Part I Middling Through?

There are oodles of sites in the blogosphere the vast majority of which I am unacquainted with. I imagine that most blogs, likely mine included, are not sufficiently compelling to inspire repeat visits. However, there are a few that I have encountered that are worthy of regular stops on my internet forays. One I have in mind, an estimable blog entitled, SuddenDebt, is an excellent site for musings on economic and financial goings on here in the U.S. and around the globe. I urge anyone possessing even a modicum of interest in such matters to drop by. In fact, it is the most recent entry on suddendebt.blogspot.com that has inspired today's little jeremiad which will represent the first part in a series on the subject of the dissapearance of the U.S. middle class.

By now it is well known that globalization has delivered something like the coup de grace to the existence of decent, well paying, semi-skilled employment (aka manufacturing jobs) in the U.S. What may not be as well known, let alone acknowledged, is that concomitant with the vitiation of the U.S. manufacturing base has ensued the not coincidental erosion of Democracy.

With the removal of well compensated, semi-skilled employment, the U.S. would no longer have what still passes for a middle class save for the easy issuance of debt to just about any homeowner regardless of their financial circumstances. Once, it was taken as an article of faith that the middle class was the essential component supporting widespread social stability. To further flesh out the idea, the thinking went that the middle class acted as a buffer between the prosperous few and the restless many such that the very existence of a middle class gave hope to the denizens of the lowest echelon that it was within their reach to elevate themselves above their difficult and deprived circumstances.

But what does this have to do with Democracy? More precisely, what does the dissapearance of this nation's middle class have to do with the erosion of Democracy in the U.S? Stay tuned.