Middle Class Lifeboat Blog

Eureka Springs Sets an Inspiring Example for Our Eco-nomic Challenged Times

Sarah — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:13:18 +0000

by Sarah Anne Edwards, PhD

Eureka Springs, AR, is actively taking on a number of simultaneous efforts to address today’s many environmental issues and their personal and community economic consequences. While many communities have yet to respond or have gotten bogged down, this community is moving ahead.

Planet Home, for example, is a volunteer group of concerned citizens who are calling attention to global warming and peak oil and busily enlisting folks to take action on many fronts. I recently had the pleasure of sitting in on one of their planning meetings where I was welcomed and inspired.

Over the past year since they came together, Planet Home has (more…)

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How to Best Spend Your Tax Rebate

Sarah — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 01:12:31 +0000

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

Economists worry that Americans will use their tax rebates to pay down bills instead of buying more iPhones and plasma TV’s. Certainly, decreasing personal debt is a pressing and important need for many Americans, but the best way to spend our rebates might be on neither consumer goods nor debt but on securing our economic futures in a perilous changing economy.

While a “Recession” is an election year worry, with painful consequences for many people, something bigger is happening with implications for the standard of living and hopes of most Americans and their children’s future — changes that make the more important “R” words (more…)

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How Bad Can It Get?

Sarah — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:23:40 +0000

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? (more…)

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Eco-nomic Anxiety: An Intelligent Response

Sarah — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 02:43:48 +0000

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. (more…)

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Do We Need a New Definition of Success?

Sarah — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:11:43 +0000

by 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?”

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What Me Worry? Or I Should I?

Sarah — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 21:00:37 +0000

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…)

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

Sarah — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 18:44:31 +0000

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…)

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Drowning in Debt?

Sarah — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:51:41 +0000

Practical 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: (more…)

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How Will the Housing Crisis Affect You?

Sarah — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 02:22:07 +0000

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 .

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Middle-Class Troubles Acknowledged Big Time!

Sarah — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 22:53:37 +0000

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…)

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