'Third World America': 11 Books Predicting The Collapse Of The Middle Class (PHOTOS)

"Third World America": as Arianna says in her video about the book, it's a tough phrase to swallow when it comes to how we perceive America's powerful economy. But one of the characteristics of a third world country is that there is no middle class, and that's what's happening here. It's been a long time coming and probably began during the Reagan years. The 90s saw a steep decline--when we look at how many kids who went off to college only to return home to live with their parents because they couldn't find jobs, or their work didn't pay well enough for them to live on their own. Then came the precipitous decline of this decade, the credit crisis, the housing bubble, the extreme unemployment.

As usual, there were visionaries who saw this coming and wrote about it. Here are eleven books that predicted the situation we're in now.

Let us know what you think. Is a "Third World America" the new normal, or is there something we can do about it?

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“Falling From Grace: The Experience of Downward Mobility in the American Middle Class” (1989) Katherine S. Newman

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Newman finds that the American concept of self-worth and success depends on growth and dominance. Observing that stagnant wages have made continual improvement in the middle class quality of life impossible, Newman warns that the new generation will find it difficult to live with less than their predecessors.

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Newman finds that the American concept of self-worth and success depends on growth and dominance. Observing that stagnant wages have made continual improvement in the middle class quality of life impossible, Newman warns that the new generation will find it difficult to live with less than their predecessors.

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Comments

[Rick Eriksen]

02:24 PM on 08/30/2010

These books are about a reality that is taking place here and now…we can choose to not know about it or we can start to face it…knowledge is power, that is why America has been so bend on reducing education and polluting the main street media into silly putty…Sheep only care about thier pasture, and do not know or care about anything else, and some people know that...

I get most of my info from out of the country..One of the best things about the internet is the ability to read and see unfiltered news and information from places they do not care about the US..they just report on it…

Some countries do not even have corporate news so they can bring in real experts that we never hear about here or only see on a limited and controlled base…and I am sure that a lot of the info in these books have came about the same way…

The only place on the planet that thinks America knows what it is doing in America…

[man4ourseason]

06:30 AM on 08/25/2010

WE MUST STOP TILTING AT PROPAGANDA WINDMILLS, AND JOIN TOGETHER TO TAKE BACK THIS NATION, WHILE WE STILL HAVE A NATION.

[man4ourseason]

06:29 AM on 08/25/2010

WE ARE LEGALLY ENTITLED TO CHANGE OUR FORM OF GOVERNMENT, WHEN THE ONE WE HAVE IS NOT WORKING. THE ONE WE HAVE IS NOT WORKING.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
2.2 That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

[man4ourseason]

06:27 AM on 08/25/2010

IT IS NOT THE COLLAPSE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS. IT IS THE THEFT OF THE MIDDLE CLASS AND WE NEED TO JOIN HAND TO HAND AND GO AND TAKE IT BACK. FOR THE CHILDREN.

[TheCarCzarsPage]

08:13 PM on 08/22/2010

How's that "hope and change" working' for you?

[Ladyliberal]

09:46 PM on 08/22/2010

You sound like scara palin... how is that going for you?

[Conk]

02:30 PM on 08/23/2010

Why deflect the question? The truth hurts, eh? Liberal, conservative. Not one speck of difference if you're a politician. Only uneducated, TV watching, comic book readers fall for the old 'divide and conquer' scam. There truly is a 'they' and 'they' are against 'us'.

[divinemauler]

06:06 PM on 08/22/2010

You must read Kunstler's The Long Emergency for a complete perspective.

[hadenoughtoo]

08:53 PM on 08/21/2010

I beg your pardon I never promised you a rose garden
Along with the sunshine there's gotta be a little rain sometime
I beg your pardon I never promised you a rose garden

I could sing you a tune and promise you the moon
But if that's what it takes to hold you I'd just as soon let you go
But there's one thing I want you to know
You'd better look before you leap still waters run deep
And there won't always be someone there to pull you out
And you know what I'm talking about
So smile for a while and let's be jolly love shouldn't be so melancholy
Come along and share the good times while we can

I beg your pardon I never promised you a rose garden
Along with the sunshine there's gotta be a little rain sometime.....

I beg your pardon I never promised you a rose garden
Along with the sunshine there's gotta be a little rain sometime.....

[hadenoughtoo]

08:53 PM on 08/21/2010

"(I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden"- Martina McBride

I beg your pardon I never promised you a rose garden
Along with the sunshine there's gotta be a little rain sometime
When you take you gotta give so live and let live and let go oh oh oh oh
I beg your pardon I never promised you a rose garden

I could promise you things like big diamond rings
But you don't find roses growin' on stalks of clover
So you better think it over
Well, if sweet talking you could make it come true
I would give you the world right now on a silver platter
But what would it matter
So smile for a while and let's be jolly love shouldn't be so melancholy
Come along and share the good times while we can

[Libertarian09]

05:17 PM on 08/21/2010

Is a "Third World America" the new normal, or is there something we can do about it?

I have a suggestion for Arianna. Why not start by employing people to moderate the forums instead of getting people to do it for you for free.

