In Case You Missed This... Shorting The Middle Class: The Real Wall Street Crime - HuffPo

[WillyT]

Shorting The Middle Class: The Real Wall Street Crime
Arianna Huffington
Posted: April 19, 2010 06:46 PM

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The press is all abuzz with news of the SEC suing Goldman Sachs for fraud. While this is certainly big news in itself, even more important is what it says about what the financial elite has been doing to America for the last 30 years: shorting the middle class.

The SEC's action is a perfect moment for us to look at the bigger picture of how the American people were sold on the promise of never-ending prosperity while Wall Street was overseeing a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the richest Americans.

The results have been devastating: a disappearing middle class, a precipitous drop in economic and social mobility, and ultimately, the undermining of the foundation of our democracy.

Thirty years ago, top executives at S&P 500 companies made an average of 30 times what their workers did -- now they make 300 times what their workers make. And between 2000 and 2008, the poverty rate in the suburbs of the largest metro areas in the U.S. grew by 25 percent -- making these suburbs home to the country's largest and fastest-growing segment of the poor.

The human toll of the shorting of the middle class is brought to life on sites like Recessionwire.com, LayoffSupportNetwork.com, and HowIGotLaidOff.com where the casualties of Wall Street's systemic scam share their personal stories.

Looking through these sites, I came upon a story that struck me as emblematic of where America's middle class finds itself these days. It feels like a dark reboot of the American Dream. Think Horatio Alger rewritten by O. Henry.

It's the story of Dean Blackburn of Alameda, California. The first part of his life was a classic American success story. Raised in Minnesota by a single mom, a teacher, he was "middle class by default." Through a combination of smarts and hard work, he made his way to Yale, then took a succession of jobs in the growing Internet world that had him steadily progressing up the economic ladder.

Then came February 2009, when he was laid off on the last day of the month. His boss chose that day because it meant the company wouldn't have to pay for another month of his health coverage. "Looking back on it," he told me, "that hurt more than the layoff itself -- just knowing that the president of the company was exactly that calculating and that unfeeling about my own, and my family's wellbeing." The timing, Blackburn continued, "put those 'family days' and company picnics in a weird new light."

Fourteen months later, he is still looking for a new job. As he, his wife, and their 2-year-old daughter deal with the immediate financial struggles his extended unemployment has brought, Blackburn has become acutely aware of the broader implications of the shorting of the middle class. "Ultimately," he says, "it's not about a dip in corporate profits, but a change in corporate attitude -- a change that means no one's job is safe, and never will be, ever again."

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More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/shorting-the-middle-class_b_543523.html

:mad:

[laughingliberal]

1. So discouraging. I'm not sure there's really anything which can be done about it, either.

By the time enough people wake up to this I think it will be way too late to turn it around. I'm not sure it isn't already too late.

[Vinnie From Indy]

2. It was a remarkably simply plan

Wall Street not only shorted the middle class they provided all the incentives and aid possible for American companies to offshore jobs. These people knew years ago that with the passage of NAFTA and the other acronyms of doom for the American worker that the race was on to exploit the cheapest labor pools anywhere on the globe they could. They were not constrained by ideology, morality, patriotism or anything other than the bottom line. Slave labor in Vietnam and Indonesia? Not a problem! Partnerships with brutal Communist party members in China? Welcome aboard! Complete destruction of forests and water resources in the South America and the KILLING of native peoples that object? Sure, what the hell! I don't live there!

We are entering the Age of the Global Corporation. Wealthy elites and corporate interests call the shots and since they have acquired the US government, they now have the biggest stick on the planet to protect and project their power.

[laughingliberal]

3. True. Add in the death of defined benefit pension plans and the 401k scam

and they made sure they would grab any financial security we might manage to accumulate. A nice crash ever few years that takes a bunch of your savings out of your account and leaves you starting over and they are guaranteed to keep getting richer while leaving the middle class in the dust.