How Bad Can It Get?

April 16th, 2008

 Sarah’s Photo                           
  Middle-Class Concerns Rise
  by Sarah Anne Edwards, PhD
  co-author, Middle-Class Lifeboat

  The latest opinion polls suggest that we in the  
  middle class are getting ever more concerned. A
  recent national Pew Research Center survey 
  Inside the Middle Class: Bad Times Hit the Good
  Life
reports that 80% of the population who define themselves as middle class now believes it’s harder for them to maintain their lifestyle. One in for feel stuck (25%). One in three perceive themselves as slipping backwards financially.

Nearly half are tightening their belts and about the same number expect to make more cutbacks in the year ahead. That’s more than twice the number in 1983.

They worry about losing their jobs if they one have and whether they will be able to make their next mortgage payment.  Half of families have a debt load exceeding their annual income and credit is tighting fast. Even seven out of ten in the upper class feel things are getting worse!

But the Pew poll says we’re still optimistic. Most are confident their quality of life will be better in five years  and they expect their children’s lives will be better yet. But should we be?

Will the economy get better soon or will our economic circumstances become even more strained in years to come?

A comment by David S. to our February 7th poll suggests that’s a question we should contemplate. He was surprised to discover he was the only one who wasn’t worried about any of the concerns listed on our previous poll, but not for the reason you would think. He said:

“Not that I don’t worry about the future, just that I worry about concerns not on your list, such as an imminent economic collapse or, even worse, that such a collapse (combined with peak oil and other resource depletion issues) might be severe enough to knock our society into widespread violence and looting for a time. How I might plan to survive such a scenario is currently occupying my worry space. A drop in my material standard of living? Ha, I regard that as inevitable, and I stopped worrying about it a few years ago.”

We’ve yet to find any nationally publicized polls with the temerity to assess public fears of an economic collapse. Polls like the Pew survey suggest that’s not what’s on our minds. But is it? Should it be?

Listening to the tone of Federal Reserve Chair Bernanke’s testimony before Congress recently, watching his facial expressions and the care with which he was choosing his words, you might wonder if maybe it should.

Reading the concerns expressed by peak oil, water shortage, and climate change experts like Richard Heinberg, Peak Everything, James Lovelock, and James Howard Knunstler, The Long Emergency, would do more than suggest. They’re indicating the potential possibility for something near to collapse most certainly better be on our minds, if for no other reason than to take seriously the changes we need to be busy making.

Even conservative economic and political analyst Kevin Phillips is saying we’re in deep trouble. He uses the word crumbling in his latest book Bad Money to describe the state of our economy.

Mainstream media isn’t ignoring such problems either. They’re just not using the “C” word. If you’d like to get a taste of the breadth and depth of these news reports subscribe to Carolyn Baker’s Speaking Truth to Power blog. Each day you’ll find a long list of links to major news stories on our economic/ecological perils. You can even subscribe to this service, as we have, and have the list of daily news stories delivered to you in box … but be prepared to get real worried.

Maybe the popular polls are not asking the right questions. Maybe David S. is not the only one who’s worries have shifted from how to maintain our a material standard of living to far more serious matters. Maybe he’s not the only one of us who is beginning to add the word collapse or crumbling to his worries. 

We’d like to know. Take our new poll and let us tell us how deep your concerns go and, please leave a comment too explaining why you feel as you do.

How can we build an effective lifeboat if we’ve miscalculated the size of the storms we will need to weather?

Eco-nomic Anxiety: An Intelligent Response

March 24th, 2008

 Paul Edwards and Sarah Edwards Photo
  by Paul Edwards, JD and Sarah Anne Edwards,
  PhD, LCSW

  Articles on what is being called “eco-anxiety”   
  have begun appearing in periodicals of late,
  including some in the New York Times. The
  term is being used to refer to the psychological
  response to the proliferation of news about a constellation of environmental events such as global warming, climate change, resource depletion, species extinction, and ecological degradation.

