Is The Middle-Class American Dream Still In Reach?

President Obama and Vice President Biden previewed their proposals to help the middle class on Monday. The president said the "middle class has been under assault for a long time." Biden said it's "nowhere near as strong as it needs to be."

It's all about the American Dream, Obama said.

It's the idea that in America we can make of our lives what we will. It's the idea that if you work hard and live up to your responsibilities, you can get ahead -- and enjoy some of the basic guarantees in life: A good job that pays a good wage, health care that'll be there when you get sick, a secure retirement even if you're not rich, an education that will give our kids a better life than we had. They're very simple ideas. But they're the ideas that are at the heart of our middle class -- the middle class that made the 20th century the American Century."

The White House is proposing more generous tax credits for families with children, caps on student loan payments, and more help for people taking care of their parents, among other things.

Biden said he and his siblings divided up the cost of caring for their elderly parents and didn't have any problems. "But I thought to myself, my lord, what would it be like -- a couple with two kids making $85,000 a year, even $125,000 a year? How do they do it?"

HuffPost readers: How do you do it? Is that middle-class American Dream still in reach? Has it slipped through your fingers? Tell us how all this middle-class talk sounds to the middle class.

Comments

[kappa08]

08:39 AM on 01/26/2010

...it's pretty sad when being "middle class" is out of reach...this country will be third world in 10 years...strap up

[macohmz]

08:00 AM on 01/26/2010

I've never read all of Marx. Just pieces. But when he said that each economic class has their own worldview, that rung a bell. Political figures are secure in their positions. So they make judgements from that position of security. Because they're well of it affects how they view everyone else. They seem to think there's still a healthy middle class out here that can continue to absorb the consequences of their horrible decisions. Like these bogus trade deals. Chronic outsourcing. And especially, the injustices that come from years of kowtowing to wealthy individuals and business interests. It is they who need a wake-up call.

[dobriyden]

07:20 AM on 01/26/2010

Yes it is, but you can't have a marxist as president and expect the middle class to survice.

[bccmeteorites]

07:29 AM on 01/26/2010

We need more marxism.

[darcdante]

12:51 PM on 01/26/2010

Marxism worked wonders for the USSR and China.

[ProfessorDuh]

09:03 AM on 01/26/2010

We have a corporate tool as president -- just not as big a corporate too as the monkey wrench you Republicans put in office.

[Maxine]

07:09 AM on 01/26/2010

"But I thought to myself, my lord, what would it be like -- a couple with two kids making $85,000 a year, even $125,000 a year? How do they do it?"

Where do these numbers come from, my lord, if my family income was $85,000 to &125,000 a year I would think I hit the lottery. I know I am on another planet and the reception is just bad....

[LHoney]

08:22 AM on 01/26/2010

COSIGN!!!!!!!!!! I was screaming at my TV while he was saying that!!! On what planet do these guys spend most of their time???????? The average American family of 4 makes $40,000 to $45,000 per year! Try living on that! Please get a clue before we are all in the street!!!!!!!

[wncblueridge]

08:50 AM on 01/26/2010

We know that most politicians don't have a clue. They have never made an average salary. And those who make average salaries have lived well above their means for decades. This is reflected in the number of foreclosures, credit card debt, and the increase in bankruptcies. Those who actually live responsibly on average salaries seem poor in comparison.

[ProfessorDuh]

06:59 AM on 01/26/2010

Well, let's see, we have one party that is too unprincipled and weak to defend the middle class, and another party whose primary mission is to destroy the middle class in order to create a nation of serfs serving the uber-rich. So the answer would be no.
But don't worry, you won't hear about any of this on Fox News. If you just hush up and don't say "class warfare" or "torture," they cease to exist, don't they? Why, it isn't blowing innocent children to bits, it's just "shock and awe."
After all, a party that intends to wipe out the American middle class, step on the poor and further enrich the plutocrats has to lie, and lie constantly. But its intentions couldn't be more obvious.

[Chise67]

06:51 AM on 01/26/2010

Quite telling when you can associate middle class with it being a dream, isn't it?

[bccmeteorites]

07:31 AM on 01/26/2010

The path to success is littered with the corpses of those who invested heavily in a bankrupt American Dream.

[LHoney]

08:25 AM on 01/26/2010

Fanned!

[falco]

05:07 AM on 01/26/2010

How much will mandatory health insurance cost? How about cap and trade, how much will our electric and gas go up? How much more is the price of gasoline going up? How much more will food rise in cost? Will rent go up now that people are losing their jobs and thus their homes? As it stands, we are getting by. When or if costs increase, that's another story. Whoever thought of this system where you work five days a week just to put food on the table and a roof over your head? Oh, that's right, it was the King and Queens of long ago. People didn't really own their property. People couldn't get ahead, jump class. The people's labor was necessary for the Kings and Queens to live lavishly. Tell me, what has changed other than we now have more Kings and Queens to support?

[USBrit]

06:45 AM on 01/26/2010

They barely even need us for productive work, most of that is heading to China and India. Most of the world lives a hand to mouth existence, the idea of America was to get out of that situation and that is what lead so many to move here from Europe. Now though that seems to be coming to an end. I have argued for years that the US was working on becoming an old style royalist society where only the landed/wealthy need be of interest to the political class. Looks like we are just about there.

[bccmeteorites]

07:34 AM on 01/26/2010

What has changed is we now have to multiply the numbers of poor and middle class struggling with lower wages to provide welfare for an elite increasing in size.

[Kamenskiy]

04:13 AM on 01/26/2010

What middle class?

[LiteSleeper]

04:06 AM on 01/26/2010

So Obama plans to heroically assist the middle class by way of half a$$ed and modest policies? Brilliant! We're finally getting that audacity he promised.

[loki]

03:06 AM on 01/26/2010

No, there will be no middle class anymore. Just the poor. Ivy greed capitalist and Neo Cons have seen to that.

[natturnerx]

02:48 AM on 01/26/2010

personally, i believe that the decine of the middle class sensibilty & its replacement by a working class sensibilty is a good thing. middle classes dont revolt against the ruling class, because the middle class is suckered into identifying with the ruling class & duped into believing that its aspirations to join that class are realistic. only the working class is capable of developing a true anti-ruling class consciousness.

[ProfessorDuh]

07:05 AM on 01/26/2010

They have anticipated that development. That's why they created Blackwater-Xe.

[anticapitalist1983]

02:28 AM on 01/26/2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akVL7QY0S8A
Distinguished law scholar Elizabeth Warren
The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class

[researcher]

02:06 AM on 01/26/2010

no, the middle class is declining fast

the capitalists wont let that happen

but keep trying the capitalists love your hope and long hours of work and declining benefits.

[ChangeurMind]

01:42 AM on 01/26/2010

If you're from Orange County, have a vocabulary of 100 words, and just had 10 plastic surgery procedures, then yea... maybe.

[werskewed]

01:42 AM on 01/26/2010

Sorry......................The MIDDLE CLASS is no longer available.

It (was) SOLD OUT in the 2001, 2003 legislatures, at clearance sale prices for the rich.

Future availability is unlikely at this time. We're sorry if this causes you any inconvenience.

[ProfessorDuh]

07:01 AM on 01/26/2010

A bitter lol to that.