Monday, September 30, 2013

Down And Out Outside Beverly Hills

                                                           

Do the boasts of politicians trumpeting a recovering economy leave you doubtful?  When the liberals say Obama is doing just fine, is there a twinge or two of suspicion?  If you question all the bright pronouncements about an American recovery you have good reason to.

Would you like to know how our economy is faring?  Then all you need to do is fire up the family car and drive around town a bit.  Here's what you'll find.

You'll find the Dollar Store and Dollar General and .99 Cents Only stores packed with customers.  Americans who once frequented Macy's and Kohls and Dillards are now buying watered downed dish soap and cleaning supplies at the dollar stores.  They're  buying six month old candy and cookies and corn and green beans processed in Panama.  They're buying feather dusters, rubber spatulas and plastic glasses made in China.  

This customer traffic plays out in financial earnings report you'll find on the Yahoo Finance page.  The dollar stores are racking up huge profits while all those once middle class retail stores are hurting.  Moms can no longer afford to outfit the kids in Levi 501's and instead, frequents the thrift shops and the Salvation Army.  The winter sweaters on Kohls racks go wanting as moms frequent the Walmart clearance rack to score school clothing for the kids.  

Dad takes one look at his mortgage statement and sees that he's still under water and decides he can wear the Levi's Dockers for one more year.  The two teen kids are doing even worse as their once part time jobs at MacDonald's and Burger King have been taken by illegal aliens.  Speaking of MacDonalds, the only ones that can afford to eat there are the food stamp crowd as  working mom and dad feed the clan on Hamburger Helper.  Since mom and pop are still working they don't qualify for free school breakfast and lunch so they pack generic peanut butter sandwiches into brown bags and send them off with the kids each morning.

Mom and Dad are playing bill paying roulette as they choose whether to get right with the electric company or pay the gas bill, both of which are skyrocketing because of Obama's war on coal. Things have gotten even more tenuous as both Mom and Dad's employers are thinking hard about dropping the company's health care plan and opting to convert full time employees to 30 hour part timers.

Times were not always this hard.  Until 2009 real middle class disposable income increased at 3.2 percent a year.  Since 2009 middle class disposable income has dropped by 7 percent even as the cost of living has increased.  Gas prices have tripled and utility costs have increased 20 percent in the last five years.

The great American middle class was once studied to death.  Their birth came just after World War II when the Greatest Generation came home from war, got college degrees through the G.I. Bill, bought their first homes and furnished it with General Electric appliances.  This led to a twenty year economic boom that transformed American society.

The obituary for the American middle class is being written as we speak.  Besieged by corporate profit lust where the bottom line means more than good corporate citizenship, squeezed to death by Big Government who demands onerous taxation to finance an ever growing army of government tit-suckers, the middle class is shrinking at an alarming rate and clearly can no longer fund Big Government's purchase of political support to union thugs, greedy and inefficient government workers and three generations of welfare queens hungering for free cell phones and the bartering value of food stamp cards for cash and drugs.

Soon there will be no middle class.  Instead the economic demographics will be a pyramid with the narrow ultra rich at the top, undaunted by social conscience, coldly deploying American jobs to India and China...and all that will be left is that huge base of abject poverty at the bottom of the pyramid.

So, things are fine in Beverly Hills.  Beyonce and Jay Z will continue to pay a million dollars for a three day birthing suite.  Pelosi and Feinstein will continue to thrive by promoting legislation that enriches their two investment banking husbands.  The Clintons will continue to rake in $100 million a year from speaking tours at liberal Kool-Aid banquets.  Obama will collect royalties from two books that toot the value of a Black man who speaks proper English, Hollywood will continue to rope in enough adoring twits to their music and their movies in order to fund their cocaine habit, private jets and maintain a staff of illegal aliens to mow their lawn, clean their pool and mop the floors.

The tit sucking green check recipients will continue to enjoy the largesse of the liberal politicians who stay in power by granting ever increasing government grants and giveaways.  

So things are okay in Detroit, Chicago,  New York, Newark, Baltimore, Atlanta and South Central Los Angeles where we just learned that $650 million dollars per year is spent on illegal aliens and billions more to the lame, lazy and corrupted.  

And out on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills the quaint shops are thriving as Oprah stops by to buy a $200,000 dollar purse and the Kardashians buy enough leather to keep a cattle ranch in Montana thriving.

But the middle class is down and out...and dying a slow painful death.

Sad.  Damned Sad.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Some of us always preferred the dollar store to Macys but this has been a huge wake up call for alot of us and in my mind, it's a good thing in some ways. I know I can live on less, I know I don't need or want the stress of a large home, I am quite happy in a doublewide mobile home that I paid cash for. I am quite happy driving an 8 year old car. NI make do with the clothing and shoes I have now and damn glad I still have at least that. Alot of people don't.

A Modest Scribler said...

Anon, it's heartening to see that some have learned a lesson from that decade of excess; when people were re-modelling their kitchens every three years because marble was better than corian and corian was better than formica...etc.

Oprah will always be buying $200,000 dollar purses because she can afford to ease her concience by giving away one tenth of one percent of her annual income....and Beyonce will continue to shell out a million bucks for her baby deliveries...but it's good that the middle class are starting to become more defensive, watching their spending a little..which will allow them to hang on in the Middle Class a little longer..that is until Obama comes after the rest of their savings.

Unknown said...

Huey Long! Where are you when we really need you?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hphgHi6FD8k

A Modest Scribler said...

Jlynn, Long would be happy as hell today, as we have not only taken care of the poor; in many cases those on the public dole are far better off than the working taxpayer; free medical and dental care, housing vouchers, food stamps, welfare, extended unemployment compensation, preferential quotas for education and employment, child tax credits, etc.

And the rich are doing as well if not better than ever...it is only the middle class that are dying each day.

Ken said...

To "Anon", I'm happy for you but hey, fuck you very much! This is a freedom being forcibly taken buy a regime bent on the forced redistribution of my income. I was in line for quite a windfall of cash from an inheritance but now that everyone's hero has arrived that is quickly being reduced to nothing as well. I have chosen to live a frugal life all my life but just when I feel like spending some money it is taken and my freedom of choice taken with it. Maybe I misunderstood you but the last thing I need is a govt to tell me how to live. Goodbye to the middle class. We are such a less than mediocre society thanks to all those that know better than everyone else.

A Modest Scribler said...

Ken, I'm not sure if you were addressing that to anon...didn't see anything in their comments that endorse forced redistribution of income.

With regard to inheritance issues, I'm afraid between the fed's confiscatory inheritance tax, mated with those in California, you are indeed screwed.

Thanks for your coments.

TheOldMan said...

As long as low-IQ consumers buy Oprah, beyonce, and other crap, then these "oh-so-concerned" royalty will not know what is going on in the real world.