The Middle Class And Other Ancient Relics

The American dream.  A little house on a city lot, a white picket fence, and the greenest lawn on the block.  You can almost see your wife and kids waving from the front porch as you head off to the office every morning while Rex chases you down the driveway.  A nice, cozy little life carved out in the middle of the middle class.  It's all so "Leave It To Beaver."

WAKE UP STUPID, IT'S NOT 1960 ANYMORE.

Much ado has been made in the last several years about the tragic disappearing of the middle class.  The right blames the left, the left blames the right, and everyone blames the wealthy.  Pretty much everyone seems bent out of shape that the poverty line is creeping up and the middle class is shrinking and most of us can't afford the quality of life we desire.  Maybe it's time to re-examine the definition of middle class?  Everywhere we look, we see irrefutable evidence that we live in a much different world than what existed a generation ago.  We have smart phones, cruise control, central air, and convenience stores.  Nearly everyone over 16 drives, owns a computer, and has a Facebook account.  Why then, are we so hung up on this antiquated ideal of a perfect little single income family in perfect little suburbia?  Take a quick survey of the things you own and dish out dollars for that didn't exist or were very sporadic in use 30 years ago.  There's the obvious inflation increase on things like utilities, houses, and cars but look closer...

• Look at the car you drive.  If you're like most people, you drive a car with power windows and locks, tilt wheel, cruise control, air conditioning, lumbar support, and fuel injection.  Traction control, parking assist, and backup cameras are becoming commonplace.  None of those things fell out of the sky and into your car.  They all cost millions of dollars to develop and add thousands of dollars to the sticker price of a car.  When was the last time you saw a new pickup with a manual transmission and manually engaged 4wd?  For most of us, it's been awhile.  Push button, automated, electronic costs more.  We need all that shit right?
• What about your house?  Nearly 30% more homes are air conditioned now than were 20 years ago.   Add a bunch of other creature comforts we just can't seem to live without anymore, and you just padded your purchase price and your utility bills.

Okay so our houses and cars cost more these days, but they also last longer, and hey we need a home and transportation.  Let's look at some of the things most of us pay for that we don't need...

• Over 90% of Americans now own a cellphone, and 65% of Americans own a smart phone.  Most households have multiple phones, even little kids have them.  That's hundreds of dollars in devices, multiple plans, and data for a family that used to have one phone line.  
• Roughly 35% of Americans now own a tablet.  That number has more than doubled in the past 2 years, and ten years ago, most people never dreamed such a device would ever exist.  Guess what?  Another data plan and a few hundred bucks for the device.
• Over 90% of homes have internet access.  That obviously means those homes have a computer and all the necessary hardware and software, i.e. hundreds or thousands of dollars in more gadgets.
• Over 75% of homes today have either cable or satellite television, with an average of 189.1 channels per household and the average person watches 17.5 of those channels.  Even if the equipment is free, statistically most of you are paying over $50.00/month for all those channels, over 170 of which you don't even watch.

When I was a kid looking for something to do, I went out into the neighborhood and found other kids to play with.  As a little kid, we played a lot of cops and robbers type games with makeshift equipment, generally nothing store bought.  As I got older, we played a lot of baseball, football, basketball, and rode our bikes and skateboards all over.  The balls and equipment we played with were cheap, and lasted for years.  A couple hundred bucks could have bought enough equipment for the whole neighborhood to enjoy simultaneously.  Today, every kid seems to have a gaming console, controllers, headphones, and several games.  They sit in their room or in the basement with hundreds of dollars worth of equipment that only lasts a few years before it breaks or it's obsolete and therefore "uncool."

All of these large purchases and monthly bills add thousands of dollars to the liability side of the typical American's balance sheet while doing little or nothing for the asset side.  In layman's terms, we're pissing away a lot more money than our ancestors in the name of entertainment.

I've heard it said that the "American dream" is no longer attainable by most average people and how that's so terribly sad.  It's like watching the series finale of our favorite TV show.  We wax nostalgic about a time that's gone forever, but we should be surfing the channels for a new favorite show.  It's time we of the entitlement society re-evaluate our wants and needs.  It's time we stop blaming the economy or the government or the rich people for the fact that we're buying way more shit than we used to, and it's making us poor.  Those of us closer to the bottom of the middle class than the top need to accept that there will be things that many of our neighbors have that we can't afford.  You are not entitled to a smart phone with an unlimited data plan.  You are not entitled to 250 channels of uninterrupted satellite television.  You are absolutely not entitled to a job that pays more than your area's average income just so you can afford those luxuries.  Those things are earned.  If you don't like your take home pay, find a better job or get second(or third) one.  As an American, you are guaranteed equal opportunity.  Nobody ever said anything about equal outcome.

-DS