Guest Post by Morbo
George Will believes the Democrats can’t run on the issue of the economy because everything is going so well. Tax cuts for the super-rich have rained prosperity down on the nation, and the middle class has nothing to fear. So there.
If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s being lectured on how great the economy is by a multi-millionaire. Yes, these have been great times for the top 2 percent. Many of the rest of us continue to feel skittish, though. Will, ensconced in his McMansion in the posh D.C. suburb of Bethesda, Md., can’t see why we would feel that way.
As someone who was not born into the middle class but fought my way into it, I would like to enlighten Will. George, many in the middle class are worried about the following:
Higher Education: We’d like to be able to send our children to college, yet the cost just keeps escalating, way outstripping the rate of inflation. Sure, low-interest loans are available, but we’d rather not assume crushing debt or put our children in such a deep hole at a time when they are trying to make their own way in the world. Many states have pre-paid plans. They are better than nothing, but check out the monthly cost of a four-year plan. It’s quite steep. There has to be a better way.
Health Care: Yes, many in the middle class have access to a plan. But the costs keep going up, and we worry about our employers cutting back. Some already have cut back. We are aware that managed care has failed us, and we feel trapped in a dysfunctional system of private insurance that seems to prize the goal of finding ways to avoid paying claims over keeping people healthy. (For more on this, see Jonathan Cohn’s recent book, “Sick: The Untold Story of America’s Health Care Crisis — and the People Who Pay the Price.”)
Job Security: Sure, many of us in the middle class wear white collars and work in offices. We still worry about keeping our jobs. A lot of us have reached mid-level positions and are aware that corporations like to axe people in those positions. (See Barbara Ehrenreich’s Bait and Switch.) We are also aware that our brothers and sisters in the manufacturing sector are really hurting. Right-wing stuffed shirts who write two columns a week and appear on TV seem to have pretty good job security. Those of us who do real work for a living are feeling a tad uneasy, George.
Energy: It’s not just gasoline. The cost of all forms of energy is skyrocketing. In many states, ill-conceived deregulation schemes have nearly doubled the cost of heating and cooling a house. I live in the same state as Will — a state where some consumers have seen their energy bills increase by 75 percent. You see, George, most of us in the middle class get modest raises every year — if we get them at all. Seeing that raise eaten up by high energy bills is very infuriating because it means we’re running in place.
Retirement: Unlike you, George, we middle-class folks work hard and put in our dues. We’ll do what our employers expect, but we’d like to be able to retire someday. For many of us, the retirement age has already crept up to 67. Some of us will work beyond that because we want to or have to. But at some point, we all will stop working. We know Social Security will not be enough. Many of us have supplemental plans. But are they secure, and will they be enough?
The problem, George, is this: The plan your team has for all of this is, to be blunt, crap. It’s aimed at people who have a lot of disposable income, and that’s not us in the middle class. You offer us modest tax rebates or various pre-tax plans to save up for every possible contingency. We are encouraged to put aside large amounts every month to pay for college costs, retirement, unexpected medical expenses that may not be covered and so on. But we can’t put all that money away. We need something to live on now.
George, you need to get out of the house more often. You need not go far. Just a few miles from your glitzy suburb are some middle-class neighborhoods where good people who go to work and raise children struggle every day just to get by. The view from their front porches isn’t quite so rosy.