"hk" wrote in message
. ..
Eisboch wrote:
"hk" wrote in message
...

This is a great newsgroup. Unemployment is the highest it has been in
years, foreclosures are settings records, gas prices are still three
times what they were when Bush presumed office, nearly 50 million
Americans are without health care insurance, but what the hell...

And please don't tell me such discussions are off topic. This entire
newsgroup is off topic.


Calm down. It is, after all, only a newsgroup.

Now, it seems to me that every social and economic problem you mentioned
(above) can be blamed on a number of factors, including the decline of
old fashioned, traditional values in our culture. Things have become
too easy and instant. The concepts of commitment and honor are outdated.
Tired of your wife? Divorce her and get a new one. Don't like your
job? Quit and collect unemployment until a new one comes along. Want a
big new house? Sign on the dotted line. Don't worry about how you will
pay for it. You can always walk away from it. Want to curb teenage
pregnancies? Have schools hand out condoms and birth control pills.
Now *that* certainly builds character, self-discipline and
responsibility, huh? Too easy.

It amazes me that, with all the talk of running out of oil for so many
years, the auto manufacturers still built gas guzzlers.
Why? Because *that's* what sold! It's what people wanted. Now that
gas is 4 bucks a gallon everybody blames Bush and the automotive industry
for being economically and environmentally irresponsible by not forcing
Toyotas and similar on us for the past 10 years. Cracks me up.

Oh, well. We will survive, despite your gloom and doom.

Eisboch


I think survival of the middle class is debatable. If the middle class
keeps falling, the growing numbers of "have-nots" rightfully will revolt
against the rich. When that happens, I hope it is bloody. We are getting
to the point where we need a new social order with a little equity in it.
I don't know what that order should be, I have some thoughts, but what we
have now is not working for more and more Americans.


Oh, the middle class will survive just fine. We will experience good
economic times and challenging economic times, as we always have, but the
power and inertia of the country resides in the middle class. That's what
makes our system so unique. Watch and listen to both McCain and Obama. Who
are they talking to in order to garner votes?

Please note the "we". For the bulk of my lifetime, my family and I would
have been in the "lower middle to middle class" category.
At our stage of life right now, we'd be most likely categorized as "upper
middle class" from a economic point of view.

So .... When it's all said and done, we will have averaged out somewhere
between lower middle and middle class, right where the bulk of America is.

Eisboch