End of Days for 'Rosie the Riveter' a.k.a. The Middle Class

[ixion]

This isn't about Rosie the Riveter, albeit I use her iconic name in the title. I reference her because from Rosie emerged the Great American Middle Class. Rosie, of course, represented the multitudes of female factory workers hired to build armaments for World War II. Rosie also represents a classic piece of US propaganda, and illustrates how the US goes about shaping it's citizens to suit its needs at Any Given Moment.

When the war ended, the Rosies needed to be deescalated and disbanded so the returning males could take their positions at the factory. To do this, the government tweaked the propaganda, and created the concept of the Middle Class Housewife, and as such gave birth to the Middle Class itself.

But there's a catch. Why? Because there's always a catch.

Consider this: The Captains of Industry (A Bush among them, of course), worked with the government to create Rosie, and then later to disband her. To disband her, they created the Middle Class. Yet even way back then these Captains of Industry knew that the Middle Class was a temporary inconvenience for them, and that someday it, too, would be disbanded.

It hasn't happened overnight, of course. That would have been to obvious. They had to move slowly, stepping back the concessions they were forced to offer at the end of the war. It started in the 70's, about the time the soldiers who fought in that war would have been retiring. My grandfather was a pilot in that war. He retired a Lt. Colonel with a comfortable pension and free healthcare. This was in the 70's, and many of his generation were doing the same thing, retiring, many on full pensions with excellent healthcare.

But at the same time, something started happening in the 70's. Wages began to stagnate. Manufacturing began to pack up and move overseas. The foundations of the Middle Class began to lose integrity. Again, it was subtle, until Reagan. When Ronald Reagan was installed, the Monied Class took things up (uh, or down) a notch. Manufacturing's move overseas was now in high gear, so the Monied Class turned attention to eating away at the Professional Class that had emerged as a by-product of good Middle Class living. So they started whittling away there. It started with corporate culture. You no longer worked at a single corporation your entire life through to retirement. Rather, jobs became a commodity of sorts -- a marketplace, a sporting event, a 'Running Man Game Show. Remember 'Dress for Success'? The idea behind this nasty little meme was that you should hone your skills in the fashion of a Samurai, and that the Strongest, Most-Well-Dressed, Most-Vicious candidate wins. In essence, Kill Or Be Killed.

In the 80's, then, we see the professional corporate culture becoming less stable, being disbanded by the Monied Class. So-called 'Free-Trade' agreements were working wonders, and the Middle Class was now becoming insecure. Everything was going to plan, and then the Internet happened.

It had been around for quite some time, of course, but it started catching fire in 1994 and by the end of the 90's managed to float a large chunk of the Baby Boomers and Gen X'ers to the Top of the Barrel.

The Monied Class was not amused. They tolerated this briefly, to take a bit of profit, and then they had Greenspan drown it so that they could get back to business.

And that business was, of course, dismantling the Middle Class and the introduction of a Neo-Feudal Age.

You see, I believe the Monied Class has always resented having to share-the-wealth with the peasantry, with Rosie the Riveter. I think they've groused and grumbled about it in exclusive clubs nationwide, slumped down in high-backed oxblood calfskin chairs, nursing 150-year-old brandy, and chomping on a big Cuban cigar (yeah, Cuban, that's right). I think they've bitched about it and have been plotting its demise since its inception. Waiting for the 'Greatest Generation' to retire was just their way of saying 'Thanks'. As soon as they were out of the way, the doors were thrown wide open and the corporate predator was on unleashed on the unsuspecting populace. Free to say what they want, sell what they want, charge what they want, these corporations began devouring the Middle Class under the guise of 'cheap' credit and low-low prices. The only problem was, the credit wasn't really cheap, and the prices were low because the merchandise was garbage. Nevertheless, it worked. They snared millions of people in their nets.

Then, finally, came the piece de resistance: the so-called "Ownership Society" (or pWnership society, as I call it). This was a herald call to anyone who had managed to avoid the previous pratfalls. The message was that you were going to be a millionaire, simply from buying and selling your house every couple years.

Of course, if anyone had read the details -- the Fine Print, as it were -- they would have seen the trap quite clearly. Most didn't, though, they took advantage of 'cheap' money and borrowed to the hilt. People making $60,000 a year were able to get loans for half-a-million dollars. Think of that, for a second, and it should give you pause.

Why on Earth would a mortgage company loan someone off the street a half-a-million with no money down?

We see the answer to that question everywhere on Main St. today. We see people buried so far under in debt that their only option is to declare bankruptcy. At the same time, we see corporations checking a) Credit, and b) current employment status.

There is a final Great Culling going on. What's left of the now tattered, once Great, Middle Class is being rounded up and turned into indentured servants. Wages are flat or declining, benefits even more so, working conditions deteriorating, rampant long-term unemployment is creating a force that drives this cycle downward. And everyone but a politician knows that once you're out-of-work, and out-of-a-house that you're in an extreme World of Hurt.

"It's a crime, to be broke in America." -- Michael Franti, The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy.

And that brings us up to 2011, and the US is well on the way completely disbanding the Middle Class it created only a few short decades ago.

Fare thee well, Middle Class, fare thee well, Rosie, we hardly knew ye.

http://neofeudal-notes.blogspot.com/2011/08/end-of-days-for-rosie-riveter-aka.html

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. Irony: "Sayanora!"

[ixion]

4. Indeed...

Well done!

[socialindependocrat]

2. But the spending of the middle class supports business

Now they are finding that the economy will not recover (at least at the rate they want it to) without those people who spend more than they make.

Why would Buffett blow the whistle on the hoax?

He needs sales to make money faster.

Maybe he's having a race with Gates and no one has reached the goal yet?

Do you have a way to explain what happens after the middle class disappears?

[ixion]

3. Ah, but that's just it. The new model is that

the Middle Class consumer doesn't exists, statistically speaking, and that only wealthy consumers are worth catering to:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6694962

We're already seeing this re-tooling taking place.

[socialindependocrat]

5. Now, we're not in the dark anymore, are we???!!!

Thanks for the link