There is a useful trope still floating around that goes, “If X were happening to middle-class white people, we’d have a revolution.” Well, X is happening to middle-class white people and, I guarantee you, a substantial number of other middle-class white people, no matter how tenuous their own personal economic circumstances are, will blame the people living in the Ramada Inn for what happened to them. Revolution, hell. We can’t even get the president to shut his yap about “entitlements.” Another day in a nation of suckers.
Tip via David Benowitz
This was one of Charlie’s more depressing posts. Deeply, terrifyingly depressing.
Because it’s so true. Those who still even a bit of “thiers” just don’t get that it could be them losing their, now tenuous, hold on what we call the “middle class” standard of living.
They don’t get that over the past 3 or so decades the actual increase in/b>. Yes, folks, fifty-nine dollars more than you lived on back in the late 1970’s.
I guess the idea of cell phones and flat screen huge TV’s means we make more money. Uh, no. And now that China’s wages are increasing, has anyone else noticed that the “cheap” goods are now looking very, very cheap? And come with shorter product longevity? Crap is now pretty “crappy”?
WalMart stuff is looking more and more crappy, which might be one reason Walmart is seeing lower per store sales. When people find they have less and less to spend, when spending that little at WalMart means the item craps out in a pretty short time, they start rethinking whether to spend on WalMart crap.
That hit me when I was looking at Christmas decorations at Target this past Christmas. I could find barely anything, even at 50, then 75 percent off, which was worth the money. Not that I needed anything, but I was looking for decent things for stocking stuffers. Didn’t find anything. Then, I noticed that the clothing seemed to look, well, downright cheap. And tacky.
Hard times are here. And will be getting worse.