The pain of the middle classes

There are many example of how the middle classes in western society are being squeezed tighter and tighter. Higher cost of living, higher taxes. In Britain we have threats of further rise in Capital gains tax and also the non action of government regarding raising the threshold of inheritance tax!! In America I am sure you have similar problems with tax targeting of the middle classes.

Then we have the PC movement against the middle classes. Those that think we should feel guilty for being middle classes. Telling us how we should talk... how we should speak about others... how not to hurt the sensibilities of the weak. Foreigners pouring into our country and sponging off our tax payments!! Welfare scroungers!

We also have the greenies attacking us... trying to make us feel guilty about carbon footprints, sustainability, fair trade goods etc...Well we don’t want the fairest, we want the cheapest!!! This myth of global warming is just another way of taxing the middle classes who are already on their knees.

It is SO unfair!!

Oh the pain of the middle classes...

My message to you, my fellow middle classes....

GET A GRIP ON REALITY!!

You are in the top 10% of the world’s population and you help to consume more than 59% of the earth resources.

Your very lifestyle is only possible due to the foot of the rich being on the head of the poor...

At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.

The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income.

Some 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water, and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation.

Now that is unfair!!!
I could go on with the quotes… but most of you already know this and simply don’t care. In fact I bet many of you will just roll your eyes and hit the back button on your browser once you realise that this isn’t actually about the perceived pain of the middle classes!!
And of the few who do care, well you just deflect responsibility.

“Those poor country’s simply have corrupt governments, nothing we can do about it “
“if they stopped importing arms then maybe they could feed their people”

True… to a degree…

Why do you think they have corrupt governments? What do you think happens to a country who doesn’t play ball with the west?

El Salvador, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Afghanistan, to name a few… All country’s where the CIA, and other western intelligence agencies, have influenced, waged war and corrupted governments.

But regardless of this, should it not be the responsibility of the corporates and the public to ensure that the goods they purchase are produced ethically??

In Britain we have a labelling system called “fair trade”


www.fairtrade.org.uk...

Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. By requiring companies to pay sustainable prices (which must never fall lower than the market price), Fairtrade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers. It enables them to improve their position and have more control over their lives.

This quote is the exception… but should it not be the rule??? Even if it means the middle classes (and, of course, the upper classes) of the world having to lower their own living standards and pay fairer prices for goods????

Fairtrade represents only a small fraction of the items on a supermarkets shelf…

So basically… the vast majority of goods that we consume are produced unfairly!!

And when I say unfair I do not mean the “unfair” that requires you to pay extra tax on that holiday home, or the unfair that means you have to pay a little more to fill up the SUV on the weekend…

I mean the type of unfair that leaves with decision to make such as… “should I feed all my children or by medicine that keeps one of them alive” or “Should I send my daughter on the four hour walk to collect water, and risk her being raped by rebels, or should I go myself and loose a day’s pay and not have food”

The middle classes complaint about having to recycle waste seems so empty when you consider the people who scrape a living from the garbage dumps of Africa…

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/5c32b42d3fa6.jpg[/atsimg]

Peoples attitudes to these issues never ceases to amaze me. The level of social manipulation required to switch off our empathy is immense and has taken many years to perfect. We have become completely insular and selfish... thinking of our own needs. We happily watch people starve as long as it means we can mount a plasma TV to our bedroom wall and have the latest mobile phone.

Is the human soul that cheap? Is that all the cost of our humanity was?? A couple of electronic gadgets and cheap holidays!

I guess I shouldn’t be shocked... Why should people give a crap about the poor in foreign countrys when we don’t care about the poor in our own!!

People are segregated into groups (Religious, Racial, social) and it then makes it that much easier for the elite of them groups to justify ill treatment of the non-elite. We dehumanise those we wish to exploit in order to quieten what little empathy we have remaining!

I’m sorry ATS... I am just tired of hearing people wallow in self pity over the most ridiculously weak claims of unfairness towards the rich!

Its almost like a man getting a paper cut and screaming in agony, demanding medical attention and action, while the man next to him is quietly bleeding to death with his throat cut!!

reply to post by Muckster


By calling themselves "middle class" did they assume an easier ride?
its hard work for lower classes as well...you are either wealthy or not these middle classes are part of the workforce like the people they manage, there businesses are inferior to wealthy organisations. they thought a degree would lead to an easier life...well no..you will be paying for the wealthy to have an easier life.

try graduating from the school of life as well so you dont get Sqeezed!

reply to post by Muckster


When I started reading your post I was worried you had somehow gone through a massive personality change, Then continued to see the point you were making, which was a relief.

what on earth is middle class ? ?

is it a political term invented to fish votes, some sort of transition between having wealth and not having wealth ?

your making money but non of it goes to your bank account ?
your making money but a small ammount of it goes to your bank account ?
your making money and it all goes to your bank account ?

please explain

reply to post by woodwardjnr


LOL... almost had you for a minute there my friend

Don't worry... it's still me

reply to post by zerbot565



Middle class definitions...

the social class between the lower and upper classes

People who earn enough money to live comfortably, such as doctors and lawyers

The "middle class" describe the professional and business class

Or, for a more in depth analysis...

en.wikipedia.org...

I posted something similar to this in the RANTS section yesterday with this video, I hope it isn't considered spamming to post it again here, I think it helps to illustrate your post though.

Please watch with the volume up

reply to post by davespanners


Thank you davespanners...

Very powerful, very sad... thank you... that’s all i have to say!