The Death of the Middle Class

For a time the United States was the cradle of the middle-class; the group that kept the American economy moving. Now, this special and important class is on the verge of extinction. Today middle-class Americans are losing their jobs, homes and way of life. In fact, they are the fastest growing group towards homelessness. The impact of outsourcing, a non-productive society, the oil crisis, and a changing economy our nation is rapidly becoming a society of the affluent and the poor. For instance, take Florida. The sunshine state has a very limited blue-collar industrial base. The primary source of industrialism is tourism that creates only a service structure economy. That is, work in hotels, entertainment, and fast food enterprises. Workers in this field are underpaid, exploited, and misused. The limited middle-class person who losses their job must fall into a service end job that cannot keep pace with a middle class lifestyle. Thus, that middle class person eventually becomes a member of the permanent underclass. Sadly, this is not only the case in Florida; but, throughout the nation. The importance of the middle-class is that this is the group that creates the jobs, enterprises, and hope. They are the ones who attend colleges and universities that generate the blood and the upliftment of Americana. If the middle-class continues to evaporate the America that we love will become a distant memory.