Comments on: The Disappearance of the Middle Class https://habitablezone.com/2012/07/04/the-disappearance-of-the-middle-class/ Tue, 07 Apr 2026 19:18:10 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Jody https://habitablezone.com/2012/07/04/the-disappearance-of-the-middle-class/#comment-16184 Jody Thu, 05 Jul 2012 15:41:02 +0000 http://habitablezone.com/?p=17710#comment-16184 However ugly, there is a class system. There is the poor, the middle class, and the affluent. Of course there are varying levels in each class, but none the less, it appears to me that there is a keeping up with the *Jones* that has evolved. There is even a meme..if I use that term correctly..*Jonesing* for something. The class lines have been blurred with availability to what everyone else has, and getting it has never been easier. No one wants to spend years saving up for something. They want it now...there is that damned *I deserve* mentality. Yours truly is just as guilty. This has infiltrated every aspect of our existence with the dubious aid of TV..internet..books...magazines, etc. This is all well and good...and I am an advocate of consumerism. Hell, I will be the first to admit it is fun to spend money. It has gotten out of control, obviously. I have noticed recently that people are being more cautious. It is gonna take more than that. It is going to take years for ourselves to deprogram our proclivities of want vs. need. It is a cycle. We will overcome. I, for one have learned my lesson..fast...and hard. Shame on me for taking so long. My gluttony took on a life of its own. My children do not know what saving up for means...hell how can they? I didn't. I started out that way. I saved 2,000 for central heat and air of our new to us house back in '79. I saved 4,000 of my babysitting money for wood floors. I did it! I am squirreling away 20 bucks a week now. For what? eh...doesn't matter. But the fact is it felt good to wait. It feels good to save up for. What the hell happened? However ugly, there is a class system. There is the poor, the middle class, and the affluent. Of course there are varying levels in each class, but none the less, it appears to me that there is a keeping up with the *Jones* that has evolved. There is even a meme..if I use that term correctly..*Jonesing* for something.
The class lines have been blurred with availability to what everyone else has, and getting it has never been easier. No one wants to spend years saving up for something. They want it now…there is that damned *I deserve* mentality. Yours truly is just as guilty.
This has infiltrated every aspect of our existence with the dubious aid of TV..internet..books…magazines, etc. This is all well and good…and I am an advocate of consumerism. Hell, I will be the first to admit it is fun to spend money. It has gotten out of control, obviously.

I have noticed recently that people are being more cautious. It is gonna take more than that. It is going to take years for ourselves to deprogram our proclivities of want vs. need. It is a cycle. We will overcome. I, for one have learned my lesson..fast…and hard. Shame on me for taking so long. My gluttony took on a life of its own. My children do not know what saving up for means…hell how can they? I didn’t. I started out that way. I saved 2,000 for central heat and air of our new to us house back in ’79.
I saved 4,000 of my babysitting money for wood floors. I did it! I am squirreling away 20 bucks a week now. For what? eh…doesn’t matter. But the fact is it felt good to wait. It feels good to save up for. What the hell happened?

]]> By: Jody https://habitablezone.com/2012/07/04/the-disappearance-of-the-middle-class/#comment-16183 Jody Thu, 05 Jul 2012 15:14:14 +0000 http://habitablezone.com/?p=17710#comment-16183 It is our fault...that I am sure of. It is a cycle though. We went from total gestapo to total permissiveness in raising children. It was not done out of malice, but I believe it was done out of fear. It will pendulum back into the middle. Hopefully we have learned our lesson. *While I agree that the bottom line with our politicians is the money... we helped(and by that I mean generations of trial and error) create this monster. It is up to us to find solutions but it's gonna be a long road. It is our fault…that I am sure of. It is a cycle though. We went from total gestapo to total permissiveness in raising children. It was not done out of malice, but I believe it was done out of fear. It will pendulum back into the middle. Hopefully we have learned our lesson.

*While I agree that the bottom line with our politicians is the money… we helped(and by that I mean generations of trial and error) create this monster. It is up to us to find solutions but it’s gonna be a long road.

]]> By: ER https://habitablezone.com/2012/07/04/the-disappearance-of-the-middle-class/#comment-16180 ER Thu, 05 Jul 2012 00:41:49 +0000 http://habitablezone.com/?p=17710#comment-16180 Take it, sister. May it serve you well. Take it, sister. May it serve you well.

