As Middle Class Fades, So Does Use of Term on Campaign Trail

[LiberalElite]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/12/us/politics/as-middle-class-fades-so-does-use-of-term-on-campaign-trail.html?_r=0

-snip-
Hillary Rodham Clinton calls them “everyday Americans.” Scott Walker prefers “hardworking taxpayers.” Rand Paul says he speaks for “people who work for the people who own businesses.” Bernie Sanders talks about “ordinary Americans.”

The once ubiquitous term “middle class” has gone conspicuously missing from the 2016 campaign trail, as candidates and their strategists grasp for new terms for an unsettled economic era. The phrase, long synonymous with the American dream, now evokes anxiety, an uncertain future and a lifestyle that is increasingly out of reach.
-snip-

[woo me with science]

1. That says it all. nt

[Art_from_Ark]

2. Pretty soon they'll revert to using the original terms:

"Serfs" and "Lords"

[woo me with science]

3. If you watch the language carefully,

they have already shifted from calling American politicians "representatives" to calling them "leaders."

[enough]

4. And the word "citizen" has almost completely disappeared in common use.

(Except of course for Citizen's United.&quot

If anything, we're called "consumers."

[malthaussen]

9. Tell me about it.

I could go on for quite a long rant about how we have forgotten the meaning of the word, but I'll spare you. I'll just note that throwing away a term like "citizen" makes it easier for demagogues to create polarization, and hence divide et impera.

-- Mal

[erronis]

11. How 'bout "bunkmate"? Can't afford to pay off your loans?

Citizen Corporation of America has some nice housing for you.

[F4lconF16]

25. That's actually starting to come back.

People can't afford their own apartments anymore. We're at the point where people are actually sharing rooms now despite full time jobs.

[Alittleliberal]

28. Housing will be the next major string to snap.

Prices are far outpacing wages. Young adults can't move out of their parents homes. There are empty houses everywhere.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. Clients

that one struck me the other day at court.

[malthaussen]

7. You have to be careful with that.

"Serf" implies a very specific legal position with specific obligations and benefits (lots more of the former than the latter). The current system, and the one the rulers want, is a much more fluid relationship that eliminates all obligations on the part of the rulers. Agreed, such obligations were honored more in the breach than otherwise; nevertheless, if the Rand Pauls of the world had their way, we'd be a lot worse off than serfs.


-- Mal

[fasttense]

14. Good point

When capitalism first came out in force, the workers who took the jobs they offered were called "Wage Slaves". Because for that time of employment they were slaves and they were treated like it. Children working in the rich capitalist's factories were kept in dorms and beaten if they fell asleep while they were working - much like slaves.

A common Capitalist phrase in the late 1800's was "Factories were made for children and children were made for factories." This while hundreds of children lost their legs, arms, feet, hands, fingers and sometimes their lives in the factory machines.

Those are the good old days that corporations and their paid for politicians want to take us back to.

[malthaussen]

17. Children and women.

The regulations for women employees were as restrictive, including dorms, bed checks, monitoring of personal lives, etc. And women got paid less than men, too.

But children, ah! They could be paid a pittance, were less prone to lost time due to vice, and were easier to control than even women. Oh, for the good old days!

-- Mal

[hifiguy]

22. A fusion of hard economic feudalism with soft population-control

via propaganda that can only be called fascist in its inspiration, has been the long game of the plutocracy for decades. And they will probably get it.

[KoKo]

5. Recommend...Good points.

Annoys me as much as "Consumers" taking the place of "Customers" in Wall Street "Economic Business Speak."

[rpannier]

6. Rick Santorum says we don't have classes

Middle Class is a Marxist term according to Sanitorium

[malthaussen]

8. When I was a lad, the term "Human Resources" was just coming into vogue.

It's been downhill since then.

-- Mal

[Hiraeth]

10. wow. That just dawned on me. Resources. Human. What a terrifically horrible term.

[magical thyme]

12. I've actually seen "human resource units" used

as well as "human capital."

For years when filling out my 1040, under job title I would put "marketing resource unit"

[Hiraeth]

15. human capital? ugh. but, yeah ... you just have to laugh at the irony of it all. Small wonder we

have become Prozac Nation.

[malthaussen]

18. Oh, yeah, "Human capital" is a big one, too.

I submit that the fact you could get away with that on your tax return tells us some significant things about the bureaucracy.

-- Mal

[LiberalElite]

21. A cynical (but very good guy) attorney I used to work for once told me -

"We're all just fungible assets." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fungibility

[ananda]

13. Still afraid to use the word POOR I see.

Sad.

[hifiguy]

23. I haven't heard that word in a national campaign

I can't remember how long ago it was. Maybe George McGovern.

[geek tragedy]

16. that's just depressing nt

[dembotoz]

19. chattel

[olddots]

20. we are all parts of market segments

we are dehumanizing quickly as knowledge shifts to statistics and graphs .to represent humans .

[Octafish]

26. When the DEMs stopped talking about the poor...

...it was only a matter of time before it would be the middle class' turn.

[kimbutgar]

27. I see my friends struggling to make the rent every month

Jobs just don't pay to make life survivorable. My best friend was childhood is one step way from poverty.

I was in a supermarket today in line was a white man probably early 60's. He paid with ebt card for food. I commented to my husband this is the real face of snap benefits not black people but poor white people. I work as a sub, I brought in some cookies and passed them out and one little girl got a piece of paper and wrapped those cookies to take home to share with her mom.This same girl Earlier in the week as I was asking the kids about their weekend she reported that she went to the food bank and told Me she got bread and some cereal. I went back to my desk got a plastic bag and filled it with more cookies and pretzels. I gave it to her and said eat those two cookies now and share this bag with your mom. I wanted to cry then and there that an innocent child was suffering because millionaires need more tax breaks and our children go to bed hungry at night. I think about the boy who was hoarding 3 lunch hot meals because he wanted his siblings to have a hot meal because they were tired of eating cereal for dinner. I brought one additional meal for him to eat. I was so ashamed that a political party in my country is ok with kids going to bed hungry at night.

I am fortunate, I had a good job in the 90's and was able to buy a house. My husband still has his union job with benefits. My mother owns two paid off homes in San Francisco and has rental income, my Dad's pension and social security. I manage her finances and she has a full time caregiver living with her. But so many people are suffering I feel embarrassed that I am not suffering. I work as a sub and have another part time job because I have marketable skills. But I try to do whatever I can to help out. I wish I was a millionaire to help more people.