How to Fall Out of the Middle Class

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I've been telling everyone that would listen this was bound to happen.
We must bring our industries back to the USA.
That is one of the biggest downfalls. we lose jobs, so we lose taxes from income, we lose income from the producers of these industries.
We ship all of our jobs overseas no wonder we are fast becoming a third world country.
We need to get rid of all of the one in high offices of WASHINGTON D.C. and go back to the common people, we know what ails our land.
As long as we have the idiots that are in there now we will never regain our country back.
They won't even listen to some of the simple things like our energy problem. There are solutions to that problem that is very reasonable to solve but they won't listen, check WATER-4-GAS website it is a great reason to get more vehicles converted.

Albert of KS 1:13PM July 14, 2011

Folks who look to blame one political party or the other really just contribute to the problem and fail to become part of the solution. If you must blame politicians (and there is quite a bit of blame that needs to be place with them) then blame all politicians (or at least those who place their own agenda's and political futures above the welfare of the entire country). These people are supposed to be public servants - what a joke! The only public they serve is themselves.
Also, blame the vast majority of U.S. citizens. The people who never take the time to investigate the records and personal backgrounds of those for whom they vote. If you want to do something for the Country then before you vote again look into the background and past voting records of those who are asking for your vote. Then vote, not for the candidate who will promise you the most but for the candidate who has the most personal integrity and honesty. Vote for the candidate who tells you what you need to hear not what you want to hear.
That being said it is my opinion the current system is broken. The foundation is still strong and good but the current government structure built on that foundation is broken (built by citizens who were and are unskilled in and uncaring of the monumental task handed over to them by the foundations builders (Founders)). The foundation is the Constitution and Bill of Rights but the structure built upon that foundation does not satisfy the directives set out in those foundational documents. This major flaw has developed over time and is the fault of both the American people and those who are entrusted by us to govern "...for the people..." to "...protect the people from enemies both foreign and domestic...". We have not been diligent and they have not been honest and forthright.
When a physical structure passes the point where it is so damaged and flawed that it cannot be salvaged it is condemned and torn down to be replaced with another newer hopefully better structure. The current federal political system is such a structure. As such is cannot be salvaged (although some parts of it can be saved and reused) and must be condemned. We need to rebuild it from the foundation up.
So forget about democrat and republican because those are not relevant terms in the reality at hand.

Blase Iaconelli of PA 11:57AM December 29, 2010

Many politicians are bad and the corporate heads are very unpatriotic. The Republicans are the worst because they are the party of extreme wealth. Fox News is a traversty of jounalism in that it has no desire for the truth. It's all into the wealthy and the Republicans. The Republicans are unpatriotic and the voters are tooo ignorant to get it. Corporate America has much cash and recently the best profits so they are hiring abroad. When George H W Bush ran for a second term and said there's a new global order he didn't say that the middle class of the US would be pulled down to the developing counties" level. But he knew it would happened, but was for the very wealthy. That's when I left the Republican party. They should wear race driver suits so we'd know their corporate sponsor.

Ron Steinberg of FL 11:01AM December 29, 2010

americans have to stop blaming "parties." it ook both the republicans and the democrats to get this nation so screwed up, fire them all, bring manufacturing back to America. end of story.

rory gibbons of CA 1:25AM December 08, 2010

I hate the Republicans. Because of them the U S is the only western world country without National Healthcare and when we finally get a chance the rich only Repuplicans are all for dumping it. We are the only high income coutry where half the bankruptcies are due to Health Care costs, someone gets a major illness and it sends them into bankruptucy. Also since Canada does have national healthcare that gives their Auto Industry an open advantage, its cheaper to build cars in Canada they arent stuck with oversize healthcare costs. Michal Moore pointed out in Sicko how bad things are, he got some people ill because of after 9/11 cleaning up that made them seriously ill because Bush jr falsely claimed that there wasnt a major health care problem with all the absetos and other things found in older buildings. Also I read a book about a fireman who was the most senior person from the NYC fire dept to survive the collapse of the buildings and he retired right after because he ended up with major problems with his eyes and other things, he survived but with major medical problems.

Debbie Donahue of CA 12:59PM December 05, 2010

The article was a good one. My college educated son has been out of work for 6 months and finally got a job, at less pay than his last job, but he was happy to take it. I sent him this article so that he can see that his predicament can, and probably will, happen again. He needs to be prepared and the article gives some suggestions on how to do so. Mainly, it is the last lines that are the truest: don't depend on the government for help. The government, and the corporate and financial interests that run it for their benefit, will not be providing any help.

Pshawphoto of CA 9:59AM November 21, 2010

Good to see US News & World Report is such a fabulous cheerleader for GOP ideals: Blame the victim: If you are suffering in the current economy it is your own fault.
Why are we in the financial mess we are in? Let's see ... how about BILLIONS of dollars being spent to be terrorists in foreign lands that didn't do anything against the US to deserve the treatment they have received at our hands?
When the last president stole his office, the country had a projected surplus. He squandered it. He thrust the US into an unwinnable war, and damned the nation to a bottomless pit of never-ending public debt while setting in place mechanisms that allow the rich to profit from the "war" on terror.
This war on terror is about as effective as the nation's war on drugs -- no government can play both sides of a war and win. But winning isn't the goal, is it? War profiteering is the goal (in both cases) all the while using the war to divert the public's attention from this fact.
This article is a crock of ()*&^ ... telling the already down and out and nearly (if not already) destitute to "save for the coming rainy day" is as insulting as telling the poor that the solution to their problems is to learn to budge their money and follow that budget. The poor know better than anyone how to handle their money. It is the rich who need to learn fiscal responsibility. The problem the poor have, is in not having any excess to set aside to create that safety net.
Blaming the public for taking on too much credit -- yes, it is true that most Americans have too much debt. Tons of "You are already approved" credit card offers really helped this happen. Sure, people should have had the self-control to "just say no" but these envelopes just seemed to arrive at just the right moment -- when current cards were maxed out and cash was short -- a new card seemed like "salvation." And many fell for it. These predatory practices were then foiled by the opt-outs allowed -- those that blocked unauthorized access to a person's credit report or that stopped unwanted junk mail and finally unwanted phone solicitations. New tactics were needed to build the Credit Economy -- predatory loans, mainly mortgages.
Sure, blame the victims for being gullible enough to fall for these "too good to be true" answers to needs and wants.
But then, just about anyone who listens to any media news source in the US is gullible. Thanks for fostering the mentality of gullibility in this nation and then bashing those you have so successfully dumbed down so they no longer think for themselves but believe what they are told by the news media and in the ads that pay for it.

susan of WI 4:39PM November 04, 2010