If there are no middle class in America then America is Actually Africa. No health care, no jobs, people still live with parents .. Ohh come on America needs a renaissance befor it became just a name we respect.

Dear Tom and Editor,

It was a joy to share your (Tom's) commentary with CDSI members in Asia, Europe and North America today to gain the importance of the USAmerican Middle Class to global economies. Imagine please that our global neighbors who do business with our country fully understand the economic power of our middle class and the absence of economic influence at each end of our economic scale in the United States.

It is the middle class technologists that design and market the results product important to global economic production. It is not the very wealthy of our nation that has purpose in such supply chains or any major corporation that is run by exceptionally-paid CEOs.

Tom, take another look along economic-class boundaries and illustrate the origins and consumption by such classes that create our nation's role in global economics and foster growth in our gross domestic economy.

I truly enjoy your inviting analysis and provocation of thought in our corridor. We so need that consideration.

Thank you both,

Hal/CDSI Research

The only way to save the middle class is to revive manufacturing. But America is becoming less attractive to manufacturers due to costs associated with environmental laws, labor laws, civil rights, etc. We don?t have jobs anymore, but we have the higher moral ground!

You want to force banks to take a haircut on their loans? Where are we, Venezuela? You can?t just override contracts without consequence. People invest here because they know their money is safe. I wouldn?t tinker with that if I were you.

You want to get rid of all tax loopholes? How quaint. Wasn?t that the idea behind the 1986 Tax Act? How?d that work out for you? Meanwhile, back here on planet earth, politicians enjoy the power of granting tax favors to the politically connected. You think politicians will give up that power? Good luck with that.

When politicians need money, they tinker in areas of the tax code that no one understands, like LIFO layers and Subpart F income. Keeping the code complicated allows politicians to raise taxes at will without the public understanding it. That?s a powerful tool.

Your thoughts on education are not without merit, though likely costly. Where would you come up with the money to pay for it? Don?t tell me: ?Tax the rich?? Sorry, that money is already earmarked to pay for healthcare reform and the $77 trillion we owe seniors so that Medicare and Social Security don?t go bankrupt. There?s just not enough private money to confiscate in order to pay for all the goodies Washington dreams up.

To counteract China?s manufacturing dominance, you suggest devaluing the dollar. Won?t that make most Americans poorer? You obviously aren?t a pensioner on a fixed income. Pity the poor suckers foolish enough to have savings accounts. And trade wars are financial suicide. You know that. So why even bring it up?

I thought the plan is the Federal Reserve Bank and Federal government create trillions of dollars out of thin air through quantitative easing, artificially low interest rates, and $1.5 trillion per year of government borrowing. This leads to inflation, causing housing prices to rise so that the majority of U.S. homes are no longer underwater. As prices rise, homes start selling again, construction rebounds, people go back to work in the housing industry--our last bastion of middle class jobs. Isn?t that what is happening right now?

Tom: I think you really missed the mark with your plan to fix the economic problems and restore the middle class. The answer is not pushing all of our high school students into traditional colleges with promises of scholarships and loan incentives(i.e. asking again for taxpayers to somehow fund this)I grew up in Indiana, where the public schools realized traditional colleges were not for everyone, so there were programs in the high schools that started teaching students and preparing them for work in the trades, i.e. tool and dye makers, plumbers, electricians, machinist, etc. Instead of rackinig up huge student loans in traditional colleges and spending 4 to 5 years to get a degree in a liberal arts program, only to find there were not many white collar jobs available for this degree, students learned about the trades and more blue collar jobs while in high school, started an internship, and after high school learned a trade and skill, without just going to college with no plan. These people were able to find jobs that allowed them to make enough money to buy a simple home, take care of their family without asking for government assistance, and spend money on goods that contributed to the local economy, keeping the middle class alive and well.

Part of the problem with our economy is the "message" from educators and so-called experts that everyone needs to go to a traditional college, spend years running up huge student loans, only to find a lack of white collar type jobs waiting for them. Those who study enginnering, the sciences, math, comptuter sciene, will find those white collar jobs waiting for them, but the other 99% will find it hard to find a job that allows them to stay afloat and pay off their student loans. The false message that everyone has a "right" and is better off by going to a traditional college is so out of control, that now in California taxpayers are paying for illegal aliens to attend these 4 year colleges, where most of them will end up with degrees that do not lead to a white collar job, only frustration.

