It depends on what your definition of middle class is
Re Jan. 10 article, “Many workers face dilemma: Accept a pay cut or lose job”: I have a question. The article talked about a truck driver having to take a 10 percent pay cut. He was making $22.71 and the pay cut of $2.27 would bring his pay down to just over $20 an hour. To make it easy, I just calculated $20 an hour times 40 hours a week times 52 weeks and came up with $41,600. This bring up a question that needs an answer. Since President-elect Obama, and nearly all elected officials are talking about lowering taxes on the “middle class,” what is the exact defi nition of middle class? Anyone can figure that $20,000 a year is not middle class, and making $500,000 a year is not middle class, so where does the middle class start, and where does it end? What is the minimum a family needs to earn to just make the definition of middle class? What is the maximum a family can make before they leave the middle class? Is the minimum for a family $45,000, $50,000 or $60,000? Is the maximum $100,000, $125,000 or $150,000? I think a lot of people who consider themselves middle class are incorrect. They think they are middle-income but are either above or below the real income levels that define middle-class income. The Gazette and other media outlets owe the residents of the area a clear definition of the bottom and top of the so-called middle class. Talking to most people I know, [they] are making a lot less than the $41,600 a year the trucker in the article will be making. Most are making $10 to $14 an hour and they consider themselves to be middle income. So what can your reporters uncover as to the actual monetary limits, both minimum and maximum, for the real middle-income family?
That is what happens when politicians 'target' and dance on the podiums......here's the difference......educated and uneducated.......the money makes no difference as long as you have a good lawyer and accountant to get you around or atleast the ability and want to find out for oneself......the rest rely on DSS or taxes........
I'm no rocket scientist and certainly not the sharpest tool in the shed.....but, I do find it offensive when fellow Americans elected or neighbors all belly-ache for the poor middle/working/soccermom-class.......boo-hoo...........
So someone please tell me when this 'economic shake-down' is over......because you know what? trade will ALWAYS happen......as for the IRS being 'nice' and 'working' with folks---------PUUUUUULEASE........
It's a shake down........
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
I don't believe in pidgeon holing people into classes. (that is just a form of discrimination)Some have more and some have less. But we all have the same opportunities. We get paid what we are worth, by our economic scale and we should live within our means. END OF STORY!! IMHO
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler