Middle who?

Can someone please tell me where the middle class has gone to? Seriously, where are they? I know that is where I am supposed to be; work my 40 hour a week job, pay my bills, and provide for my family. Reality is both my wife and myself work full time jobs. I tend to work over 40 hours because the extra money, if you want to call it that, is needed. The bills we do have are continually increasing due to some corporate issue or need to run their business. As for my family, I have four children at home that require very little. Most people flinch when you say I have four children but the cost of raising them isn’t as extravagant as one would think. The biggest issue for the middle class is the bills.

                I’m not talking about my bills in particular but the overall cost of things for the middle class. For years now the cost of maintaining a vehicle has increase twofold. Between oil changes going up and the price of gas through the roof, having multiple cars in the home is a huge cost. Multiple cars in the home are an absolute necessity in today’s world just to maintain getting everyone in the home where they need to be. Let’s not mention the increase in electric and heating costs if you live in a cold climate. I’m not really sure what on earth those companies have done to warrant the increase especially in the section of delivery to the home. Next time you get a chance, look at your bill. On my there is a charge to not only use the electricity but they charge me to deliver it to my home. I didn’t know there was some guy dumping kilowatts into a barrel hidden in my home? There sure as hell hasn’t been any new lines ran to my home either so not sure why the delivery costs would increase 20% in 18 months. Oil, expensive. Unless you have been living under a rock we don’t need to visit this arena.

                Want to do some real interesting research in your spare time, go ahead and do a Google search on the term grocery shrink ray. This is not some new device that helps lighten your groceries so you can carry more. It’s a term that has popped up over the past couple of years describing how items in the stores have been slowing shrink but the cost has gone up. The amount it has shrunk by usually isn’t a significant amount. Maybe .7 ounces or so but enough that when spread out over a huge production line, the savings become enormous for the company. Then add into the fact the same company adds an extra $, 25 and puts on the product “New Packaging” or something to make you think you are getting a great deal. So the costs go up on the front end when you buy the item then on the back end when you have to buy the item more frequently through the year because you are getting less. I couldn’t make stuff like this up, trust me.

                These factors are only a few that have started to drive a lot of the middle class to the brink. The sad part is most of us aren’t even aware of what’s happening. We concern ourselves with which presidential candidate slept with whom or what their religion is. We spend hours watching shows like The Real Housewives or Keeping up with the Kardashian’s thinking of ways we can obtain the status of these people. Great role models to follow folks. Most of these people on these two shows alone have made a career out of doing nothing. I hope with our troops coming home and the end of the war, the country can start to look within itself and bring the middle class back from the poverty line. Our leaders sure as hell can’t get it right so if we fail, the results could be something we may never recover from.