Why Is Everyone Surprised?

The Middle Class has been on life support for years, and back when President Obama was Candidate Obama, the term was heard frequently "working class."  Throughout both of the last elections, not only have the candidates used the term, but so has the media covering them.

The Middle Class, ideally, would be comprised of those who did not have to depend upon the capital or labor of others.  The working class exchanges labor for earnings.  The American unions created a negotiation balance between workers and employers, but as employers became large corporations, and the unions sought more benefits outside of the work place, negotiations began to fail.  When unions were at their strongest, there was a symbiotic balance between employers and employees, and both realized they needed the other to maintain the lifestyle to which they had become accustomed.

I could blame Washington, beginning with Reagan for destroying the air traffic controllers union, which was the official beginning of the demise of the union.  But then, I can blame Clinton for NAFTA and wonder why the union still backed him in the 1996 election . . .  We can choose sides and blame Bush or Obama, which we have, but so far that isn't changing the lifestyle of the underemployed lacking benefits.

I could blame unions for convincing their members they should tell the owners how to run their business and ask for more time off and bigger health and death benefits.  The reality is, that just proved to the business owners how many jobs were not needed if the employees had time to tell him how to run his business.  If the employees would just put in a days work instead of all the wasted arbitration time and demands of the shop stewards, the same work could be done with much less manpower, which led to the contract labor through job service companies.  Then we can blame the business men who threw up their hands to the unions and to the government regulations and sold to the corporations.

Now, I hear the best ones to blame are Congress.  The truth of the matter is, we could all look in the mirror and ask that person looking back if there is anything they can do to change things.  Granted, the average "working class" America doesn't have the lobby capital to change minds in Washington, but we can offer a lack of capital to those who are benefiting from the decisions being stalled in Washington.  Here's a few questions to ask that person in the mirror.

Am I for more industry in America?  Then do I buy foreign made products because I can save a few pennies?  Am I anti-abortion and against Planned Parenthood?  Do I buy made in China, where abortions are government mandated?   Am I pro-union?  Do I shop at the Big Box Store . . . only when I have to . . .  Am I for job creation?  Do I buy locally?  Do I know of someone who is self-employed?  Do I buy their products or use their service?  These are just a few of the questions that might enter this mirror dialogue.

The One Percent may have most of the money, but a lot of that is because the 98% keeps giving it to them! With over half of our representatives in Washington being in the One Percent, they have no motivation to change things.  I'm thinking if the 98% refused to put their money in what they didn't believe in, things would change!  Washington could be in for the big surprise!