The Middle class and reality of how the other half lives.Classwar..

[undergroundpanther]

Abuse only becomes easily recognized as abuse when it isn't deserved.....

..."O my dear sister, what are we to do with these troublesome people?"
"Britannia: "Try isolation first, my dear, and then—" ..


The Class war,what the middle class now feel looming on their backs has been going on full steam already on the poor,working poor, disabled, women,minorities immigrants,ex prisoners, homeless,mentally ill.
The atomization and isolation of lower class and middle class community ties has systematically created isolated individuals,individuals who feel alone ,afraid to relate ,and believe they are far less able to fight a class war all by themselves, so they don't fight, they just convince themselves they deserve to be financially abused,they learn to be helpless..
Some abuse victims aren't sure if they are victims or not. At least, they aren't sure whether they are deserving victims or undeserving victims.
http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=12900&cn=2
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2007/09/reich-ceos-dese.html
http://209.85.215.104/search?q=cache:LzuLcAdPqdkJ:www.pace.edu/emplibrary/VP-TheIdeologyofInequalityrevised2-Hugh_J_Scott.pdf+abuse+deserved+believe+americans+inequality&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=40&gl=us


This class war the middle class are just beginning to notice now, began a very long time ,long before the wealthy bothered to touch the precious"middle class"'s comfort zones with their greed and predatory financial abuse.

What I think is getting the middle class upset is now they are being treated to what the poor,disabled,women,minorities, immigrants,ex prisoners, homeless,and mentally ill have been dealing with for a very long time already. Or,What's that sucking sound,dear? Oh, it's the wealthy sucking other people's lives away ..wow look at all those tent cities.

Uh huh,and you might be living there too once you lose your spouse,house gets foreclosed,your kid gets sick,or you get a pink slip..Mr Jones.

In a Class war each stratified part of the classes serves a function to insulate the rich from having to share,keep the rich immune from social responsibility and keep the rich,rich.

Such a high level of inequality doesn't just happen. It is produced by specific arrangements in society that enable exploitation and exclusion along the categorical lines of social class. An effective system of social stratification requires three basic things: a social structure that divides people into categories on the basis of some combination of achieved and ascribed traits; the labeling of certain of these categories as out-groups containing people who not likable and not competent as human beings; and the existence of one or more social mechanisms that reserve resources for in-group members while extracting other resources from out-group members without full remuneration.
http://mediamatters.org/altercation/200708270002


The poor,working poor disabled,women,minorities, immigrants,ex prisoners, homeless,and mentally ill are who's the front lines in this massive plundering. The lower classes are who that protected the"middle classes" from the more severe poverty and physical suffering caused by wealthy people's insatiable greed.This insulation the poor gave to the middle class is becoming threadbare now that the rich and their 'markets'are no longer are regulated to play sorta fair anymore..
http://usliberals.about.com/od/education/a/BushEdCuts.htm

We the poor,disabled,women,minorities, immigrants,ex prisoners, homeless,and mentally ill are the middle classes's scapegoats,we are the lifestyles of shame and doom you tell your kids about if they don't get good grades.Poor people are told by everyone with more income that poor people being inferiors morally to those more fortunate caused all the problems in society.We to blame OURSELVES alone for our less ambition driven ,unable to keep work, can't stay off drugs/booze ,can't stay out of jail,can't get our shit together lives of suffering. Poverty's political invisibility are spooky reminders of what happens when hope is stolen by those who have plenty but do not care to share and justice never helps because of the propaganda,beliefs and political selfishness and ignorance of the fortunate and excessively fortunate.
http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v3n2/justworld.html
http://www.reason.org/commentaries/summers_20060925.shtml

The lower class,the invisible ones, scuttled away in section 8 rat-holes,living in cars or tents by overpasses,being shooed off benches by cops when exhausted.We are our cultures un-success stories,the Anti-Algiers..Asking for money to buy a way to numb away this reality with another hit or drink, or even*gasp* to buy food!!
http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/3159/1/402
http://www.proliberty.com/observer/20060914.htm

What were you taught from childhood, about poverty,middle class folks? Stuff about all those crass,unwashed blights,white trash,ghetto,bum,freak losers marring your pretty suburbs, with our unkempt,unpredictable,disturbing, suffering lives?

