Middle Class Lifeboat Blog

by 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? (more…)

by 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? (more…)

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? (more…)

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.