Author Topic: So, who makes up the Middle Class again?  (Read 3544 times)

0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

sirs

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 27078
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
So, who makes up the Middle Class again?
« on: January 05, 2013, 07:31:31 PM »
Remember the repetative, painstaking efforts by Obama & the Dems, attempting to portray themselves as the protectors of "the Middle Class", how taxes on "the rich" were necessary to spare any taxes upon "the Middle Class"?  Seems like that bar as to who really is "the Middle Class" seems to be moving.  Want to guess which way?

Elizabeth Warren Can't Define What Middle Class Is
"The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal." -- Aristotle

Plane

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 26993
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: So, who makes up the Middle Class again?
« Reply #1 on: January 05, 2013, 07:47:25 PM »
Can't tax an education level.

sirs

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 27078
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: So, who makes up the Middle Class again?
« Reply #2 on: January 05, 2013, 07:50:44 PM »
Nope....though there may be an effort to try, underfoot
"The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal." -- Aristotle

Xavier_Onassis

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 27916
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: So, who makes up the Middle Class again?
« Reply #3 on: January 05, 2013, 10:56:31 PM »
Warren is simply explaining the question logically: middle class is a combination of elements: income, wealth, education, provenance, that will vary geographically as well. But there is no need to dispute whether a person making $400,000 per year is too poor to be "middle class".
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."

Plane

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 26993
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: So, who makes up the Middle Class again?
« Reply #4 on: January 05, 2013, 11:11:08 PM »
Warren is simply explaining the question logically: middle class is a combination of elements: income, wealth, education, provenance, that will vary geographically as well. But there is no need to dispute whether a person making $400,000 per year is too poor to be "middle class".

So you disagree with her?

Xavier_Onassis

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 27916
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: So, who makes up the Middle Class again?
« Reply #5 on: January 06, 2013, 12:49:15 AM »
No, not at all.
The reporter offers a simplistic definition and she says, truthfully that it is more complicated than that.

Elizabeth Warren is a very bright person.

Perhaps some hypothetical person working as a private contractor and paying all their own expenses in Barrow, Alaska with a salary of $400K could be"middle class", but it is clearly not the case that most people with that much income are middle class. Warren does not say that they are, either.
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."

Plane

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 26993
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: So, who makes up the Middle Class again?
« Reply #6 on: January 06, 2013, 07:38:19 PM »
I think the reporter asked several times and did not really get an answer at all.

Taxes are going to be based on the simplistic answer of how much money is made anyway, so more complex answers are not pertanant.

Xavier_Onassis

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 27916
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: So, who makes up the Middle Class again?
« Reply #7 on: January 06, 2013, 07:57:26 PM »
Taxes may or may not be based on income after you calculate deductions.

Middle Class is hard to define, like the word "stylish". There is no single definition that could be applied to each and every American that everyone would agree upon.

Where there is no definitive answer, a public figure like Warren should avoid giving one. All she did was mention a Cherokee ancestor and the ratbag right was all over her for taking advantage of Equal Opportunity laws, which she did not do.

"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."

BT

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 16143
    • View Profile
    • DebateGate
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 3
Re: So, who makes up the Middle Class again?
« Reply #8 on: January 06, 2013, 08:01:26 PM »
Quote
All she did was mention a Cherokee ancestor and the ratbag right was all over her for taking advantage of Equal Opportunity laws, which she did not do.

Sure she did. Your denial does not change that fact.


Plane

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 26993
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: So, who makes up the Middle Class again?
« Reply #9 on: January 06, 2013, 08:29:15 PM »
If there are classes do we each need to know who belongs to them?

I wonder what class I am in now.


If nobody knows what caste he belongs to the caste system isn't working, and that might be a good thing after all.

Xavier_Onassis

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 27916
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: So, who makes up the Middle Class again?
« Reply #10 on: January 06, 2013, 11:10:55 PM »
The only thing close to a caste system in the US was the race system, which is slowly disappearing.

I recall a Billup's Gas Station in Texas that had SIX restrooms: White Men & Women, Black Men & Women and Mexican Men & Women
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."

Plane

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 26993
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: So, who makes up the Middle Class again?
« Reply #11 on: January 06, 2013, 11:54:50 PM »
The only thing close to a caste system in the US was the race system, which is slowly disappearing.

I recall a Billup's Gas Station in Texas that had SIX restrooms: White Men & Women, Black Men & Women and Mexican Men & Women


Is that why class warfare does not work as well for the President as might be expected?

If the middle class is so hard to define that its membership recognises no real definition , then does it really exist?

If it exists , what do you mean by class?

Xavier_Onassis

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 27916
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: So, who makes up the Middle Class again?
« Reply #12 on: January 07, 2013, 12:15:26 AM »
The reason class warfare does not work as well as it could is that a lot of Americans (Joe the Plumber being the poster child) believe that despite all indications to the contrary, they are going to hit the big Mother Lode someday and don't want the government taken any of their not so hardly won money.

There is clearly such a thing as social class in this country, but it is not possible to define it in any way that would be accepted by people in all parts of this country, because it varies greatly from one place to another, and of course within each ethnic group it also varies a lot.

 Elizabeth Warren seems to know this, and there is no reason why she should give a definition that could later be picked to pieces by the opposition.



"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."

Plane

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 26993
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: So, who makes up the Middle Class again?
« Reply #13 on: January 07, 2013, 06:16:17 AM »
XO I am certain you know a lot about language , and this makes it puzzling that you havnt got this point.

If the class cannot be defined , even to its members , it isn't there.

I am over 50 and sure that Joe the plumber was absolutely on target, thinking he hopes to hit the big time was never his point and I am in a good position to know , I don't have time left to hit the big time.

I do not trust the government to make my importrant life decisions for me, the ones they already have taken responsibility for are a complete cock up 60% of the time.

Why should I think that the empowerment of government with a greater chunk of the economy won't make the economy weaker?

I and we other conservatives are not hoping to win the social lotto and hit the big time, we are aware that too much government can ruin our small time  game and draw a smaller circle around our freedom.
 

Xavier_Onassis

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 27916
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: So, who makes up the Middle Class again?
« Reply #14 on: January 07, 2013, 12:27:50 PM »
Of course class can be defined by an individual with regard to his specific social group. What cannot be done is to give a specific definition that would apply to EVERY group in this country.

It is of zero importance to anyone not paid over $250,000 what someone who makes that much is taxed. a 4% increase will make no difference to the poorer person and will have little real effect to the wealthier one.

We know that it will not make the economy worse to tax at this rate, because we have had more prosperous times in this country in which the tax rate was even higher than 39% on income over $250K.

You are other conservatives want to identify with the fatcats, in the same way and for the same reason that some kid in the ghetto wantsto wear sneakers with Michael Jordan's name on them. In all cultures, sucking up to those perceived as having greater status is common, especially among people who are unaware of what they are doing.
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."