I think the lower class are allowed to merely survive so the middle class can live better so the wealthy few can lead insulated lives of ease,luxury and leisure like gods on Earth.Stratification and inequality has been set up ands the wealthy created this class war that if not stopped soon will hurt a vast majority of us if we do not look at the habits and lifestyles of the undeserving rich and tell them that they have had enough.Because of ingrained stereotypes people believe,,Beliefs like people are poor because they are inferior or depraved or deserve it,undermine equality .And people who think it is good for desperate people to listen to their opinions just for a bite to eat,or jump like a dog through pointless hoops to get services so we will not die..are contributing to the suffering.
Such obliviousness and smug arrogance from the "middle class" is an affect they have from aping the upper class, it is there everyday demeaning further the 'unfortunate' people who need help.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5404/is_200106/ai_n21466483
ttp://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2006/07/a_decade_after_.html
http://www.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/0/5/0/0/pages105000/p105000-1.php
http://bctf.ca/lessonaids/online/la2030/blaming.html

The lower classes are the assumed dogs to be kicked first when your wealthy owner/master let you down,or hands you pink slips,or signs Nafta or your job goes overseas...
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/13/8912/
http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/010/econstra.html

The homeless, poor,mentally ill,among others who suffer already bear the "sport" of your neglected,isolated,well fed and taken care of in every way but emotionally, middle class children,who because parents work all the time are left alone,bored and want to have some fun at our expense..
http://jackiedowd.blogspot.com/2006/06/some-teens-idea-of-sport-beating-up.html
http://www.wesh.com/news/13587663/detail.html?qs=1;bp=t
http://www.local6.com/news/9670295/detail.html

Lower classes are the canaries in the cultural coal mine.Bellwethers of the tide of class war,of our entire system of scam or be scammed.We are the human shields, made into debris taking the cuts for you so you could live well,or better than we ever will or can hope to.
http://publicsafety.com/article/article.jsp?id=4237&siteSection=8
http://digg.com/world_news/WTF_Hospital_Dumps_Paraplegic_in_Skid_Row_Hospital_Mgmt_Who_Us_hehe
http://bullsheet.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/la-hospital-continues-to-dump-patients-onto-street/

In the times when the 'middle class' were doing well they could just ignore us ,like the politicians always do, never recognize we exist we lower class..
http://www.uncommonthought.com/mtblog/archives/2008/06/11/how_the_poor_st.php
The middle class throws less than the rich can but won't or even the poor who do but get pinched for it!!It's strange but true.


Actual versus Potential Donation: On average, an American household with a salary of $924,495 with an investment asset of $18,125,000 gave $122,940 to charity in 2000—but had the potential to donate up to $1,031,000 without any change in standard of living.

Giving by Class: The two groups in the United States that give the highest percentages of their income are the poor (those making less than $20,000 per year) and the rich (those making more than $100,000 per year). Middle-class Americans (those making between $40,000 and $100,000 per year) are the smallest percentage givers.11
http://www.generousgiving.org/page.asp?sec=4&page=161
While the middle class lived well enough, they islanded themselves ,they ignored people on the street their pleas,telling themselves "that bum will just spend it on drugs" as they quickly roll up their subaru windows. Middle class do give,but prefer to leave the hands on sharing to charities and churches that force propaganda for food ,shelter or rehab. Charities and churches we all know the executives will skim off the top so very little of what little you middle class folks gave to us by proxy ever reaches our hands, you see the wealthy have to take the biggest slice because they are the biggest parasites and enemies of peace and prosperity for all..( but not for the lower class that is we are depraved and inferior we have to suck ass or"earn it" by humiliating ourselves first)
http://www.lipmagazine.org/articles/featdelmoral_nonprofit.htm

