Income Inequality vs the middle class Pac Man analogy…

In the wake of the Wisconsin protests that seem to have spread across the rust belt - there appears to be a glimmer of hope that the public has finally awakened from their stupor of complacency.

This is in part happening because the props holding up the middle class have been knocked out from under them.  Easy access to credit - GONE!  How about cashing out some of the untapped equity in your home? You've gotta be kidding me - WHAT equity?

What is Income Inequality?

Income inequality  - which is a terrible buzz word for the decimation of the American middle class - is coming into its own in the American lexicon.  I prefer the Pac Man analogy which is far more vivid.  You can actually "see" the middle class getting eaten alive.

The fact was that for the past 10 years the so-called middle class "prosperity" was simply an illusion based on easy access to credit and inflated home prices.  The financial crisis of  2008 brought that to a screeching halt.

But income inequality has more to do with the elimination of high paying jobs with decent benefits for  90% of the nation in the midst of an income explosion in the top 1%.  The easy credit and soaring home values merely disguised a reality that the middle class was losing their financial footing with breathtaking speed.  Decent jobs were disappearing faster than the ice caps in the arctic.

Education isn't helping - even in STEM careers…

For those looking to a fine education to pull them out of the abyss - there is many a cautionary tale.  My advice - don't waste your time and money unless its an M.B.A. or a degree in finance.  Don't even think about pressing a degree in one of the STEM fields.     The hype hasn't lived up to reality.  A postgraduate degree in these fields can take years to achieve - but the time and expense often result in work that pulls long hours and little more than minimum wage.  I've met computer programmers that bag groceries and engineers that serve coffee.  I'm a molecular biologist who sells real estate.  Supply by far exceeds demand - or if demand exists it is so poorly compensated and the working conditions are so intolerable that its a non-starter.    Even finding a "hot" field is tricky as these sorts of fields can be highly cyclic.

The fallacy of Trickle-Down economics created income inequality…

Meanwhile, politicians are crawling all over themselves trying to please the wealthy. God forbid they be asked to pay one thin dime more in taxes.  After all, that might make them  "go away" and take their largesse of high-paying jobs for the middle class with them.

What drugs are people on when they come up with this stuff?  Seriously - what kind of mushrooms, crack, heroin or other controlled substances are required for someone have to actually believe that any of this has even a kernel of truth?

The wealthy aren't supplying the US middle class with well-paying jobs - they've been taking them off-shoring them to China and India by the millions.  There is nothing to suppose that they have any intention of doing so in the future.  Incentive after incentive has been given.  Taxes haven't been this low for the top earners since the last Robber Baron economy of the Gilded Age.  If tax incentives aren't working now - they aren't going to work later.  The reason for the off-shoring is pretty simple:  they have far more lucrative opportunities in abroad where they can pay 10 people for the price of one in the US.  Giving them tax breaks only starves the economy of badly needed revenue.  So why do it?

Their interests and the interests of the middle class are not the same - indeed they are at odds with each other and Americans need to smell that coffee perking.  It is my hope that the latest power-grab by ultra-conservatives may be a tipping point.  Perhaps they could convince social conservatives in the south that trickle-down works - but the rust belt is another story.  They simply grabbed power by fiat because they pretty much knew that was the only way things were going to go their way.  Trying to force their ideology into the northern states was probably a big mistake.

The inability to appropriately tax those who have benefitted the most will bring our country to its knees…

The fear of "offending" the monied elite has been taken to such extremes as to border on madness.   80% of the gains from the last 30 years have gone to the top 1%.  That tree has to be shaken to supply badly needed funds to simply run the country - care for our citizens, our infrastructure and defense.  The concept isn't a hard one.  Taxation needs to be targeted to where the money and growth are.  Pretty basic stuff.  Yet the spin machines on FOX news somehow make it impossible for many Americans to wrap their minds around this concept.

The conspiracy against the middle class…

This has been nothing less than a well planned, well-calculated assault against the middle and working classes.  Our jobs have been outsourced, downgraded, salaries have been tanking and 80% of the wealth created over the past 30 years has been siphoned directly to the top 1%. This has been a carefully orchestrated leveraged buyout of the United States to the monied elite and nothing less.

Bill Maher of Real-Time creates that vivid image using pizzas and pinatas …

"Americas rich are not giving you money they're taking your money….Say 100 Americans get together and order a 100 slice pizza. The pizza arrives, they open the box and the first guy takes 80 slices.  And if someone suggests that they just take 79 slices….That's SOCIALISM!"

Here is the embedded clip of that Bill Maher's New Rule….Wage against the machine...

Mar. 11, 2011 Clip - Wage Against The Machine

Whether using Pac Man pies, Pinatas or mega-sized pizzas - the message is the same.  The middle class is being eaten alive.  And it's a deliberate attempt to funnel money to the top and exploit the masses who are being taught to fight among each other for the crumbs.

© 2011  - RMGHicks - http://www.therobberbaroneconomy.com - All rights reserved.