if seneca fell in the woods 2 of 2

IF SENECA FELL IN THE WOODS 2

We left off asking what the Seneca Cliff moment was when the middle class died.  It was already weakened to the point it was a zombie, shuffling about under a burden of lifetime debt, zero home equity, lost pensions ( don’t forget the corporations and Unions offshored pensions to the workers back in the ‘80’s, giving the illusion of increased worker productivity [ just like Chinese manufacturing gave that illusion in the 90’s and replacing jobs with the Internet and the housing boom did so in the Oughts.  Since the ‘08 implosion it was the central bank purchase of corporate stocks ].  You will lose your 401k soon enough ) and no job security.

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My contention was that ObamaCare killed the middle class.  The reason I believe this is the case is not because health care was the only benefit left ( although it was-but then, weren’t we used to losing everything over a lifetime anyway? ), but because this locked in the cost spiral, which met the wage decline, and there was no longer anything left to cut back on to meet this increased tax.  The middle class has been battling for its survival for two generations now, and every time it found a solution to the problem, that very solution locked in the next problem which was compounded.  It simply just ran out of solutions.  Kind of like the civilization collapse itself.

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So, this isn’t really about the middle class.  If you thought there was any hope for it thirty years ago you weren’t paying attention.  It is about another Seneca Cliff nobody noticed.  I’ll wager you a jelly filled donut that almost nobody knows that their economic class/culture is dead ( right.  You downsize to a “tiny house”.  Which is WAY overpriced because you bring the same Keeping Up With The Jones’ fight of the peacock feather middle class aesthetic with you.  So you stay on the wage slave debt peon hamster wheel.  You poor deluded idiot.  You really are clueless ).

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Before, the slow death by cancer ( no, not the usual suspect of the central bank.  The dependency on petroleum ) of the middle class was “treated” by the slow progression of less bad choices.  Second income.  More debt.  Less children.  No savings.  There was always a way to slightly increase income or somewhat save money from other expenses.  With the White House Negro Muslim, after following his instructions to stop friggin playing golf for two damn seconds and bail out the banker held insurance industry, mandatory health care was the next newest problem that simply wasn’t treatable. 

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You cannot trim the budget when your medical tax increases 20% a year.  Not when rent has doubled in the last decade ( another banker fiasco, rubber stamped by the FedGov ).  Not when unemployment is above Great Depression levels.  Not when a third of the grain crop going to ethanol increases food costs.  Not when there are no jobs without a college degree and that degree now exceeds the cost of a home twenty years ago.  Not when cars now cost what a college degree does.  In short, medical was just the straw that broke the camels back.

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Remember the fuss the left raised when the Death Panels were mentioned?  Here’s a thought for you.  Be poor, and see where that gets you trying to stay alive.  We all have heard of the broke South American city selling the public water company to a private entity, and the poor being unable to get enough water.  That is where we are today with health care.  Because there is little the American public wants to stay out of corporate hands.  Not that socialism would help, because that is always a casualty in a downturn, but corporatism is obviously no answer unless you are part pf the 9% Straw Boss Class.

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So, what are the former middle class doing?  Just doubling down on what used to work.  Getting further and further in debt.  Trying to work more.  Both fundamentally flawed strategies in an economic collapse.  And I put very little blame on status seeking or lifestyle choice.  How much choice is there?  Everything that you do has been monetized.  You can’t work without the high debt of college.  You can’t work without allowing the job to dictate your location.  Which is a multiple choice.  Close to the ghetto to save a little money, or further away for double the price.  The elite love uppity ghetto dwellers.  It helps real estate inflation.

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You can’t work without paying too much mortgage or college debt, or pay too much for transportation, and when you do work you get a medical insurance plan that equals your house payment ( and that is just the insurance itself.  Try saving for the deductible, or the co-pay ).  Even for the long suffering middle class, it is literally unaffordable.  The average scum wage worker cannot rent, and the average middle class worker cannot afford the taxes.  When you make MORE than the median national wage, you STILL cannot afford rent, a car payment AND medical, all at the same time.

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The middle class lifestyle has turned into a prison sentence.  You can squeak by, barely making ends meet, able to increase your debt whenever there is a car repair ( which becomes more and more likely as quality drops like a stone ) or a doctors visit, but it doesn’t take long before you are financially underwater.  Say, by the time you are in your mid thirties.  Then what?  My middle class parents solved the problem by staying in debt for a mortgage past their point of death, and continue to work, by going from professional to monkey jobs, well into their seventies ( and that is with THREE pensions ).

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Wow.  That sounds like just the kind of lifestyle I want!  Where do I sign up?  Okay, I suppose there is a bit of unwillingness to give up a lifestyle.  With my parents, though, it just seems they literally cannot comprehend that what was true all their lives is no longer so.  I imagine they are like most folks, not buying the propaganda because they are stupid or lazy, but because that is their reality.  Their preconceived notions are validated.  Isn’t that what propaganda is, anyway?  Tell the rubes what they want to hear.  Why do you think Something For Nothing scams still work? 

END ( today's related link http://amzn.to/2EXBqNs )

 

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