I fear it is not too long until the middle class that are unable or unwilling to look at the true source of their discomforts because they fear us,find us strange scary or 'gross,they will scapegoat us even worse instead of making us allies. I also fear when they clamor for reform to the government,the funds to help the middle class will not come from the wealthy few fat pockets who created this class war to benefit the wealthy to begin with.The money will be taken from,and cut from the programs to help the poor,disabled,
women,minorities,immigrants,ex prisoners, homeless,and mentally ill need to survive ..But because we are just not important enough..because life has broken us,and people don't like to deal with it, because we can't do what the middle class can accomplish and for as many reasons as there are people who are poor,
disabled,women,minorities,ex-prisoners,homeless,and mentally ill.
http://www-tech.mit.edu/V119/N21/col21kris.21c.html

The middle class like the upper class sadly is inclined to let others suffer so they will not feel the pinch too hard .Some do this by kissing their corporate abuser's ass,sucking up on up the chain of power,this appeasement of the abusers of power ensures the programs that help us merely survive are cut ,cut ,cut until they are there no more,or strapped so tight they cannot help the new poor falling in the gutter beside us now,ex middle classer's desperate afraid suicidal and feeling so helpless.and ashamed..How many middle class will join us in the gutter before they join us and fight this class wart and bite the masters hands off that he uses to steal and oppress people with? The rich will shred the social safety net before they'll ever be taxed so you "middle class" people can afford a lifestyle and comfort that cannot be sustained,so the rich can grab a little bit more..The middle class shrinks and it sits there while the rich are not confronted on their theft, exploitation,and financial abuse.

Middle class, Why not YOU wake up,stop being so bigoted against the poor,disabled,women,minorities, immigrants,ex prisoners, homeless,and mentally ill.Don't be afraid to reach out to those in bad neighborhoods,Stop stereotyping,Get to KNOW us,Talk to the people with smelly clothes,Speak to the "bums" that on the corner,Dare to relate to another world it could change everything.We are human beings like you .Fact is, the middle class are only a curb of a personal tragedy away from the 'gutters' even though the middle class fear that .We the underclass, the useless eaters that the wealthy and nazis call us,Some of us are here even on DU.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1463990

poor bashing,stereotyping,hunger,suffering in the heat/cold,no place to shower,sleep, no address, this is the life of the politically invisible, poor and struggling deal with everyday.
The wealthy exploiter/dominator class of the few parasites do see Middle class people like cattle to exploit,and a tool to keep the classes stratified ,dis-empowered ,divided and submissive.But even cattle are expendable when the wealthiest of tapeworm sucking this nation dry wants another new yacht and does not want to be taxed.
http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2008/05/22/more-voters-say-tax-the-rich/

Erin Burnett, the new glamor star at CNBC, says with a sneer that Americans are wrong to believe they have any right to a home.
In Ms. Burnett's world, the people have no right to a home, but the hedge funds have a right to the bailout. When things go bad, the average Americans get the boot, while the upper class gets the loot, paid for by the taxpayer, helping only the few.
http://pundits.thehill.com/2007/08/17/gilded-age-crime-poor-go-homeless-wealthy-get-bailouts/
http://ehrenreich.blogs.com/barbara_commentators/2007/09/the-death-of-de.html

None of us deserve to be financially abused,stigmatized,outcast scapegoated, Just as no one deserves to be "elite" or is entitled to have the world as their own personal oyster..So look to the real causes of this economic suffering,see the injustice abuse and inequality here. Look for the people who benefit the must from making others suffer,and blame the fortunate few and the rigged unregulated unfair market they rob us all through..and throw away sickening beliefs like the just world hypothesis and disgusting myths like poor people are poor because they are somehow deficient or depraved,and must be fixed and treated like children or have religion crammed down their throats because they are hungry or cold...

[Hydra]

1. The "Middle class" has always been the top 1%'s best advocates and skullcrushers

Because they think they're going to get some of that, someday.

The rules have changed, though. The Uber-rich don't NEED all of us anymore. The can produce all the goods and services they need with only 5% or less of us. The rest are dead where they stand.

