OTW: Champagne Taste (edit)

(6 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Well, when I started this series, I promised little more than that I’d share whatever was rolling around my brain at the time. I make good on my promises whenever possible! ha! I’ve got something else on a back burner, but when I saw this U.S. News item  pop up in my newsy yahoo spot, I decided to share. Because… my response is basically: w.t.f.

Assessing Your Middle-Class Status

Despite the so-called recovery, many families continue to struggle, with income and other living standards slipping below thresholds that typically represent middle-class quality of life. We’ve assembled a variety of metrics to help determine whether you’re getting ahead, holding steady, or slipping further than most.  more>>>

It’s a quick read, you can just go look at it. Well, I don’t know about you, but… the champagne ain’t exactly flowin’ at my house.

Even just the headers are … funny. To me. I really try to never read this kind of stuff, it makes me too crazy.

College Savings

Vacations

Retirement Savings

Education

Free Time

Household Net Worth

The typical household has a net worth of about $84,000, according to the Federal Reserve. That’s down 30 percent since 2007, thanks to losses in stock portfolios and home values.

Debt

About 18 percent of disposable income, on average, goes toward mortgage payments, auto loans, credit cards and other forms of household debt. That’s a bit higher than it was in the ’70s and ’80s. But since debt payments peaked at the beginning of 2008, at 18.9 percent of income, they’ve been steadily falling.

What the fvck is “disposable income” anyway? seriously.

I faintly remember reading this article in a magazine one time, long time ago, that talked about the Boomers coming into middle age years and how difficult that was for so many of us. Born into the “prosperous” 50’s, embedded with the values of our Depression era and WWII parents, we (yes, we) have a certain standard that is clearly unachievable and just plain impossible.

It’s the ultimate “champagne taste with a beer bottle pocket” life.

Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.

~Frederick Douglass

I guess I’m ready to see Michael Moore’s new movie, eh?

Capitalism is the legitimate racket of the ruling class.

~Al Capone

Can we afford a revolution?

Criminals are never very amusing. It’s because they’re failures. Those who make real money aren’t counted as criminals. This is a class distinction, not an ethical problem.

~Orson Welles

Man. Talk about harshin’ my buzz. grrrrr.

EDIT: Just adding some further reading for youse (trying to cheer myself up):

Sen. Bob Corker ‘Abandoned’ By GOP Leadership Over Bank Reform Outreach at HuffPo:

GOP Senator Bob Corker was emphatic on Wednesday that Republicans missed a big opportunity to influence what is perhaps the most ambitious financial reform bill to pass through the Senate since the Great Depression.

Republicans declined to offer any amendments during Monday’s scheduled mark-up of the bill, choosing instead to vote against sending the legislation to the Senate floor strictly along party lines. It passed out of the Senate Banking Committee with 13 Democrats in favor and 10 Republicans opposed.

and

NYT: Behind Consumer Agency Idea, a Tireless Advocate yay Elizabeth Warren:

“Dang gummit, somebody has got to stand up on behalf of middle-class families!”

Carry on.