It seems that in the waning weeks of this L-O-N-G Presidential campaign, what was once known as the "middle class" is now on every candidate's lips, thanks to "Joe the Plumber", who gained his 15 minutes of fame during a campaign stopover in Toledo by Barack Obama. McCain is accusing Obama of "wealth re-distribution" via his plan to tax the more wealthy people to pay for things that would benefit those of us who used to inhabit that nebulous place once known as the "middle class". Well, the reason that there hardly exists a middle class anymore is because of the Bush administration's policies that redistributed so much of the wealth upward that, hey, isn't it time for those of us on the financial bottom rungs of society to benefit just a little bit? I was raised to think that if I went to school and got a good education, then went to college and got a degree and then started a career, that everything from that point on would be a bed of roses and that my life would be set for me in financial comfort. In point of fact, I played by the rules, did as I was told, got my college degree, started a career, but life has hardly been that financial bed of roses I was seemingly promised. Every month is a struggle to pay bills as costs escalate and my pay doesn't keep pace. I don't feel like I ever earned my way into that hallowed place called "middle class". I can't afford home ownership, I live in a tiny apartment surrounded by college students, and about the only perk of middle class-dom that I can even remotely claim is the ownership of a new car - but of course, I don't own it. The bank does, at least until the loan is paid off about the time I am scheduled to retire. But of course, the very notion of retirement is a mirage. My generation will not be able to retire. We'll be working well into our golden years and the workforce will be rapidly aging as a result, resulting in much higher medical premiums for employers to pay for their aging employees who would love to retire but can't. Co-pays and deductibles are also bound to rise as the workforce ages and younger workers won't have the pick of good jobs because we'll all be working well into our 70's and 80's, so it will all result in a spiral of higher costs for everything because aging workers will still be holding on to their jobs because expenses will prevent them from being able to afford to retire.
But then again, issues like health care have been debated for years, and so far, nothing's been done about it. And with the recent financial meltdown on Wall Street, I doubt that there will be enough money during the next administration to even think about addressing it. So in the meantime, we greying Baby Boomers who want to take care of ourselves are going to find it increasingly difficult to afford to do so. Co-pays and deductibles will continue to rise and the cost of health care will also continue escalating, and there just isn't the money in the federal budget to even remotely do anything about it. Since our current administration has thrown more money at Wall Street than even the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost, thus further increasing our burgeoning federal deficit, which in turn will further weaken our dollar in overseas trading...well, the whole picture is looking uglier and uglier as time goes by. Which means that whoever wins the White House in two weeks is going to have their hands full, no matter who he is. I find it hard to be terribly optimistic right now, even though
some polls show Barack Obama holding a substantial lead over John McCain. I know how stupid people can be when they hear ridiculous things like "Barack Obama is going to redistribute your wealth!" and "Barack Obama is promoting....(gasp)....SOCIALISM!!!" As if he's somehow promoting Communism...and hey, we Baby Boomers all too clearly remember the long years of the Cold War when the "C" word was as much of a pejorative as the "L" word - "Liberal". And now we have the "S" word - "Socialism!!!!" Excuse me, so what was the New Deal? Wasn't that as much "socialism" as anything else? Those folks who collect Social Security ought to know better. Those folks who got their college educations thanks to the G.I. Bill ought to know better. If the New Deal had never happened, this would be a very different country, to say the least. And that was as much "socialism" as anything else, but then again, we all know that the main agenda of the NeoCons was to completely dismantle the New Deal once and for all and to privatize everything. Fortunately, people wised up to what was going on and it was soundly rejected, but still.....it was a close call there for a while. I just hope that people are smart enough on November 4th to see through the ridiculous arguments that the McCain-Palin campaign are using to try to turn voters off of Barack Obama. After all, some polls only have Obama ahead by
1 percentage point! In other words, a virtual dead heat. That's too close, and I just hope that this time, they're wrong, but then again, if this country elected Bush twice, they are capable of doing just about anything that is against their own self interest.
