The Fall of the American Middle Class

While browsing today, I happened upon a link to video within the comments of a WSJ article about the failed health initiative.

The video is a lecture given by Elizabeth Warren about "The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class: Higher Risks, Lower Rewards, and a Shrinking Safety Net" which was taped on March 8, 2007.

In it, Ms. Warren shows, with inflation adjusted funds, how much has changed for the middle class in the span of 30 years, essentially a generational hop from the parents of the seventies to the parents of the aughts.

For simplicity's sake, she focuses on comparing the data based on a 2 parent, 2 child family, although she does include other data on other types of families at given times for additional comparison.

I learned much as I watch her unfold a pattern that should indeed concern many, although for many of us, we're already those who, as she says later, have fallen off the cliff of the edge between middle class and poor.

Although relevatory, it also made me think of the measures that have been taken of late to try to improve our overall economy. I realized that what our government has and has also been trying to do is in the right spirit to a degree, but not the directions we should be heading.

It also made me think on human nature, and how we as a community of Americans can or cannot take care of our own, or, in some cases, will or will not.

It used to be that the American Dream was obtainable to all who worked hard. Sadly, this is no longer the case.

I wonder how she feels now, knowing what she knew then, as she watches her predictions come to pass.

The video: The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class.