What happened to middle class?

What happened to middle class?

The redistribution of wealth from the middle class to the extreme rich has been dramatic since the Republicans ran Congress during the Reagan and Bush presidencies. From none to over 400 billionaires. Their total wealth is over $1.3 trillion. For each billion accumulated by one person, 13,000 middle class families have to go into poverty. Thus this recent redistribution of wealth has sent 17 million American middle class families into poverty. They have lost their homes, probably by foreclosure. They have stopped buying new cars. They have stopped shopping at the malls. They have started receiving food stamps, paid for by the taxpayers. They have started receiving housing support, paid for by taxpayers. They have started receiving heating support, paid for by the taxpayers. They have started receiving health care, paid for by the taxpayers. All so 400 people could become extremely rich.

Add to that the $200 billion sent from America to the extreme rich Saudi Arabian royal family mostly during the Bush years. You add another 3 million Americans who have gone from middle class to poverty.

Now add the $2 trillion in trade deficits sent to the new rich in China and the result is another 26 million Americans had to go from the middle class to poverty.

Now you know where nearly the entire 46 million Americans living in poverty came from. It came from greedy American businessmen and their friends in the Republican Party who allowed them to accumulate extreme riches at the expense of middle class Americans.

It started slowly. Take the billionaire Waltons. Wal Mart moves into a town. Dozens of local middle class businessmen have to close their shops. They go to work for Wal Mart for $8 an hour, poverty wages. Then the problem escalates. Wal Mart refuses to sell any product not made where the monetary exchange rate allows them to buy way cheaper than in the U.S. Companies start going overseas. Fruit of the Loom moves all clothing out of the country. Hoover moves all vacuum factories out of the U.S. The result is thousands of U.S. workers loose good paying factory jobs.

Now billionaires are using their extreme riches to buy elections.

What happens if this continues for another decade? The middle class will disappear from the United States.

All we need to do is give fancy names to the 400 extreme rich Americans, like prince, duke, earl and princess, and we can go back to the dark ages. Won’t America be great — for the extreme rich.

Don Rowinsky, Youngstown