So, the "vanishing middle class" is more of a political trick (though a good one) that is reliant on the general public's lack of understanding of percentages and history (which makes it doubly good tactic, because no one will ever know). Whenever there is a new technology, say computers, the first people in have free reign in an unconte…
So, the "vanishing middle class" is more of a political trick (though a good one) that is reliant on the general public's lack of understanding of percentages and history (which makes it doubly good tactic, because no one will ever know). Whenever there is a new technology, say computers, the first people in have free reign in an uncontested marketplace, and thus quickly become very rich. That exclusive marketplace doesn't last more than a couple of generations, as more and more people move into the space. But while it lasts, there are a few that have a lot of wealth, and the "Middle Class" being a group in a flat percentage band below the top of the wealth chart, there is a "Vanishing Middle Class." aka, the wealth those few rich people are getting isn't from the poor, it's from lack of competition from other rich people, and that wealth bottleneck wrecks all of the simplistic percentage-based modelling designed for media quick hits.
In real terms, though, we started tracking wealth in the 30s because of the 30s, and Keynes had a dream of a distant future of wealth and prosperity. And the crazy wealth numbers he dreamed of, we achieved those in the 80s, and the amount of wealth people have has actually continued to increase since. And because of the systems but in place back then to track all this, we know that the period of greatest poverty in the US was... the 50s. And the period with the greatest deep poverty was... the 50s. The amount of racial violence back then was absolutely horrific, that was one of the last gasps of lynching after all, cops beating protesters, etc. Followed by KKK bombings and all the assassinations of famous people.
Notably FDR stayed president by making a number of bigoted appeals to the MAGA Nationalists of the time, who also marched through the streets with MAGA placards, but very different hats. It wasn't just the WWII camps, either. Strict anti-immigration, some of it anti-semitic. His comments about mixing blood are pretty horrific and MAGA-esque too.
All of which is to say, Trump ran an FDR-style campaign in 2016. So, that's what an FDR style savior figure looks like. Never look for saviors. They don't exist.
So, the "vanishing middle class" is more of a political trick (though a good one) that is reliant on the general public's lack of understanding of percentages and history (which makes it doubly good tactic, because no one will ever know). Whenever there is a new technology, say computers, the first people in have free reign in an uncontested marketplace, and thus quickly become very rich. That exclusive marketplace doesn't last more than a couple of generations, as more and more people move into the space. But while it lasts, there are a few that have a lot of wealth, and the "Middle Class" being a group in a flat percentage band below the top of the wealth chart, there is a "Vanishing Middle Class." aka, the wealth those few rich people are getting isn't from the poor, it's from lack of competition from other rich people, and that wealth bottleneck wrecks all of the simplistic percentage-based modelling designed for media quick hits.
In real terms, though, we started tracking wealth in the 30s because of the 30s, and Keynes had a dream of a distant future of wealth and prosperity. And the crazy wealth numbers he dreamed of, we achieved those in the 80s, and the amount of wealth people have has actually continued to increase since. And because of the systems but in place back then to track all this, we know that the period of greatest poverty in the US was... the 50s. And the period with the greatest deep poverty was... the 50s. The amount of racial violence back then was absolutely horrific, that was one of the last gasps of lynching after all, cops beating protesters, etc. Followed by KKK bombings and all the assassinations of famous people.
Notably FDR stayed president by making a number of bigoted appeals to the MAGA Nationalists of the time, who also marched through the streets with MAGA placards, but very different hats. It wasn't just the WWII camps, either. Strict anti-immigration, some of it anti-semitic. His comments about mixing blood are pretty horrific and MAGA-esque too.
All of which is to say, Trump ran an FDR-style campaign in 2016. So, that's what an FDR style savior figure looks like. Never look for saviors. They don't exist.