Only cause the rich are starting to lose their money too.

//god damn super rich.

So poverty is the new middle class?

/Oh

Oh gee, how insightful. I was not aware that the standard of living was rising worldwide. Thank God we have Reason magazine to bring us these trenchant insights!

Luckily I live in The United States of Globanistan where the middle class is booming.

I'm sure those Indians and Chinese are very happy. Now someone explain why I shouldn't be concerned about the American middle class.

It's called socialism. When you take money from the successful and give it to the entitled, of course the number of poor becoming middle class will grow.

Makes sense. Jobs going to China = Chinese poor moving up to middle class.

/Still not good for the American middle class

"Middle class" in some countries means that your family of 5 has a moped to share and enough rice to last through the week.

as other countries middle classes grow ours tends to shrink, due to the idiots running the show here.

Wait a minute, I thought Globalization was only supposed to hurt blue collar workers and the poor.

Now That's What I Call a Taco!: I'm sure those Indians and Chinese are very happy. Now someone explain why I shouldn't be concerned about the American middle class.

THISSSSSSSSS

drachen: Only cause the rich are starting to lose their money too.

//god damn super rich.

Aww, somebody's jealous.

diesel3: It's called socialism. When you take money from the successful and give it to the entitled, of course the number of poor becoming middle class will grow.

Does that happen in the states?

thats cool, i went to college with Raluca (one of the GS article co-writers.)

Good for the rest of the world and their "middle class explosion". But I could not give to shiats about it because there is a shrinking middle class here at home. The rest of the world could be a bunch of poverty stricken dirt farmers for all I care, if it means that greater opportunity is available to people in my country.

/Why does Reason Magazine hate America?

Wow, just by reading this information, all monetary problems have gone away!

So now Reason is actually supporting the idea that we give up national sovereignty to the international sphere? The acrobatics it takes to be a conservative today are something to behold.

Nattering nabobs of negativism, the lot of them.

I would be all for that if the boom could be supported by resources such as metals, food, water, and oil.

What is the point of a "boom" that will lead to a global resource shortage that puts everybody back into the mud-farmer era. I don't care if it sounds bad - if there is a limited middle class in the world - I want the US to have as many as possible.

Can the planet afford it? More middle class people means more consumption.

With limited resources, the more a Chinese or Indian family gets, the less *I* get.

Remember in the 60s when the Chinese were all on bicycles and we were driving cars?

Now its the Chinese driving cars - and just look on any gas thread here for the "I bike to work' Farkers.

/investing heavily in U-store franchises

commentators often depict an embattled and shrinking middle class

I have not seen one (1) person say that anywhere.

/this got posted?

vernonFL: Can the planet afford it? More middle class people means more consumption.

With limited resources, the more a Chinese or Indian family gets, the less *I* get.

Remember in the 60s when the Chinese were all on bicycles and we were driving cars?

Now its the Chinese driving cars - and just look on any gas thread here for the "I bike to work' Farkers.

At least you've got your priorities straight.

That makes me feel better. I'm glad to think that even though I've worked my entire life (and believe me, life is unfair) and I'll die in poverty with no health care, China and India are doing better.

/totally not selfish
//completely down with Chana Masala

All those manufacturing jobs had to go somewhere.

Now That's What I Call a Taco!: I'm sure those Indians and Chinese are very happy. Now someone explain why I shouldn't be concerned about the American middle class.

Because eventually we will regain our work ethic?
Maybe not feel so entitled?
Maybe only buy one SUV until two?
Maybe think "hey, I can put off buying the new iPhone until next year"?
Maybe not feel that we "deserve" 300 channels and a 60" flat screen tv?
Maybe not eat out and a rapidly increasing rate?
Maybe not insist on government-subsidized liberal arts educations?
Maybe encourage our kids to learn a trade, vocation, or earn an engineering degree?
Maybe not feel like we need a prescription for prozac to deal with those barristas at Starbucks while we send teenagers to kill people overseas?
Maybe not delude ourselves into thinking that life should be like an episode of Friends?

Just throwing out some reasons for hope....and change and hope and change and hope.....

culebra:
At least you've got your priorities straight.

The point of life is to survive and advance. I want the world to be great and for cows to fart rainbows but the world has limited resources. I want the American people to have those resources. If that comes at the cost of other people around the world? Oh well, it sucks and I would prefer the world have enough for everybody but it doesn't.

Nativist Naysayers?

You mean Americans?

We've allowed our corporations in collusion with the government to make a deal with the Devil, using deficit spending and dependence on horrifically inefficient markets to funnel all profit made within our economy to a tiny wealthy minority is what is bankrolling the growth of the middle-class in developing countries like India and China.

And remember that middle-class is relative to cost of living. $100k in America makes for one middle-class household. It makes for 5 or more in India.

It's funny to see so many Farkers who want us to get along with the globe politically ignore the globe economically.

Yeah! More people trying to live beyond their means just like us, consuming more energy and driving up prices for food and consumer goods leading to skyrocketing inflation! This is awesome!

Seriously, we can't sustain our current lifestyle as it is, so what happens when everyone in China and India decides that they want a house and a car and a dog and a LCD HD TV, too? This is not going to end well.