]]> By: Jody https://habitablezone.com/2012/07/04/the-disappearance-of-the-middle-class/#comment-16179 Jody Thu, 05 Jul 2012 00:17:44 +0000 http://habitablezone.com/?p=17710#comment-16179 I don't see it as political either. I wouldn't be fascinated with it if it were. She is very calm, very reasoned in her presentation. I can relate to it. It is helping me understand why Mom always said "They say we were too permissive in raising you kids." Not knowing any difference, I never understood. I am beginning to. <blockquote> Eating a thing because it tastes good, or drinking a thing because it tastes good, is doing a thing that gratifies the sensual! Mothers, if you begin that way...what are you going to do fifteen years later when the primordial urge gets into that young person's blood and he looks out at the world and turns to the right and to the left for other forms of sense gratification" John B. Watson</blockquote> <blockquote>That was in the late teens and early twenties. A dogma for raising children for years. Babies were to be picked up only at scheduled feeding times other than that they learned to cry until they learned the wisdom of self control. B. E.</blockquote> Oy! She goes on to tell of the auto pilot bullshit of the no affection regimen. I think the permissiveness of the fifties and sixties were inevitable!!!! It had to happen. We needed it to happen. I am really enjoying this book ER. I don’t see it as political either. I wouldn’t be fascinated with it if it were. She is very calm, very reasoned in her presentation. I can relate to it. It is helping me understand why Mom always said “They say we were too permissive in raising you kids.” Not knowing any difference, I never understood. I am beginning to.

Eating a thing because it tastes good, or drinking a thing because it tastes good, is doing a thing that gratifies the sensual! Mothers, if you begin that way…what are you going to do fifteen years later when the primordial urge gets into that young person’s blood and he looks out at the world and turns to the right and to the left for other forms of sense gratification” John B. Watson

That was in the late teens and early twenties. A dogma for raising children for years. Babies were to be picked up only at scheduled feeding times other than that they learned to cry until they learned the wisdom of self control. B. E.

Oy! She goes on to tell of the auto pilot bullshit of the no affection regimen. I think the permissiveness of the fifties and sixties were inevitable!!!! It had to happen. We needed it to happen.

I am really enjoying this book ER.

]]> By: bowser https://habitablezone.com/2012/07/04/the-disappearance-of-the-middle-class/#comment-16176 bowser Wed, 04 Jul 2012 22:16:43 +0000 http://habitablezone.com/?p=17710#comment-16176 Do you aspire to ultra-wealth, do you think you will become one of the mega-rich? You are being thrown under the bus just like the rest of us, only you imagine yourself as a trustee, or one of the inmates with special privileges. Do you aspire to ultra-wealth, do you think you will become one of the mega-rich?
You are being thrown under the bus just like the rest of us, only you imagine yourself as a trustee, or one of the inmates with special privileges.

]]> By: ER https://habitablezone.com/2012/07/04/the-disappearance-of-the-middle-class/#comment-16174 ER Wed, 04 Jul 2012 21:59:35 +0000 http://habitablezone.com/?p=17710#comment-16174 So I may be mistaken. But I don't recall it being a particularly political book. I remember it more as a sociological study, how peoples' relations to their families, their communities, and their work are influenced by psychological, economic and cultural values. And vice versa. Politics and economics must be included in the discussion, of course, and some subjectivity and opinion is inevitable, but I don't recall of any of Ehrenreich's books selling a political program. I do recall she had a leftist outlook, i.e., she felt that our day-to-day lives are governed by the clash and interaction of historical forces, not merely the conspiracies of evildoers trying to steal our freedoms. Not that there isn't a lot of that going on too! I may be mistaken, but I suspect TB never read it, or any Ehrenreich or any of her fellow lefty sociologists of the time. He didn't have to, he already knew what it was going to say and he already knew it had to be mistaken. There is a way to scientifically "test", the validity of Ehrenreich's theses, though. In the early 1990s, she wrote about how the middle class was going to psychologically react to a sudden erosion of its prosperity and influence. Well, that day is finally here, perhaps long delayed from when she initially predicted it, but everybody is certainly agreed about middle class decline now. So ask yourself as you read, did BE get it right when she wrote those words 20 years ago? She was making predictions. How well do they hold up? How accurately did they turn out? So I may be mistaken. But I don’t recall it being a particularly political book. I remember it more as a sociological study, how peoples’ relations to their families, their communities, and their work are influenced by psychological, economic and cultural values. And vice versa.

Politics and economics must be included in the discussion, of course, and some subjectivity and opinion is inevitable, but I don’t recall of any of Ehrenreich’s books selling a political program. I do recall she had a leftist outlook, i.e., she felt that our day-to-day lives are governed by the clash and interaction of historical forces, not merely the conspiracies of evildoers trying to steal our freedoms. Not that there isn’t a lot of that going on too!

