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Old 10-17-2014, 03:04 PM   #23
jgbackes
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Join Date: May 2007
Location: San Jose, CA - USA
Posts: 1,314
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Quote:
Originally Posted by airdale View Post
<snip>

Just food for thought... That was then this is now....Are you better today than you were 5, 10, 15, 20 or 30, years ago?... The answer is worse!
The answer for many may be worse, but for me it is far better.

I have a telephone I can carry in my pocket. I have a Huge flat television set. I don't record onto tapes anymore. My car (huge) gets 25 MPG. My insulin pump is far better than taking 4 shots a day. Titanium is keeping my back together. In 1977 the interest rate on my home loan was 16%. My daughter is stationed in Korea but I can regularly have a video chat with the grand-kids.

In 1977 as a member of the USAF my total monthly income was $512.10 today that same grade/time in service makes $1,918.80.

Costs in 1977:
Cost of a new home: $48,000.00
Median Household Income: $12,686.00
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.13
Cost of a gallon of regular gas: $0.59
Cost of a dozen eggs: $0.84
Cost of a gallon of Milk: $1.65

Today I just checked Safeway a gallon of Milk is $3.99

I don't think there is a loss of the middle class, I think they are just doing different jobs. If the middle class is gone, who is buying all the iPad, iPhones, and Macs? It can just be 1%ers , far more than 1% of the population has purchased these devices.

Sure the very wealthy are getting even wealthy. But every dollar they spend on stuff employees the people selling the stuff to them. Think of how many employees FedEx and UPS have put on since 1977 aren't they all middle class workers? Apple, Microsoft, Comcast, GE, GM... All of them employee people that are middle class.

Let's stop comparing middle class with union jobs, they are not the same. Let's say that every family that can afford more than one television, more than one cell phone, and more than one car is middle class. That number is MUCH larger today that it was 40 years ago.

You are correct union jobs are going away, but so are jobs of people making buggy whips. Unions had their place and so did buggy whip workers. It's over, move on. We are moving (like it or not) into a society where the Government not the Unions provide health insurance, pay our pensions, set maximum work hours, determine maximum hours, improve working conditions.

It's a changing world, always has been.

jeff
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