The "Middle Class" won't see it coming until their heads are on the chopping block.

[lonestarnot]

19. See it coming :rofl: The top 1% already have more than 90% of us combined.

:rofl:

[Hydra]

23. :D

Exactly- and the "middle class" don't see that. They think they "own" their cars, their houses, their lifestyles. They should read the fine print on those loan applications.

I did mean the literal chopping block, though. As many people have pointed out, this isn't a class war- since the people on top are the only ones fighting, it's a class slaughter.

Since many of the people at the top have advocated for a population on earth of less than 1 billion, I wonder just how they plan on getting there...not!

[Ghost Dog]

2. The "Middle Class", these days, is essentially Working Class,

in as much as it wants and needs to find employment to get the income to pay the bills (or qualify for the credit) to get the "goodies" the "Middle Class Lifestyle" is supposed to require.

And the super-rich are, of course, an entirely different category.

But having said that: excellent work, undergroundpanther, on the OP.

[eilen]

3. The so-called "Middle Class"

basically delude themselves--they really believe they are "Upper Middle Class". They are in debt bondage and are caught in a trap. They know this on an elemental level and it is very painful and frustrating. In order to get through their days, they alternatively look down at others who don't meet their "standards" and hunger for material things, continually putting themselves into debt to obtain them furthering their debt bondage and resent the hell out anyone that seems to have "more" or "have it all". People who walk away from it all, the house in the suburbs and the new car and the whole socially acceptable manicures, salon highlights and golf memberships; who reject soccer mom and dad-hood, and then just do what the hell they want to do are resented the most, especially if they quit their corporate trap jobs. They are considered irresponsible, bums, etc. Find a reason to hate, you're fat, you live in a trailer, you don't cut your grass often enough, you don't dress in designer clothes, your car is old and beat up, you don't have an "it" bag, no nails done, your kid said a curse word in front of the virgin ears of my overindulged whiny offspring, you don't helicopter your kid, you don't go to church, you have a tattoo, piercing, pimple, brown skin, asian eyes, funny haircut, you don't acknowledge my superiority, you work a customer service job-- you are not a "professional", you smoke dope, my $25,000 hybrid is so much better than your second hand $7,000 Jeep Cherokee, "I" keep my home spotless, you are walking instead of driving etc.

They work long hours, they deserve it. What other luxury don't they deserve more than scorn?

Regardless of what spurred this, (healthcare bills or student loans garnished from $9/hr paychecks, $4.35/gallon gas) they feel more justified in perpetuating their lifestyles and looking down on others who either can't or won't anymore. Snooty assholes sucking at the tit of Babylon. If it's any comfort, know that karma is a bitch; Babylon eats them for lunch.

Remember the movie American Beauty? The happiest, most liberated character was treated like total shit and then killed. How dare he....

[lukasahero]

4. "they"

It's so easy to deride "them", isn't it?

Talk about finding a reason to hate. :eyes:

[dawgman]

6. blame the middle class....

That makes a lot of sense. Blame the slaves and not the owners.

I will say this. Blind rejection of society is not better or even much different than a blind embrace of society. I have a good job and a tatoo. I used to smoke dope. I went to a four year college and graduated but it was with a liberal arts degree. I have children who play sports but I adhere more to a marxist point of view than anything else.

So what am I. Did you not just look down your nose and judge me in the same manner as those you describe?

[otherlander]

9. Ok... The top 5%

suck. They should get a lot of the blame. Yes. But the middle class also has certain responsibilities. People who can afford houses with big lawns in relativley low-crime areas and more than one new car and organic food- people like, well... me. It's not just the top 5%'s responsibility to stop society from sucking. It's ours too.

[Indenturedebtor]

16. Oh stop being so boergiouse (sp?)

Don't you know that if you live above the poverty line it's because you were lucky and you're responsible for the excesses and injustices of the top 1% of society?

How dare you try to raise a family and take a vacation every 2 years?