Actually, the term is a misnomer. It is reflecting a far-broader, more serious concern that is spreading rapidly across the land.

Anxiety usually refers to either vague, undefined discomfort or irrational fear out of proportion to the likelihood or impact of the feared events. Neither definition applies to understanding today’s eco-concerns arising what needs to be done in response to them.

The economic effects of global warming, resource depletion, and other environmental crises are neither vague nor irrational. The resulting “anxiety” many Americans are feeling is growing rapidly because we are beginning to see the painful effects of this reality in our daily lives. Read the rest of this entry »

Do We Need a New Definition of Success?

February 14th, 2008

Sarah Edwardsby Sarah Anne Edwards
co-author Middle-Class Lifeboat
“Who is the middle-class?” This is the most common question we have been asked while doing dozens of radio interviews this month. Economists answer that question by citing specific income ranges. But the ranges vary widely, anywhere from $25,000 to $250,000. So income doesn’t seem to be the key to why 60% of Americans define themselves as middle class.

Middle class is more of a state of mind than a bank balance. We define ourselves as middle class as long as we feel we’re on track to success and thereby to a happy, secure life. But just what is success?

That is the question John Izzzo, Ph.D., asked 250 people from all walks of life in writing is book Five Secrets You Must Discover before You Die. You might be surprised at the answers he got.

First, he found that 84% of people he interviewed reported that “having money beyond a basic level of comfort did not increase their personal happiness.”  Second, he found that 81% said the most important factor in career happiness was “being true to yourself.”

Psychologist and associate professor at Knox College, Tim Kasser
goes a step further in disconnecting happiness from material success. In his books, The High Price of Materialism and Psychology and Consumer Culture, The Struggle for a Good Life in a Materialistic World, Kasser summarizes extensive research to show that after reaching a basic level of comfort, continually striving for more money and more things actually works against our sense of happiness. 

In writing Middle-Class Lifeboat, we found that in choosing to pursue new lifestyles and sometimes new careers, the people we interviewed had re-defined success. It no longer meant making more money or owning more things. They were stepping out of our materialistic consumer culture and found they were HAPPIER!!

So instead of aspiring to some externally-measured, material definition of success, perhaps it’s time for us to re-evaluate what makes us happy and define that as success. What would that be for you? How would it be different from what society defines as “success?”

What Me Worry? Or I Should I?

February 7th, 2008

Sarah’s Photoby Sarah Anne Edwards
co-author Middle-Class Lifeboat

A new USA Today/Gallop poll says most says Americans are deeply worried about maintaining their standard of living. 42% say the nation’s economic conditions are poor. 39% percent say it’s fair. 72% say it will be getting worse.

The greatest worry is the rising cost of gasoline and home heating prices, which concerns a whopping 57% Half of the families are worried about maintaining their standard of living. Almost as many are worried about having enough money after they retire, 47%, having to postpone their retirement, 45%, and the rising costs of health care, 43%. Other worries more than one in three people worry about include losing the value of their homes, not being able to afford college tuition or pay off college debt.

But it seems in American hope springs eternal. Although 76% of people think the economy is getting worse,  60% say that they personally will be better off this time next year. Hmm. What accounts for this? Read the rest of this entry »

What Is Poverty? Surely It Not Heading Your Way, Is It?

February 1st, 2008

Sarah Edwardsby Sarah Anne Edwards
author, Middle-Class Lifeboat
  When John Edwards pulled out of the Presidential primary this week, analysts blamed his inability to connect with voters on his message of ending poverty in America. My response was “poverty?” Is that what John Edwards was talking about? I thought he was talking about the protecting the financial security of the everyday working middle class.
  That got me to thinking … just what is poverty these days? When I worked for the War on Poverty in the 1960’s, poverty was about those among us who went to bed hungry every night, who lived on the streets, who didn’t have jobs, or who lived in tenements and rural shacks. There are still the poor among us in this sense, but since that time millions of people in the US have risen out of that kind of poverty.
  But now millions of the non-poor folks are wondering if they’re only one illness or one lay off away from poverty. Why? Read the rest of this entry »

Drowning in Debt?