[PC Contrarian]

12:52 PM on 08/21/2010

"Mooney notes that typical middle class careers in... public service pay little yet paradoxically demand a high cost education."

Hmmm. If the rest of the book is as off base as that, it's not worth a read. Recent reports in the news last week revealed that Fed employees, other than military, get paid on average twice their counterparts in the private sector. Now there's somewhere we can cut the budget, index Fed pay to the private sector. BTW, that double pay doesn't even include an even more generous benefit package than the private sector; all of which the private sector pays for. Insane.

[rgilley]

07:50 AM on 08/20/2010

I suspect the real story here ought to be " "Why the American people are sitting back doing nothing while the top 2% of the richest people methodically destroy the middle class."
We Will be a third world country Very very soon if these facist are allowed to continue without challenges!!

[StuntHunt]

10:03 PM on 08/13/2010

Time for all citizens to get involved. Avoid the Dems and Reps. It's time for a third party.

[rgilley]

07:52 AM on 08/20/2010

A real third party not Republicans with a new name....eg teabaggers!

[Lani Alden]

12:39 AM on 08/21/2010

The Tea Party is just an idiot populist party celebrating ignorance. "Stand up to experts," really? They kinda... Forget that our founders were lawyers, philosophers, and scholars that spent almost all of their spare time reading. They were also huge liberal progressives - which is what made them so revolutionary in their time. Oh - and most of the people who wrote our constitution were either agnostic or deist, rather than Christian (though most of the major players in early American history were Puritan). Honestly, the Democrats are closer to their philosophies than the Tea Party or the Republicans... The major difference is that Democrats don't have spines -_-'. If they did, and knew how to advertise (WHY do the Republicans get to claim the founders again...?), they'd be an incredible party. Unfortunately, they... Well, they don't have spines, like I said.

Bring back the Bull Moose party. We need them now more than ever.

[IMSickOfAllOfEm]

06:00 PM on 08/13/2010

There has been a conscious effort to lower the living standards of the US (by shipping jobs overseas) in order to try to equalize living standards worldwide.

The effect of moving all of those jobs out of the country was discussed in congressional hearings

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/178730-1

We have been $crewed.

Those responsible should be tried for treason.

[racetoinfinity]

03:14 PM on 08/10/2010

"Newman finds that the American concept of self-worth and success depends on growth and dominance."

That concept of self-worth needs to be transformed from outer expansion/growth to INNER growth, both individually and as a culture, and from dominance to win-win leadership, acknowledging equal rights and participating in mutual respect among all.

Re: the economic rape of the Middle Class in America, that's been going on since Reagan: it's immoral and bad for the whole country; the self-absorbed rich who think deteriorating infrastructure and peoples' quality of lives here won't affect them in their Hampton Shangri-las are blinkered and kidding themselves. No man is an island.

[monthofmay]

06:51 PM on 08/11/2010

All too true...

We've been such extroverts for 234 years...hard working, often obnoxious but usually generous.. A wealthy gentry behind high walls and a seething, hurting underclass is what's evolving unless there is a spiritual revolution.

[peaceandfreedom]

07:02 PM on 08/12/2010

“The Republicans have been trying to gut the New Deal since it passed.

[peaceandfreedom]

07:03 PM on 08/12/2010

They are almost there now. But they didn't get there without the help of a lot of Dems.

[peaceandfreedom]

07:47 PM on 08/12/2010

Obama's guys are the same men who deregulated finance under Clinton and told us the free market was self regulating, would make the country stronger and wealthier.

[tomas0808]

02:42 PM on 08/10/2010

The rich must be destroyed

[StuntHunt]

10:00 PM on 08/13/2010

That's what the Russian Revolution was about, and they wound up with Stalin. Be careful what you ask for.

[Lani Alden]

12:53 AM on 08/21/2010

You're silly.

The Russian Revolution was a fundamental rebellion against the concept of class and aristocracy. Very similar concept, but with some fundamental differences.

The main reason the USSR failed was not the concepts behind the revolution or the citizenry that came out. It was the rebellion against intellectualism - similar in nature to the current Tea Party/populist movement. The citizens put people in power who were "strong" rather than "smart."

The former aristocracy were the only educated people in the country, therefore being educated was a sign of elitism and 'higher class citizenry.' Look at the election between Bush and Kerry as a perfect example of intelligence being attributed with elitism. Strong people were seen as being relatable to the working class citizenry, therefore, to the Soviet Citizens, they were easier to put into positions of power. Stalin, for example. With years and years of idiots running the country, the economy eventually tanked, etc, etc. Sound familiar?

Putin was one of the first 'educated' people (He got a degree in International Law) to take the Presidency of Russia - and that's ABOUT when their economy turned around and they returned to being a superpower. Even then, people trusted him because he was strong. Since then they elected Medvedev, who is generally regarded as "weak" in Russia, but VERY intelligent. The man was a professor. No one like that could get elected here. He's doing quite well now so far though. Stalin was uneducated.

So yeah... Study more.