The shrinking middle class
Crystal NelsonApproximately 50 students crowded into an Alpena Community College classroom Thursday to ponder whether the American dream is still attainable.
Four instructors held a forum to discuss the growing "Plight of the Middle Class" and spoke to students about the growing discrepancies of wealth between social classes and how the middle class is disappearing.
The students learned that wealth and discrepancies in wealth have reached unprecedented levels and standard wages and job losses are the root cause of middle class Americans falling into the lower class.
"I think that the value of this experience was that we are at a critical state in this country's evolution and the critical state is the awareness of the middle class about precisely how it's being squeezed; how it's being challenged," political science instructor Tim Kuehnlein said.
The idea for the forum came from economics and political science instructor Anip Uppal, who wanted to impact public knowledge.
"The middle class is the benchmark of an economy. The reason America is the biggest economy by far in the world is because of the middle class," he said.
Sociology instructor Josephine Bitler said when she asks her students to write down if they think they're middle class. She said about 100 percent of her students will write yes, but said that 95 percent of the time they're incorrect.
Anthropology instructor Matt Dunckel said in the 1980s corporate income tax was 15.28 percent but decreased to 7.9 percent in 2005. He told students innovation, investment and healing capital - not tax cuts - is what creates wealth.
Students elicited a positive response to the forum and asked numerous questions including what they can do as individuals to ensure the survival of the middle class.
The instructors told students to vote, write their legislators, invest in higher education and not to take information they receive from the media and politicians at face value but to seek the answers themselves.
Kuehnlein said the forum was geared toward students to get them thinking about these kinds of issues because they are the future of the middle class and if they're not conscious about what challenges face them, there's not much hope for that middle class to be sustained.
He said it's not about achieving total equality but making sure that a broad spectrum of people can sustain the highest quality of life relative to the highest level of the socio-economic spectrum. He said if Americans lose that, it will result in levels of instability he doesn't think this country wants to experience.
Kuehnlein said the forum was tremendously successful and the college most likely will be hosting more of them,
Crystal Nelson can be reached via e-mail at cnelson@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5693.
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ExcellTrinity
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11-06-09 4:14 PM
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wake up and stop denying the "Bailout Package" was the answer. Stop praising socialistic politicians and their agendas and learn economics 101!
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jaxspp
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11-06-09 3:50 PM
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Wake up and do what?
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ExcellTrinity
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11-06-09 8:44 AM
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Latest numbers TODAY are unemployment risen to 10.2 percent. Rising unemployment EQUALS zero growth. Our debt remains at 7 times our GDP. Wake up America!
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HuronHippie
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11-06-09 7:51 AM
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"But I would also go a step further to point out that Matt Dunkel totally disregards the latest numbers on the economy." Please be specific if you are making an argument. What latest numbers on the economy? Do you really think tax cuts alone will conserve the middle class?
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ExcellTrinity
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11-06-09 1:08 AM
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Agreed surefoot. 99% agreed! But I would also go a step further to point out that Matt Dunkel totally disregards the latest numbers on the economy. Even the administration is admitting "missteps" in it's recovery scheme. Wake up Dunkle!
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surefoot
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11-05-09 11:18 PM
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Look around your house and let me know how many items were made in the USA. Get a clue America the most pressing issue for the average person is the lost of manufacturing jobs. This isn’t just blue collar jobs but the white collar jobs from accountants to engineers, then the outside suppliers also the restaurants other that serve the employees of these businesses. Free trade with China is slave labor and what I call treason to the USA citizen. Talk about heath insurance, wars and abortion all the while the big corporation bury the knife a litter deeper. Now watch as the paper mills shut down one by one and leave to open production in China.
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