US corporations are figuring out that they don't need an American middle class

Getting by Without the Middle Class


— The big mystery in the United States today is why the job crisis is not at the center of the political and economic debate. After all, the numbers — and the human tragedies they reflect — could not be bleaker.

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Yet the debate in Washington is focused on deficit reduction, rather than job creation. The news media are following the same playbook. A recent database analysis by The National Journal found that over the past two years, the leading newspapers in the United States had dramatically shifted their attention from unemployment to the deficit and were now publishing more than three times as many stories about the budget as they were about jobs.

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But the reality may be even more chilling: Perhaps U.S. business is learning to get by just fine, thank you, without middle-class U.S. consumers. And while that may be good news for chief executives and shareholders, it could be the beginning of a new and socially wrenching political logic that leaves the great American middle behind.

Wall Street, which is paid for smarts, not sentiment, has this figured out. In a newspaper interview this month, Robert C. Doll, chief equity strategist at BlackRock, the largest money manager in the world, pointed out that the fortunes of U.S. companies and the fortunes of the country as a whole were diverging: “The U.S. stock market and the U.S. economy are increasingly different animals.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/10/us/10iht-letter10.html

That's what all those anti-globalization demonstrations have been about. For years.

I think it was in the late 70s, just about the time I first started working. Can't have a middle class without a manufacturing base. We're told we can but it's not happening.

That's when they seriously started under Bush what continues today.

Ross Perot, Predicting the Future for America's Working Class
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkgx1C_S6ls&feature=player_embedded



Who will STAND and FIGHT for THIS American Majority?
You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their EXCUSES.

high buck buyers that must be catered to, but the majority of products are purshased by the middle class. Walmart and their like will always exist but without the middle class the majority of retailers will cease to exist. I disagree with you that they've figured it out. If that's the conclusion they can to, they're wrong and they'll all die!

buyers. That means at the level of China, India, South and Central America etc. etc.

US buyers aren't the drivers anymore. Global Corps are expanding their definition of "middle class" and they've long since figured out the plutocracy of the US market (ie.that nobody here cares about the US middle class).

Clinton talked about using trade as a way to "raise up" third world countries to Western standards, but now it is clear that it is really about lowering America's standards. The vast majority of American companies do not need American workers anymore -- manufacturing, skilled labor, tech, white collar -- all that can be done by anyone, anywhere in the world and by those who can do it cheaper. And with all these new worldwide consumers of the now cheap American goods, who the hell needs an American Middle Class? The rich will always have their luxury market, and the Americans who are left will have all the glorious cheap American-made-in-corporate-name-only stuff to buy.

The only jobs left for Americans (for now) are those that require hands-on, in person labor and services. Hell, fuck tech work, become a damn plumber - your prospects are much better.

the pie serves 6 nicely..but when 14 show up..well you get the idea..

the "middle class" that is beginning elsewhere will be cheaper to accommodate, and the people will not be as demanding, since they are arriving at a place they have never been before and have only dreamed of.. they will be less critical.

they are gaining as we all are losing.. the only winners are the corporations who get tax breaks for being an "American" company, but who do the bulk of their "biddness" in places more "welcoming" to them.. Those places are where we were in the 60's...right down to their political boldness.. they are poised to move up..and we will only be left beside the road after being dumped off for complaining.

"Middle Class" in India or China or Vietnam is far away from the same in our country.

"...and we will only be left beside the road after being dumped off for complaining."

I think that train has left. :( Our unemployment rates are testament to that.

Can't start soon enough for me. Set the scaffold up on Wall Street.

A strong middle class ensures strong sales for their goods and services. Although the country may seem to be awash with millionaires, there aren't enough of them to make up for the hole left by the disappearing middle class.

China, India, Brazil.

whats left out is corporations have relied heavily on corporate welfare since the 80's, without the corporate welfare few corporations would have survived the 80's. What corporations did and are now doing by getting rid of the workers is a short term gain in profits but eventually once US workers can't afford products the corporations will start losing profits because no country consumes more then the US. Other countries still rely on repair shops where as US citizens buy and throw away. Part of that comes from todays products needing specialized tools in order to repair but American's have an uncanny ability to find ways around that problem when push comes to shove. Without American consumerism and tax give aways to corporations the corporations will find themselves strapped for cash. That is what is behind the big 3 woes, fewer people are able to afford new auto's, they were able to turn a profit but without high paying jobs they will find themselves with fewer and fewer customers, it is just a matter of time.

there is no middle class. Union Busting is a major
gift to corporations and business. No Labor standards
mean you can pay what wish, give as many or as few
benefits as possible.

...and the big corporations want to make endless profits in a global market. American
workers want fair wages, health care and to retire with dignity with a pension and a
401k. Global corporations scoff at these demands. Why pay Americans decent wages and
benefits, when 12 year old children in India, China and Korea will work 18 hours a day
in a rat-infested factory for $2 a day?

The corporations are only profit driven. They don't give a shit about people. People
are objects. The American dream is now outdated.

Because corporations are global and focused only on profits--there is no incentive to
prop up America or to keep the country flourishing. We are just one "market" and frankly--we
are not very business friendly. We want fair wages and we want safe working conditions and
health care. We're a liability to most global corporations now.

We are sinking slowly. And no one in power cares. The corporations run it all and these
corporations have purchased themselves a nice player in their game--the U.S. government. It
helps to rid them of oversight and regulation--and also provides them with tax incentives to
ship jobs overseas. Our politicians are in their pockets--giving them whatever the hell they
want.

The U.S will continue to sink because today's and tomorrow's power brokers do not care about
America nor its workers--who are perceived as spoiled brats because they want more than $3
a day in pay and healthcare.

Good luck to us all.

talked about this when he was running for president.

the so-called "American middle class" has mostly always been, in reality, the working class. Rebranding it "middle class" is a bit of political sleight-of-hand that has served to mostly destroy any genuine class-consciousness in America and to severely undermine the chances of any sort of leftist/socialist political movement from the start. By referring to a mostly nonexistent "middle class", all you're doing is perpetuating a harmful myth.

The SYSTEM needs to be overthrown. Worldwide.

it's stupid.

allegiance to any particular country.

Thanks for the thread, Liberal_in_LA.

This is too important.

we are going to be, at best, reduced to serfdom or, more likely, fed into a sausage grinder owned by the Koch bros and the banksters.

They are being brain washed by the corporate media and RW talk radio to the contrary.

foreign sourced profits