The Plot to Destroy the Middle Class

There's a growing body of evidence that the American middle class has been declining for decades. It used to be true that Americans had the best standard of living and that American blue collar workers lived better than the white collar workers in the rest of the world. Now that's no longer true, with persistent unemployment and rising costs of just about everything from housing to healthcare. The prevailing economic theory which is just to let the rich get richer at everybody's expense will only make matters worse.

In other advanced countries it is the middle class that has always supported the welfare state. In those countries people realize that government has a role in maintaining social equality. In the US on the other hand, the "Age of Affluence" during the fifties and sixties convinced most middle class americans that they didn't need a welfare state. The made it possible for right wing propagandists to spread lies and distortions about the welfare state and even to turn the word "welfare" into a pejorative term.

In reality the age of affluence came to an end during the recession of 1974-75. It's been downhill ever since for most Americans with economic and social stagnation making it harder for people to get ahead or even maintain their standards of living. Yet people continue to hold to a mentality of "affluence" even though fewer and fewer people enjoy it. We no longer have a system of class but of caste; social mobility is only possible for a few members of the upper middle class who manage to move into the upper class (like Mark Zuckerberg).

Why the American middle class allowed this to happen to them? Partly because it's difficult for people to change their way of thinking.