National Museum of the Middle Class Opens in Schaumberg, IL

[AP]

SCHAUMBURG, IL—The Museum of the Middle Class, featuring historical and anthropological exhibits addressing the socioeconomic category that once existed between the upper and lower classes, opened to the public Monday.


Above: A waitress from Chicago learns what the middle class was.

..."From their weekend barbecues at homes with backyards to their outdated belief in social mobility, the middle class will forever be remembered as an important part of American history."

...

"No one predicted the disappearance of the middle class," said Dr. Bradford Elsby, a history professor at the University of Pennsylvania. "The danger of eliminating workers' unions, which had protected the middle class from its natural predators for years, was severely underestimated. We believe that removal of the social safety net, combined with rapid political-climate changes, made life very difficult for the middle class, and eventually eradicated it altogether."

...


Above: Several members of the upper class learn how people without yachts used to pass the time.

Many museum visitors found the worldview of the middle class—with its reliance on education, stable employment, and ample pensions—difficult to comprehend.

...

"They expect us to believe this is how people lived 10 years ago?" Chavez asked. "That 'Safe, Decent Public Schools' part was total science fiction. No metal detectors, no cops or dogs, and whole classes devoted to art and music? Look, I may have flunked a couple grades, but I'm not that stupid."

...

"Frankly, I think they're selling us a load of baloney," said laid-off textile worker Elsie Johnson, who visited the museum Tuesday with her five asthmatic children. "They expect us to believe the government used to help pay for college? Come on. The funniest exhibit I saw was 'Visiting The Family Doctor.' Imagine being able to choose your own doctor and see him without a four-hour wait in the emergency room. Gimme a friggin' break!"

The Museum of the Middle Class was funded primarily by the Ford Foundation, the charitable arm of the Ford automotive company, which sold cars to the middle class for nearly 100 years.

http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4044&n=1&id=3886

[oscar111]

1. When did the middle class begin? Due mostly to unions, right?

i am guessing it began about 1890, due to unions winning decent wages.

any historians?

[UdoKier]

2. Not really until the 1930's I thought.

Union organizers were still being killed for trying to do so well into the new century.

[SoCalDem]

11. After WWII actually..

Young soldiers returning from war to a thankful nation that was holding an open wallet for them..

Prior to WWII, young people rarely had their own place.. It was not unusual for extended families to all live in one house..


The GI Bill gave 20-somethings the leg-up they needed at just the right time.. That's what started the "modern middle class"..

These young guys arrived back in the US at the very moment that everything changed..They had union jobs with pensions, paid vacations, and one man could support a family on just his wages.. and a house and a car..

It's no surprise that the family farms started to suffer around this time too. Why would a farm boy from kansas want to go back to the hardscrabble life of farming with Dad and Grandpa, when he could own a home and have a well paying job in Chicago or Philadelphia, or Los Angeles...

That generation DID fight a bad war,but all things considered, the ones who made it back did all right.. They were young at the most prosperous time in our history, and they retired when pensions were still solid, and their kids (We Boomers) paid tons of money so they could have a great Social Security system too..

They may have done so well, that there is nothing left for their own kids:(

[AP]

12. It started sooner, but did the best beginning about 1950.

[SoCalDem]

13. You are right.. I was using a narrower definition, based on the article

Just as today, there is middle class and there is middle class..

My own family is representative of this..

My grandparents grew up poor on farms in Kansas during the dustbowl/depression era. They did quite well, but never really considered themselves middle class. It was no proper to be "showy".. My grandmother canned all her own vegetables that she also grew. My grnadfather had a 6th grade education, and yet built about 20 homes in our town .. They never bought anything that they could make or "make from something else".

Technically, they were "middle class", but they never lived like it..

Deep down, they never really felt entitled to. The people who were born after the depression, felt differently.. they felt the entitlement.. Entitlement goes hand in hand with middle class..

[UdoKier]

3. Ever notice that the Onion has gotten more poignant than funny lately?

It must be hard to not get very dark with what's going on right now.

Anyway, great story. Thought it was real for a moment. Perhaps it should be.

[oscar111]

4. so Mid. Class began in '4O's? Anyone?

did not last long, did it? How about the MC of european nations? Any historians?

Europe still has many MC's in its nations, i am sure.. lots of social programs over there.. free dr's , and free college... right?

i also thought it was real till i saw "onion" at the foot.

[AP]

5. It started earlier...when Ford realized that if he paid his workers better

they could afford the cars he was trying to sell. Ford realized that there was more money to make selling things to a wealthy middle class than to handful of super wealthy people.

It was after FDR's policies started to kick in that the midddle class really grew. FDR laid the ground work and the meddle class expanded rapidly from the mid and late forties until early 60s. The dems held the pieces together through the 60s, but, in the early 70s corporations decided that they wanted most of the wealth in America, middle class be damed. Basically '73 marked the end of the Golden Era of the American economy. Since then, we've just been concentrating more wealth in the hands of fewer people, while destroying opporutnity and putting people into deep debt.

[AP]

6. The EU is picking up where the US left off. The EU is on the verge of

delivering lots of wealth to a large middle class.

[tritsofme]

7. I live in Schaumburg, IL

I guess us and our middle class are famous now.

[kysrsoze]

8. Shop, shop, shop! I lived there for awhile and now live in Chicago

You should have seen the article in the Onion on how some Schaumburg resident finally is starting to figure out that there's life outside Schaumburg? He sensed some "extra-Schaumburgian" world. It was hilarious.

[AP]

9. kick.

[salin]

10. bwahahaha

*sniff, sniff* funny and sad/tragic, all at the same time.