I Found the Vanishing Middle Class!

So I’ve heard the income inequality crowd like Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and the Grand Old Leader Hillary Clinton prattle on about the vanishing middle class in America. Well I have very good news- I found the missing. Each and every one of them was at the mall all weekend.

Seriously if the middle class is disappearing why is it I drove in circles for 20 minutes to find any parking spot. Not a good spot near the door- no I was looking for any parking spot. I finally found one a couple hundred yards away.

So I made the 5 minute walk into the mall and found stores packed and long lines at the registers.

I gave it some thought. When I grew up I remember a lot of rusted out old cars. Houses of my friends had drafts in winter that were more like wind tunnels. We played outside as kids and played board games or found something else to do inside. Sometimes we would even- gasp- read!!! Today everyone seems to have a new or newer car, a new cell phone, a laptop, cable TV and cable internet, a boat, a riding lawnmower. I didn’t even realize riding lawnmowers existed until I was in my 20’s. People today have more luxuries than at any time in human history. We live longer healthier lives than at any time in human history. And these luxuries are not reserved for the so called one percenters as the disingenuous main stream media would lead you to believe.

I know there are people struggling today and there are kids that need more to eat but it is pretty damn clear to me that these facts are not changed by social programs- in fact the opposite seems to be true. Lyndon Johnson signed the Great Society legislation in the mid 60’s but the poverty rate today remains unchanged in a half century. There are fewer seniors living in poverty than there were in the 1960’s but have been replaced by kids. The definition of poverty is also different than it was say in Steinbeck’s day. I am not dismissing the agony found today in back alleys and on back roads however. Poverty and hunger is real and we must endeavor to keep fighting to make sure people eat and are looked after.

The real solution to reducing poverty and building the middle class is the free market capitalist system that has driven America for decades. Government regulations, programs and guidelines have failed as they always have and always will. The biggest losers however are the millions of people living below the poverty line in America.

My wish this Christmas season is for government to get out of the way- less regulation and more opportunities for people to start businesses and employ more people and give more people a chance to go to bed with a full belly.

Socialism, Liberalism, Marxism, Communism and all of the progressive persuasions have failed humanity each and every time. Right now it is failing in America but for now the Middle Class is not lost- it is alive and well, it is at the mall- but it could be lost if we continue down the road of policies that have failed over the centuries.