I may be mistaken, but I suspect TB never read it, or any Ehrenreich or any of her fellow lefty sociologists of the time. He didn’t have to, he already knew what it was going to say and he already knew it had to be mistaken.

There is a way to scientifically “test”, the validity of Ehrenreich’s theses, though. In the early 1990s, she wrote about how the middle class was going to psychologically react to a sudden erosion of its prosperity and influence. Well, that day is finally here, perhaps long delayed from when she initially predicted it, but everybody is certainly agreed about middle class decline now. So ask yourself as you read, did BE get it right when she wrote those words 20 years ago? She was making predictions. How well do they hold up? How accurately did they turn out?

]]> By: ER https://habitablezone.com/2012/07/04/the-disappearance-of-the-middle-class/#comment-16173 ER Wed, 04 Jul 2012 21:22:53 +0000 http://habitablezone.com/?p=17710#comment-16173 The envious, reflexive and oh-so-prompt reaction from the right is as predictable as white on rice, ugly on ape, sour on grape and stink on shit. Read more Ehrenreich, and make up your own mind. She made a lot more sense 20 years ago than her critics do today, Monday morning, with the game over a long time ago. I've read Ehrenreich, and Packard, and many others like them for years, and to a very great extent based my life choices and career planning on their insights and ideas. I prepared for the world they predicted. I think I made the right choice. The hippies were right, you know? And now they're having the last laugh. The envious, reflexive and oh-so-prompt reaction from the right is as predictable as white on rice, ugly on ape, sour on grape and stink on shit.

Read more Ehrenreich, and make up your own mind. She made a lot more sense 20 years ago than her critics do today, Monday morning, with the game over a long time ago.

I’ve read Ehrenreich, and Packard, and many others like them for years, and to a very great extent based my life choices and career planning on their insights and ideas. I prepared for the world they predicted. I think I made the right choice.

The hippies were right, you know? And now they’re having the last laugh.

]]> By: Jody https://habitablezone.com/2012/07/04/the-disappearance-of-the-middle-class/#comment-16172 Jody Wed, 04 Jul 2012 20:52:03 +0000 http://habitablezone.com/?p=17710#comment-16172 Actually Tom I didn't get what you read. I got something else. I read that kids simply don't want to do what it takes to ensure a middle class. Deferred gratification as she calls it, is not their priority...so...as you say...a generation later, I keep belly aching that kids feel entitled, which to me is very similar. So...enter credit cards...and it begins... So, in conclusion, what is wrong with American is early potty training.;) Actually Tom I didn’t get what you read. I got something else. I read that kids simply don’t want to do what it takes to ensure a middle class. Deferred gratification as she calls it, is not their priority…so…as you say…a generation later, I keep belly aching that kids feel entitled, which to me is very similar.
So…enter credit cards…and it begins…

So, in conclusion, what is wrong with American is early potty training.;)

]]> By: TB https://habitablezone.com/2012/07/04/the-disappearance-of-the-middle-class/#comment-16170 TB Wed, 04 Jul 2012 20:26:41 +0000 http://habitablezone.com/?p=17710#comment-16170 <p>And yet, here we are, another generation later.</p> Somehow the kids grew up. It is a capital mistake to accept anything the Left has to say about the "middle class," "materialism," or "consumerism." Over the past century their ideology was unable to deliver the prosperity in the real world that it had promised. The result in a lot of cases was a massive "sour grapes" maneuver to discredit the very idea of material prosperity and the desire for it. The funny part is that those leftists who are the most famous for spouting this stuff are rarely living a low-priced lifestyle themselves, and usually in the U.S. instead of one of their socialist fantasy nations. Ehrenreich's house is in the Florida Keys, oceanfront, and worth over a million dollars. And yet, here we are, another generation later.

Somehow the kids grew up.

It is a capital mistake to accept anything the Left has to say about the “middle class,” “materialism,” or “consumerism.”

Over the past century their ideology was unable to deliver the prosperity in the real world that it had promised. The result in a lot of cases was a massive “sour grapes” maneuver to discredit the very idea of material prosperity and the desire for it.

The funny part is that those leftists who are the most famous for spouting this stuff are rarely living a low-priced lifestyle themselves, and usually in the U.S. instead of one of their socialist fantasy nations. Ehrenreich’s house is in the Florida Keys, oceanfront, and worth over a million dollars.

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