The Late, Great Middle Class

[Geee]

National Review:

The American middle class, like the American economy in general, is ailing. Labor-force participation has hit a 35-year low.

 

Median household income is lower than it was five years ago. Only the top 5 percent of households have seen their incomes rise under President Obama.

 

Commuters are paying more than twice as much for gas as they were in 2008. Federal payouts for food stamps, unemployment insurance, and disability insurance have reached unprecedented levels.

 

Meanwhile, the country is still running near-record budget deficits and is burdened by $17 trillion in aggregate debt. Yet the stock market is soaring.

 

How can we make sense of all this contradictory nonsense? Irony.

 

Obama promised to restore the middle class. In truth, he has enacted the very policies that have done it the most damage in years. That paradox may explain why his base of support remains the very rich and the very poor. Goldman Sachs, federal bureaucrats, and aid recipients are helped in a way that the strapped hardware-store owner, Starbucks barista, and part-time welder are not.