January 29th, 2008

Paul’s PhotoPractical Tips to Begin the Help You Lift Your Load
by Paul Edwards
co-author Middle-Class Lifeboat

Many Americans are drowning in debt. The average American is carrying over $9000 in credit card debt. Many also have upside down auto loans, ballooning mortgage payments, and college loans.

Is there a Middle Class Lifeboat amidst this sea of debt? Yes, but reducing debt is a necessary step in preparing our own middle-class lifeboat because being weighted down by debt limits your vision and your choices for building a secure lifeboat. So here are some specific things you can do to get rid of debt: Read the rest of this entry »

How Will the Housing Crisis Affect You?

January 23rd, 2008

Whether you own a condo, single-family home, or are hoping to become a home-owner, today’s housing crisis is having a ripple effect throughout the world economy… and heading towards our doorsteps. Listen to our 1/22/08 interview on Dr. Carol Lieberman’s VoiceAmerica Radio Show along with guest Dean Valeriano, President and Co-Owner of Back Bay Funding & Realty. She asks Will the Housing Crisis Put You in the Poor House? It’s a lively discussion about what we can do to protect our homes and financial futures. It’s playing here .

Middle-Class Troubles Acknowledged Big Time!

January 19th, 2008

    by Sarah Edwards

Suddenly the President, the chairman of the Federal Reserve bank, and the candidates running for the Presidential primary are very concerned about the middle class! We’re center stage in their attention. With good reason, of course. Prices of food and gasoline are rising, foreclosures are escalating, inflation is looming, the value of the dollar is falling, unemployment is up, consumer credit is tightening.

All of this has been brewing for sometime now, but it must be getting really bad now because all these folks rushing to set forth their version of an emergency program. So we had better pay close attention and be ready to make our voices heard. What do we need to be considering? Read the rest of this entry »

Who Cares about Us?

January 9th, 2008

by Paul & Sarah Edwards
Visit us at MiddleClassLifeboat.com

The Presidential primaries are sizzling right now and that’s good for us! Right now there are actually nail-biting, edge-of-the-seat contests within both parties and no clear winners in sight. This means that at least until February 5th, when 23 states will hold a caucus or primary, we in the middle class have a better chance than usual to scrutinize the candidates to see if the middle-class concerns, hopes and fears matter to them. 

Do any of them care about us? Some pundits say none of them really do, that they’re all too beholden to industry lobbyists and mega corporate donors. Yet some candidates are saying they do care. Some have expressed concerns about the rising pressures we’re facing, our dwindling numbers and the growing gap between the rich and the poor. But do they really care, or are such comments only spins and convenient sound bites thrown out because they know we still make up most of American voters?

We’ve each got to determine for ourselves who, if anyone, really care and we have to do it right now because February 5th is less than a month away. So how can we get beneath the spin? Well … first Read the rest of this entry »

Why Aren’t We Angry?

December 18th, 2007

by Paul & Sarah Edwards
Visit us at MiddleClassLifeboat.com

Oh yes, of course, we already are angry. Angrier, studies show, than we once were as a nation of people. We’re angry at the slow drivers ahead of us in traffic. We’re angry at the people who take too much time talking to the clerk in line ahead of us. But what about all the things that are making it harder and harder for us to live a decent middle class life?

For example, did you know that the increase in incomes of the top one percent of Americans from 2003-2005 exceeded the total income of the poorest 20 percent ? Well, that’s what data from a new report by the Congressional Budget Office shows.

This is but one indication that, as so many folks are feeling these days, that the gap between the rich and the poor is widening and the middle class is shrinking.

Stay tuned for a chance to dialog on the latest news on the things we as a shrinking middle class should really be angry about. Then we won’t have to get so bothered with little things that don’t matter all that much and can channel our anger instead into raising a collective middle class voice for change.