The thing that republicans hated most about Clinton was that the prosperity was shared by many Americans. Even though the rich made huge piles of dough under Bill, they were pissed that everyone else was making money too. Bush fixed that. That's why he still has over 80% approval with republicans.

WE ON THE VERGE OF ECONOMIC SLAVERY WHERE PEOPLE WILL HAVE TO LINE UP FOR JOBS THAT ROBOTS CAN'T DO!!!!!

Look at those 2 American porkers in the foto heading this thread.

Oh wait..........thats normal size in America.

With Fiat money there will be no middle class..its going away now.

John Edwards was wrong about there being "two Americas". Barry Rithholtz (thebigpicture.com) has pointed out that there are really three Americas: "Have Nots", "Haves", and "Have Mores". Most of us are (to one degree or another) in the "Haves" group, which covers a wide swath of Americans.
Under GWB, the Have Nots and the Haves are losing ground at an alarming rate and the Have Mores have been gaining.

the issue of identity is an interesting one. class consciousness is important in not getting fooled. americans live in a dream bubble, and this is why they have deteriorating healthcare, decreased pension value and increased cost of living in general. will they ever wake up? will they ever know themselves? if not, they can go to las vegas or atlantic city and continue living that big lie (someday I'll be rich, rich, you hear? and then i'll be better than everyone else, and i won't have any more problems).

As someone used to say, if you need your next paycheck, you're working class.

bye bye middle class nice knowing ya.

cannot have corp fascism and a middle class. no room for both.

reagan put the finishing touches on the middle class and they never knew what hit them. they even voted in presidents that continued reagans economic policies.

in a dumbed down society corp and gov fascism rules the day.

and you thought no child left behind was about education. dumb down the middle class. it worked.

In America, class = money. So rich people are "high class" or "first class". When Americans say "middle class" they really mean middle income. Poor people of course are "the lower classes" although it has become politically correct to refer to them as "disadvantaged". The rest of the world understands class divisions to include the ruling class, the middle class and the working class. The middle class is defined by its usefulness to the ruling class. Educated people, professional people, are rewarded for their usefulness to the rulers. So when you ask Americans to identify themselves by class, they know they are not rich (or don't want to admit they are rich) and of course nobody wants to be "low class" so we ALL claim the middle. It's actually quite unfortunate that Americans are ignorant of class. That ignorance is the root of Americans political stupidity. If you have no idea whatsoever of the tension between the interests of the ruling class and the interests of the working class, then you are quite at sea as a citizen and a voter.

Neoliberalism comes to America ...

The corporations voracious appetite for profits is now aimed at the developed countries. Threatening workers with out sourcing, out sourcing, privatization of public assets and the takeover of the governance to assert tax avoidance, lower taxes, subsidies and market monopolization.

Welcome to America, now colonized by the corporations.

In a precipitiously declining country, the only gainers are our trading competitors and our despicable insider leaders. Borrowing ourselves into bankruptcy, then intending to pay it back with degraded currency is a winner for our creditors as the average American becomes destitute.... at the mercy of unwonted plutocracy and foreign ownership.

You can't identify "middle class" by an income determination. In much of California, NY, MA etc., a (low) six-figure income could barely get you by, where in much less expensive areas you would be living like a king. It is better described by... after you pay your mortgage, taxes and insurance, what's left? If you lose your job, how much time do you have until you lose everything else. The numbers are meaningless.