[B Calm]

5. There's a big problem when 90% of the wealth is owned by 5%. My

CEO's teenage daughter on her 16th birthday took the company's leer jet along with three of her best friends to England to see a Spice Girls concert at the same time daddy was laying off hourly workers.

[SammyWinstonJack]

8. How obscene and disgusting, both! How do these *people* look themselves in mirror?

[TahitiNut]

13. They're VERY expensive mirrors?

:shrug: To see ourselves as others see us is a rare gift, indeed. I don't think it's on their shopping list.

[lonestarnot]

20. No 1% own more than 90% combined wealth.

[mdmc]

7. thanks for the links and words

peace and low stress, up!:kick:

[Indigo Blue]

10. undergroundpanther, your words sting, they hurt, they pierce...

... like arrows of truth... which they are. Heartfelt, naked truth.

I hope that people reading your words will take the time to feel your words as if they are their own, to feel some empathy.

Thank you so much for this post, and the many links you've included. I've just finished reading 'The Just World Theory'. Not my idea of a 'Just World', pretty much the exact opposite, but it clearly explains the attitudes of indifference exhibited by so many people today, the ability to look away, to not see.

I'll be reading the rest of your links throughout the day. Thank you. :hug:

[Mythsaje]

11. As Carlin said:

The Poor exist to scare the shit out of the Middle Class.

And the judgments fly every direction. "The poor are lazy, shiftless, little better than thieves and whores." "The middle class are greedy, materialistic, and opportunistic."

The class war was declared and won by fiat before most Americans knew it existed. The "owners" of the "ownership" society are taking us all on a long walk down the primrose path, bleeding us dry by each prick of the thorns. The more you have, the more you have to lose, and at the end of the day the only thing that separates the middle class from the poor is how many bills they have to pay to keep the monsters off their back.

I've been there where all that I owned could fit in a large duffel bag. I've had times when I didn't know where my next meal was coming from, and times when the only place I had to lay my head was at a campsite in the woods.

When I met my wife I was working full time and living on about 600 dollars a month, sharing an apartment with four other people and hoping my roommates didn't get their asses busted while I was there. She was living paycheck to payday loan to paycheck.

Together we built a life where we weren't on the verge of total financial failure every second of every day. The ONLY people who have it easy are the ones at the top. I personally advocate the salvation of the middle class because without it, the poor have nowhere to go, a fact I know all too well.

[nashville_brook]

12. it's not b/c the middle class is evil, it's b/c they are terrified. i know, i've been in both camps.

Living on government food programs and welfare as a child (with mentally ill adults), to living with my VERY middle class relatives, to being a degreed underemployed "hippie/slacker," to living a middle class existence and back to being dirt poor after a divorce. i'm not afraid of the swing, but most middle class people are -- they have no idea HOW TO LIVE outside of middle class game.

what i've seen happening lately, is middle class people being forced into the "poor" category -- and there's a good percentage of them who don't miss the rat race once they fall off their familiar wheel.

i understand the bitterness of poverty. it colors everything you see. my mother felt scapegoated and i got this same sermon from her constantly. i think she wanted me to be afraid enough to work harder to make it into the middle class and stay there. it didn't work that way, tho. it made me unafraid of poverty and poor people. it made me identify with "them." us.

yes, the middle class would be wise to let go of the artificial security of the gated community and the bottled water. that's happening. and when they start reaching out to join with the "poor community" for positive change, we have to be accepting and ready to get to work. the "us and them" is disappearing as we speak.

[TahitiNut]

14. As long as we can afford the entrance fee, we stay in Disneyland ...

... instead of walking the mean streets of Anaheim. :shrug: Life is better along the banks of denial.