Well, bully for the rest of the world and their growing middle class. Here at home, the middle class is shrinking, and wealth is increasingly being concentrated in the hands of the wealthy. Generally, when that happens, there is social upheaval and unrest. I don't think that we are there yet, not even close, but it could happen.

The submitter fails to point out that the middle class is growing in other countries, not in the USA. In the USA the middle class is being squeezed to poverty at an alarming rate.

yea because chinas middle class is booming as all the money gets sucked out of america..

our middle class, on the other hand, is an endangered species

but the republicans will come in and blame 'lazy liberals' for not pulling themselves up by their bootstraps while ignoring the fact that the super rich (bush and his cronies et al) control 80%+ of the money/assets/etc already ..

Can the planet afford it? More middle class people means more consumption.

Middle Class birthrates plummet. Long term for the planet, middle class means rapid drops in population and less overall impact on the planet.

The only exception is energy. We need to go nuclear/solar/wind NOW.

/bikes to work

I'll Quote Phill Gramm a senior (no pun intended) member of McCain's Campaign-"whiners!"

FLMountainMan: Now That's What I Call a Taco!: I'm sure those Indians and Chinese are very happy. Now someone explain why I shouldn't be concerned about the American middle class.

Because eventually we will regain our work ethic?
Maybe not feel so entitled?
Maybe only buy one SUV until two?
Maybe think "hey, I can put off buying the new iPhone until next year"?
Maybe not feel that we "deserve" 300 channels and a 60" flat screen tv?
Maybe not eat out and a rapidly increasing rate?
Maybe not insist on government-subsidized liberal arts educations?
Maybe encourage our kids to learn a trade, vocation, or earn an engineering degree?
Maybe not feel like we need a prescription for prozac to deal with those barristas at Starbucks while we send teenagers to kill people overseas?
Maybe not delude ourselves into thinking that life should be like an episode of Friends?

Just throwing out some reasons for hope....and change and hope and change and hope.....

riiight
and all the stories i see about people not even having enough money to buy gas
IF ONLY THEY WOULD PART WITH THEIR 500" HDTVS AND THE HELICOPTER

PAID_NETVOCATE:
riiight
and all the stories i see about people not even having enough money to buy gas
IF ONLY THEY WOULD PART WITH THEIR 500" HDTVS AND THE HELICOPTER

What stories? Where did I mention helicopters and 500" hdtvs? Sorry to advocate less consumption, I knwo that's really right-wing of me. Sorry.

These here, these are apples. Over there, those are oranges. See how they're the same?

Price of gas should confirm this.

All2morrowsparTs: "whiners!"

Is that what they are going to say when people are cold this winter because they can't afford heating oil? "wear a sweater"?

I'm actually starting to save *now* for winter because I know that my heating bills are going to go up 25% from last year, and I was hurting last year.

Don't those silly brown people know there not suppose to practice what we preach.
Be careful what you ask for you just might get it.

So I'll just add my two cents to the already 10 cents in here that are speaking in the same vein that I think. It concerns me that "localism," "nativist," and "nationalist" are considered bad words these days. Pride in the community, state and country have to take a back seat to multi-culturalism. The use of comparing our hardships to those of other countries is getting really old and cliché (see "Nanny State")

"Yeah so gas is $4.20, it's over $10.00 in Germany!"

"Yeah so we have taxes, taxes account for over 80% of income outflow in the Netherlands!"

Our problems aren't as bad as someone elses so that make our problems negligible, right?

The middle class IS shrinking in this country and just because Krygystanaghanatrgqwwwwstan's middle class is doing OK doesn't mean that we have no right to worry.

I don't live on the global level. I live on the local level, like everyone else on the planet. Juggle your farking statistics somewhere else...

Rapmaster2000: Oh gee, how insightful. I was not aware that the standard of living was rising worldwide. Thank God we have Reason magazine to bring us these trenchant insights!

You sound as if you were previously unaware of this completely obvious fact.

Now That's What I Call a Taco!: So now Reason is actually supporting the idea that we give up national sovereignty to the international sphere? The acrobatics it takes to be a conservative today are something to behold.

Do you really consider Reason conservative? Really? Really?

\really?

diesel3: It's called socialism. When you take money from the successful and give it to the entitled, of course the number of poor becoming middle class will grow.

And the number of the wealthy will also become middle-class. That's fair, right?

Just because you move your 12 member family from a cardboard box to a one room corregated metal roofed shack with a concrete floor does not mean you are now "middle class".

BTW: The middle class in the US is going exinct, and after the next Great Depression (thanks, Bushies!) , there will only be two classes: CEOs (including rich, drunk, AWOL cocaine addicted frat boy baseball team owning failures) and the rest of us. Hope you enjoy sh*t sammiches, cause that's all any of us are gonna get to eat.

By transferring enormous amounts of wealth from the US to Communist China, Communist Vietnam and India. Globally, we should all be happy for those lucky communists and child labor champions.

Wheeeeeee! Look at me. I'm creating a global middle class!

When should I start buying International/Global Mutual Funds?

Now That's What I Call a Taco!: So now Reason is actually supporting the idea that we give up national sovereignty to the international sphere? The acrobatics it takes to be a conservative today are something to behold.

"Reason" - Conservative?????????

Whoa! You have a really WIDE definition of "conservative". Like - Everyone who isn't socialist?