Middle Class Part 2: Perspective and Proof; Middle Class in Session

“What is now proved was once only imagined.” - William Blake

Part 2 of the Taxation of the Middle Class and Middle Class Financing of expensive purchases- oh, and about Proof-

Trivial Pursuits: To concede- my wife and I live in a good house, in a good neighborhood, and we have good families with two good, healthy kids. We have two vehicles that are not constantly in need of repairs. My wife and I have good jobs. Life, by and large, is just fine. I’ve suspected this for a long time, but it really hit home while we were watching Will Smith race to give his son and himself a better life in the movie- “The Pursuit of Happyness”. This is the type of movie that people should watch to put their lives in perspective- to appreciate what they have. Oh, his life, as portrayed in the movie, wasn’t as terrible as the live’s of characters in Schindler’s List or The Pianist- where mass and individual suffering was completely heart-wrenching, but all three movies should be watched by everyone, including the rich- not as disconnected blobs on a couch on a Saturday night, but as fully immersed, empathetic, human beings, astounded by what they see, with the thought- “hey, people actually are put through that kind of suffering.” People should flip the switch in their conscious mind and put themselves in Smith’s character’s place and ask themselves a question I asked last time- “What are you prepared to do?”

Well: So, I’m doing pretty well; the entire middle class is doing pretty well, and I can’t make it any more clear that the lives I’m concerned about are those of successive generations, in particular- the lives of middle class kids- two of them live in my house. Again, to be honest, and not self-righteous, I give either time or money to about ten organizations every year, wanting food, money for a better education, school supplies, money to research diseases that do not have cures, and to help third graders with their reading. I’m no saint, I don’t give until it hurts, far from it in fact. But I give, I empathize with those that do not have as much as I do. And my question here is- why can’t the rich do the same? No, I’m not privy to the ledgers or pocket books of the rich and I have no idea how much they give to charity. But I’d suspect that PLENTY of them don’t give as much as they should. I could get into the irony of greed and how those who obtain more feel they NEED more, like their desire is some obsessive compulsive disorder. Perhaps, eventually, I will even bring Yertle the Turtle in as a way of illustrating my point. Yertle the Turtle, is an even more obscure Dr. Seuss story than the Sneetches, which Seymour Correctly used to illustrate a point about racism a few months ago. Can't let that bastard have all the fun. But that topic about the inherent greed of the rich lies outside of the scope of my current harangue. Lucky for you.

Other people's money: You might say- who are you to be spending other people’s money? You can't prove the rich aren't contributing vast amounts of money to the poor. The poor, like the existence of evil in the Catholic religion- are necessary. Again, that is also outside of the scope of this subject- your lucky day- hell, I'm on vacation. Someone has to tell the rich how to spend it, because obviously the government isn’t all that good at it. I'm referring to how much they're taxed in addition to how much they give to charity, both governmental and moral charity.

You can’t prove everything: . . . though life would be easier if we could. It is easy to dismiss people who don’t have all the facts, especially when we are an important radio talk-show host, but should we dismiss people who have PLENTY of facts? Should we stop talking about the following topics simply because we don’t have every single fact imaginable? Given two choices which would you choose to slow the spread of pancreatic cancer: chemotherapy or surgery? Is there life on other planets? Do ghosts exist? Why do some women put on so much perfume it could test a yak’s gag reflex? Who thought wind socks were worth mass marketing? What do you know. Do rhetorical questions require question marks. Hm . . . There is a Seinfeld scene in there somewhere. I can't believe it took me six months to make a Seinfeld reference.

Break for the reader: My intention was to produce in full the week-long email exchange I had with a local radio talk-show host, but a summer’s worth of columns in that format would bore even me (silence to you readers who think that everything I write is boring, is long-winded while still missing key pieces of information, or never should have been written in the first place). Having your own blog is free and I'm not compensated at all for this work . . . seriously! Instead, I will summarize my argument about the future plight of the middle class as succinctly as I possibly can . . . seriously. Ah, but I think a lot and a lot of things occur to me in connection with other things- I’m like Seinfeld meets Carl Jung meets a sarcastic version of Encyclopedia Britannica- a frightening combination to be sure.

Let's be conservative: I bring the conservative talk-show host into the diatribe only to show the other viewpoint, to show that he clearly lost the argument, and to assist those who are like him into being able to empathize with the middle class- because this generation of middle class citizens is doing just fine- but the next generation will be in serious financial trouble if things continue as they have been.