[nashville_brook]

17. some do (many perhaps). many are aching to get the hell out... not everyone is suited to

sitting at a computer in a cubicle all day. there's plenty of well-paid people who are DYING to get the hell out and do something else...with their hands. it was a cliché after the dot-com bust that people took their pile of money and bought land to work. stories like this were staples of Real Simple, Fast Company, and Dwell magazines there for a while. it was always something very up-market, you know -- wineries, lavender farms, bison ranching. but still, the move was to get the hell out of the cube and get back to basics.

i think there's a lot of men, in particular, who are trapped behind desks who are dying to get the hell out that life -- but are locked into mortgages, debt and family obligations that they think won't allow for downsizing.

we seriously need to re-think two-income families. there's evidence that you lose money when both parents work, rather than "get ahead." but, this opens a whole new can of worms... people buy houses in areas with "good schools" and need 2 incomes to afford it. living in a "crappy" neighborhood with crappy schools affects your childrens' ability to succeed. on it goes.

[Wiley50]

15. K&R You Speak The Core Truth, Panther

There is only one way that this situation has ever even begun to be improved:

"and the people who simply can't take anymore
so they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone"
"Lives in the Balance " Jackson Browne


First we have to get through the phoney religious morality the rich have put in place to protect themselves.

Then we have to get through or convert the middle class that the rich maggots hire to protect them.

We have to somehow organize without them seeing and stopping us before we're strong enough.

And then we have to kill ALL of the maggot rich.


I can't see a picture of, for example, Lee Raymond with his fat rolling off his neck

without being seized with the strong desire to kill him and all like him.

but the miserable middle class protect them, at least until they become poor like us

And then it will happen. Bet on it.

[undergroundpanther]

18. I hear ya..Wiley..

>And then we have to kill ALL of the maggot rich.

Yeah we will have to, eventually, like it or not because they are unwilling to change because they see NOTHING wrong with their behavior.

Psychopaths, bullies,authoritarians narcissists,fake" triple alphas" any name for assholes who don't care about anyone else's suffering, all of them need to go.

Some people due to their toxic to any relationship personality type cause much suffering and will keep doing it until they are forcibly stopped. .These people disrespect life,disrespect boundaries and disrespect empathy..they will not co-exist with anyone in peace,integrity and fairness.

They have to be detected and eliminated. More people NEED to understand why certain types of personalities and ideologies are not healthy for any human beings.They need to grasp what abuse IS and what abusive people are and recognize the patterns in their behavior! It is unhealthy mentally to have toxic personalties even be around people that are not toxic.I know people don't like to hear that.They'd rather lock them up forever and avoid the unsavory aspect of the fact you might have to kill them.

Problem is if you lock them up someone's gotta be there and be willing to babysit them..But when the shit hits the fan,and we all know it will, we might not have that luxury at that time to take some lifelong asshole fucking people over to lock them away if we do not want to suffer at their hands,if we want to not be traumatized..we just might have to kill them off. Might as well realize your life has no value to authoritarian,narcissistic and psychopath fake alpha people, who will not stop abusing power.Why value their lives? These toxic personalities don't even value their own lives really 'cause if they did, they would not be putting other people through this financially abusive class war shit.Because if they grab too hard we do eventually push back and they will get destroyed or to avoid accountability for what they caused, they destroy themselves first.

To these toxic personalities everything is a fucking game.Suffering,empathy,fairness, honor, love,caring these concepts do not mean anything to them,all they see is other people are suckers to be exploited. So, lets stop letting the rich maggots exploit us.And we can force them to cease their traumatizing abusive 'games' at other's expense forever.One way or another.

[lonestarnot]

21. Wiley50

I hear you! Maggot and leeches both suck!

[lonestarnot]

22. Error: you can only recommend threads which were started in the past 24 hours

[lonestarnot]

24. Kick this fucking thing! Kick it hard and long! Kick it to the moon and back again!

[lonestarnot]

25. That thing got my blood a boil'n!

[Wiley50]

26. Me Too

But most who are still living comfortably don't want to hear it.

Give them time to fall a few more rungs

[lonestarnot]

27. Like raid on an ant den!

[deaniac21]

28. The world ends at noon!

The poor,disabled ,women ,minorities, immigrants, ex prisoners, homeless, and mentally ill will be hardest hit.

[lonestarnot]

29. kick