more responsible, and much more cautious about how I spend my money and how my wife and I manage our family finances, which we’ve done out of necessity. Getting on with less isn’t such a bad deal really, and I hope that myself and others like me can learn some valuable lessons out of all of this and that we take those lessons with us and don’t go off the deep end when the economy eventually rebounds, which at some point in the future it most likely will.

I’m not bitter, not really, and I like being in the middle class and living the life that I do. Which is a good thing, because like most of my fellow middle class Americans, we are where we are in life, and that’s not likely to change. So perhaps it’s time we learn to accept it and embrace our lives and what we stand for. At the same time we can call our government and our new president out for what they are, politicians who care more about the next election than whether or not their policies actually do anything to make our lives better. We can’t do much about it now, but I know that I for one won’t be taken in quite so easily when the next election comes around. Until then, I’ll keep living the good life as I see it, and enjoying every day with as much passion and enthusiasm as I can, which is something I can do even without a government stimulus package or bailout program.