A class of their own
The Middle Class is under the threat of pure economic genocide by the very factions entirely dependent on it. This demographic responsible for the greatest production of human wealth is purely a consequence of free-market enterprise and political sovereignty attained through countless revolutionary tribulations. Without a class of middle status workers, we are all succumb to system of serfdom at the detriment of personal freedom and collective prosperity.
History is predominantly a cyclical struggle of two-tier societies. The ruling class of kings, lords, or aristocrats subjugates a certain bourgeoise until that peasantry revolts and replaces its rulers with new ones beginning the cycle again. Eventually this caste system was broken by various forms of liberalism and capitalist economies to create a middle class of independent people capable of self-sufficiency and productivity. This class of middle-income workers is a loosely defined subset of people in the social hierarchy that are considered “mid” in terms of income or status. Neither rich nor poor, but intrinsically productive.
Today the lines between the classes are absurdly blurred as privileges of the poor closely resemble other classes through economic welfare. The widening wealth gaps create varied and undefined groups that are in states of constant change. It isn’t so black and white as modern luxuries are essentially accessible to everyone with a favorable credit score. The debt-based economy and diverse lifestyles make it difficult to pinpoint socioeconomic groups based on income and education. Therefore, we will define these groups in terms of wealth creation and economic independence:
Lower-class: These are people primarily dependent on the system. They can work for a livable wage and obtain income naturally, but a majority of their expenses are covered by welfare. This isn’t just the unemployed and homeless but also struggling workers and retirees with livelihoods derived from the wealth of others. They leave this class once the income produced by their own labor surpasses any assistance.
Upper-class: These are people with financial instruments that yield enough to cover all expenses. Their income from wages is not important because their lifestyle could be sustained independent of their occupation. These are your trust fund kids, share-based compensation executives and retirees with substantial annuities purchased while they were still working. Individuals drop from this class when their lifestyle must be paid for with wages or government assistance.
Middle-class: Total autonomy from welfare and financial products. Their lifestyle is dictated by how much they work and the income they produce. They can drop classes through bankruptcy or unemployment, but they can also rise in class through prudent saving and investing. Once again, the level of income, social status, or education does not matter. These classes are determined the by share of expenses covered by labor, welfare or interest/investments.
The semi-free-economies of modern nations make socioeconomic movement possible for everyone depending on their financial literacy and propensity to work. Some individuals may find themselves in each class throughout their lives. No one is predetermined to spend their whole life in one category. Generational wealth can be easily squandered, welfare recipients can climb their way to independence, and middle-class individuals can swing in either direction based on their financial responsibilities and frugality. High-income earners with extravagant lifestyles have just as much wealth as the paycheck-to-paycheck MacDonalds cashier. It’s not about how much you make, but how much you save.
The coordinated attack upon the productive middle-class comes in the form of excessive taxation and wealth redistribution. Despite being the largest and highest tax paying demographic, the middle-class is the LEAST represented in democracies. Politicians cater to the highest and lowest common denominators at the expense of the majority electorate. This because government has nothing to provide to a class of independent people. Governments can only take from productive individuals or give back what they have already taken. The lifestyles of the lower classes are contingent on the level of support by their authority; thus, they give their subservience to that authority.
The upper-class has a far different systemic advantage in the form of inflation. Those who hold the assets are substantially better off when the currency is perpetually devalued. The rich survive off their financial instruments which derive their value from a debt-based monetary system that negatively effects the other classes. The Cantillon Effect describes how changes in the supply of money leads to an uneven distribution of wealth. The individuals and entities closest to the source of money creation benefit from inflation as their assets are disproportionately increased in relation to decrease of purchasing power. The rich do not care how much they are taxed when their income stems from financial products that increase substantially if governments overspend and devalue the currency.
The middle class gets hit from both sides as they are directly affected by both rising taxation and inflation. The other classes benefit from either sides of the economic system, and their lifestyles are enhanced at the expense of the productive middle class. The eventual result is a degradation of the middle class as wage earners are punished for producing more and their current lifestyle becomes increasingly expensive. This is a return to the two-tier society of serfdom, but this time the most productive individuals are funding both the derelicts and the proletariat. The obvious consequence is a decrease in prosperity for everyone as the incentive to produce disappears and the healthy movement of socioeconomic classes degrades into perpetual economic oppression.
The middle class can free itself from this system with interclass nepotism. The willful boycott of the existing monetary system and “representative governance” is a hard sell, but there are other ways to ensure personal independence and prosperity. By forming communities of small businesses and local economies that detest the multinational corporation and parasitic welfare recipients, the middle class can reassert themselves as the true power center. The suburban townships were the first form of protest by the middle-class as they left the city centers who abandoned them and took their tax dollars with them. This needs to occur on a massive scale.
New neighborhoods with strict zoning and commerce laws could reverse the corporatization of communities and create new voting blocks of staunchly middle-class people. By finding alternative and localized methods of financial investment, the Wall Street oligarchy would slowly lose size and scope. Social hierarchies form naturally but the economic backstops would come in the form of community instead of government. Aristocracy would develop based on merit and service to community rather than lavish luxuries produced by debt.
A true free enterprise system devoid of government subsidies and central bank currencies would produce a single caste of productive people working for one another. These are the independent societies that produce prosperity in aggregate as opposed to the socialist crony capitalist systems that produce the caste system we live in today. This isn’t some far reaching utopia, it exists here and now. We just need to remember how it works, remove the unproductive nonsense, and do it with class.