Greg Fuller Responds to Cynthia Tucker

Another excellent clarion call - Ms Tucker [article] . But please permit me to add , the theme Middle Class Shrinkage only partly reveals the insidious economic path we trod . We are actually shrinking our entire domestic market , which like a " pacman "  is working it's way up the economic food chain.   A shrinking market means businesses must find ever more creative ways to boost profits , outsourcing (cheaper labor ) is just the latest gimmick in a corporate bag of tricks dating back to the " right sizing"  mania of  the  80's & early 90's  .  But the "well- to- do" souldn't  become  to sanguine , as a shrinking domestic market, eventually  catches up to them as well . With every Darwinian merger , acquisition  and etc . , there are fewer executive jobs . And for those counting on unearned income  , they may be forced  to contend with declining values in financial and real assets , due to there being fewer capable buyers for big houses , stocks and other investments they  will need to liquidate .
 
The Robber Baron period  you refereed to is actually quite illustrative  as a model of how life could be ,  should current trends continue . It was period of extreme income inequality :  a tiny well-to-do cadre ,  about 10% of the population in the middle class and the rest living in conditions ranging from scraping by to something out of a Dickens novel  .
 
We have built our society on bedrock of commerce, consumer spending is fully two thirds of our economy ; obviously , their must jobs for there to be consumers.  Further , jobs are the foundation for  pension and healthcare systems and the social safty net  built by our forbears  to avoid the dismal life  condtions of the Robber Baron and earlier  periods in our history . 
 
Our conundrum is : Will we or can we act to halt the current economic backslide and if not what does that portend for us and our progeny ?
 
Regards ,

Greg  Fuller