I realize you teach at a traditional college, so it is natural that you believe "education" is a right and desire to attend a traditional college is so important that taxpayers should fund this "right". If your goal is really to bring the middle class back, without huge student loans, with actual jobs that contribute to the local economy, without governmental assitance, you should stop preaching your fallacy, and start preaching getting programs in place in the local high schools that teach trades and blue collar jobs, and set proper, realistic goals, to save our middle class.

RWR, you are so right on all you educational points. The over crowding, thus fewer seats, the 'exponential expansion' of college-age kids of the BOOMER mass, and a president who pushes pell grants on every inner-city kid to attend college and then they pile up giant debts for something they'll never use....that's not my problem !!
A black clerk at WalMart said she's attending Cal. I ask, what are you studying? Answer: art ? followed with, I don't college would have served her needs better. We have an abundance of foreigners who want to attend law school....I have heard some admit, to change how we do things here....wait,didn't they come here because America is great ! ??
It's no wonder the costs of seats for our kids have skyrocketed, if available at all....followed with occupiers in the street demanding jobs for all. Some more recent changes to our 'system' have made a mess of our education practices, and college expectations. The ignorance of students taking on massive loans, because they don't know enough math to calculate their futures could be expected.

hmmmmm, somehow a line was removed.
The clerk's reply that she was studying 'art' at Cal, went on to say "I don't know what I'll do with it". A community college might have better served her needs.

Our tech companies DO have a reasonable supply of Americans to fill their positions, but the problem is....those companies prefer hiring CHEAPER Hb1 visa workers. Sadly, politicians cave too often on the visas, which hurts OUR US middle-class families.
Our workers can do majority of jobs. However, I can remember when some in my family actually 'gasp' received on-the-job training !! Sorry, many of our CEOs choose to go straight to 'I want more Hb1 workers', natch, they're a lot cheaper ! but killing our people and our economy !!

The only way to save the middle class is to revive manufacturing. But America is becoming less attractive to manufacturers due to costs associated with environmental laws, labor laws, civil rights, etc. We don?t have jobs anymore, but we have the higher moral ground!

You want to force banks to take a haircut on their loans? Where are we, Venezuela? You can?t just override contracts without consequence. People invest here because they know their money is safe. I wouldn?t tinker with that if I were you.

You want to get rid of all tax loopholes? How quaint. Wasn?t that the idea behind the 1986 Tax Act? How?d that work out for you? Meanwhile, back here on planet earth, politicians enjoy the power of granting tax favors to the politically connected. You think politicians will give up that power? Good luck with that.

When politicians need money, they tinker in areas of the tax code that no one understands, like LIFO layers and Subpart F income. Keeping the code complicated allows politicians to raise taxes at will without the public understanding it. That?s a powerful tool.

Your thoughts on education are not without merit, though likely costly. Where would you come up with the money to pay for it? Don?t tell me: ?Tax the rich?? Sorry, that money is already earmarked to pay for healthcare reform and the $77 trillion we owe seniors so that Medicare and Social Security don?t go bankrupt. There?s just not enough private money to confiscate in order to pay for all the goodies Washington dreams up.

To counteract China?s manufacturing dominance, you suggest devaluing the dollar. Won?t that make most Americans poorer? You obviously aren?t a pensioner on a fixed income. Pity the poor suckers foolish enough to have savings accounts. And trade wars are financial suicide. You know that. So why even bring it up?

I thought the plan is the Federal Reserve Bank and Federal government create trillions of dollars out of thin air through quantitative easing, artificially low interest rates, and $1.5 trillion per year of government borrowing. This leads to inflation, causing housing prices to rise so that the majority of U.S. homes are no longer underwater. As prices rise, homes start selling again, construction rebounds, people go back to work in the housing industry--our last bastion of middle class jobs. Isn?t that what is happening right now?

You want to get rid of all tax loopholes? How quaint. Wasn?t that the idea behind the 1986 Tax Act? How?d that work out for you? Meanwhile, back here on planet earth, politicians enjoy the power of granting tax favors to the politically connected. You think politicians will give up that power? Good luck with that.

When politicians need money, they tinker in areas of the tax code that no one understands, like LIFO layers and Subpart F income. Keeping the code complicated allows politicians to raise taxes at will without the public understanding it. That?s a powerful tool.

Your thoughts on education are not without merit, though likely costly. Where would you come up with the money to pay for it? Don?t tell me: ?Tax the rich?? Sorry, that money is already earmarked to pay for healthcare reform and the $77 trillion we owe seniors so that Medicare and Social Security don?t go bankrupt. There?s just not enough private money to confiscate in order to pay for all the goodies Washington dreams up.

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