It seems that in the waning weeks of this L-O-N-G Presidential campaign, what was once known as the "middle class" is now on every candidate's lips, thanks to "Joe the Plumber", who gained his 15 minutes of fame during a campaign stopover in Toledo by Barack Obama. McCain is accusing Obama of "wealth re-distribution" via his plan to tax the more wealthy people to pay for things that would benefit those of us who used to inhabit that nebulous place once known as the "middle class". Well, the reason that there hardly exists a middle class anymore is because of the Bush administration's policies that redistributed so much of the wealth upward that, hey, isn't it time for those of us on the financial bottom rungs of society to benefit just a little bit? I was raised to think that if I went to school and got a good education, then went to college and got a degree and then started a career, that everything from that point on would be a bed of roses and that my life would be set for me in financial comfort. In point of fact, I played by the rules, did as I was told, got my college degree, started a career, but life has hardly been that financial bed of roses I was seemingly promised. Every month is a struggle to pay bills as costs escalate and my pay doesn't keep pace. I don't feel like I ever earned my way into that hallowed place called "middle class". I can't afford home ownership, I live in a tiny apartment surrounded by college students, and about the only perk of middle class-dom that I can even remotely claim is the ownership of a new car - but of course, I don't own it. The bank does, at least until the loan is paid off about the time I am scheduled to retire. But of course, the very notion of retirement is a mirage. My generation will not be able to retire. We'll be working well into our golden years and the workforce will be rapidly aging as a result, resulting in much higher medical premiums for employers to pay for their aging employees who would love to retire but can't. Co-pays and deductibles are also bound to rise as the workforce ages and younger workers won't have the pick of good jobs because we'll all be working well into our 70's and 80's, so it will all result in a spiral of higher costs for everything because aging workers will still be holding on to their jobs because expenses will prevent them from being able to afford to retire.
But then again, issues like health care have been debated for years, and so far, nothing's been done about it. And with the recent financial meltdown on Wall Street, I doubt that there will be enough money during the next administration to even think about addressing it. So in the meantime, we greying Baby Boomers who want to take care of ourselves are going to find it increasingly difficult to afford to do so. Co-pays and deductibles will continue to rise and the cost of health care will also continue escalating, and there just isn't the money in the federal budget to even remotely do anything about it. Since our current administration has thrown more money at Wall Street than even the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost, thus further increasing our burgeoning federal deficit, which in turn will further weaken our dollar in overseas trading...well, the whole picture is looking uglier and uglier as time goes by. Which means that whoever wins the White House in two weeks is going to have their hands full, no matter who he is. I find it hard to be terribly optimistic right now, even though some polls show Barack Obama holding a substantial lead over John McCain. I know how stupid people can be when they hear ridiculous things like "Barack Obama is going to redistribute your wealth!" and "Barack Obama is promoting....(gasp)....SOCIALISM!!!" As if he's somehow promoting Communism...and hey, we Baby Boomers all too clearly remember the long years of the Cold War when the "C" word was as much of a pejorative as the "L" word - "Liberal". And now we have the "S" word - "Socialism!!!!" Excuse me, so what was the New Deal? Wasn't that as much "socialism" as anything else? Those folks who collect Social Security ought to know better. Those folks who got their college educations thanks to the G.I. Bill ought to know better. If the New Deal had never happened, this would be a very different country, to say the least. And that was as much "socialism" as anything else, but then again, we all know that the main agenda of the NeoCons was to completely dismantle the New Deal once and for all and to privatize everything. Fortunately, people wised up to what was going on and it was soundly rejected, but still.....it was a close call there for a while. I just hope that people are smart enough on November 4th to see through the ridiculous arguments that the McCain-Palin campaign are using to try to turn voters off of Barack Obama. After all, some polls only have Obama ahead by 1 percentage point! In other words, a virtual dead heat. That's too close, and I just hope that this time, they're wrong, but then again, if this country elected Bush twice, they are capable of doing just about anything that is against their own self interest.
1 comment:
McCain has what, 13 houses? e show up at all of them and simply move in.
In all seriousness, speaking as a member of the sandwich generation, I confidently predict further economic collapse.We can't afford medical care for our parents or for our children.
If we cut off health coverage to all members of Congress and for all ex-presidents, we might actually get somewhere.
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