With a topic this big, I will try to keep as focused as possible. I'm certainly not the best person for this task, but I see few people addressing the issues of excessive taxation, the impossibility of having a normal life given the prices of necessary life objectives- vehicles so one can get to work to earn money, a home to raise children in, a well-earned vacation, paying for a parent's funeral, a child's wedding, and the excessive taxation by the government- things the rich have no problem paying for. Don't worry, I'll get to them. The poor also deserve our attention, but at least for now, that too lies a bit outside of the scope of this argument. To me, discussions on this topic are long overdue, and not only interesting and educational, but imperative if anything is going to change twenty years from now. No, I’m not holding out hope- but I am trying.

A long summary, but necessary: In the course of a week I put forth the following pieces of information in email form to Bob Davis of KSTP AM 1500. No, none of these pieces of information are proof because they aren’t holding hands with the almighty decimal ( . ), or propped up against the esteemed percentage sign (%) or respectably leaning against the fraction slash ( / ), or even standing behind the dollar sign ($20 thousand)- but the proof . . . I’ll try for that later. People will bow down to numbers and figures and think that is proof- yeah, the only figure I’m bowing down to is Jessica Alba’s. These are just the first 9 things I included in the email exchange- those that would justify me as a spokesperson for reasonable middle class financial behavior, proving that I am not complaining because I irresponsibly buy what I cannot afford so that I pay for it later- in the form of higher credit card debt. I have to put out what I contributed to the disagreement and compare that, eventually, to what he countered with. Then, you can make up your own mind- and mind you, two weeks from now, when I'm done with my side of the argument, and his, I will be astounded if you choose his side- the side of evading the topic like the Matrix skirted bullets. Ah, a lot of bullets were fired at the Matrix . . . a lot. Over the course of the week I emailed this guy essentially the following things, among others I'll have to include next time:

1) I indicated that a viewpoint he had on the air stating that the middle class had nothing to complain about was well off-base;

2) capitalism is good; competition is good. I am not Robin Hood because I think the rich should give more to the poor, and I’m not a socialist; accusing someone of either is a way to deflect the attention from the real issue;

3) if I criticize a republican president or a democratic congress does not mean that I am a democrat in the former case or a republican in the latter; I am part of that third group- the one that can’t stand either of them; I included this because one of my points approached the topic of our misguided president and it seemed to offend him as a republican because he immediately brought Bill Clinton into the argument;

4) I talk to middle class citizens all the time, the real people struggling enough with their financial situation, let alone saving for retirement and/or for college tuition for their kids. With two kids, a full-time job, a very popular blog to keep contributing to, and a book that I’m trying to write, doing research to prove this guy wrong was not my top priority; in due time;

5) I am also not justifying people who max out their credit cards and who only pay the interest on them every month; and I am not talking about people who buy extravagant gifts and who live outside their means; We know people like that- they get new vehicles, add an addition onto the house, flat screen televisions, finish basements and you wonder if they are working for the government, or lying about what they do for a living;

6) I have impeccable credit and am saving all year to be able to afford a flat screen television the rich would purchase on a whim and the irresponsible middle class would pay four years for, because they would FINANCE it; we pay off the credit card bill every month and don’t charge more than we can afford to pay for, therefore no interest accrues;

7) my wife is a nurse, and makes good money- I stated that we are still paying on a student loan courtesy of the over-priced U of M, a school she hasn’t attended in eight years and never graduated from;

8) we (the middle class) are taxed to pay for a stadium that mercenary millionaire professional athletes play in only up until such time as they become annoyed at the billionaires they’re playing for, the same billionaires you bought the stadium for in the first place. Yes, I know, only Hennepin county residents are taxed for this in Minnesota, but the stadium could have gone up in any county in the state (again, think of empathizing with people's burden). Some people call providing a stadium to billionaires- "corporate welfare"- I can’t tell you what I call it- this is a family blog- a kid might be reading this, hahahahaha- who am I kidding, small nocturnal animals scurry in horror when they see the bright light of my laptop;

9) the rich work no harder to obtain the means to provide for their families than the poor or middle class;

That is enough for now. I’ll give you the meat of the matter next time, this was just the appetizer. If I haven't tied everything together just yet, be patient- I'm working on it.