No, it is not the exclusive creator of the middle class. Remember, the middle class was originally the merchant class and started coming into being in the 1400's, and didn't really start to rise till the industrial revolution. Then it came into it's modern form as we know it thank to Henry Ford... the dirty rotten capitalist who stated that his workers should be paid enough to afford his product. This started a bidding war for qualified labor that goes on to this day. Unions piggybacked on it, and for a SHORT period, helped negotiate many things that did increase the quality of life for laborers.
It has long since lost that reason for existence because they have succeeded so well.
The REAL creator of the Middle Class, as it were are Opportunity, Individual Freedom, Property Ownership and Prosperity
The American middle class was made by FDR's new deal and Unions.
Before that? There were the very wealthy..and very poor.
That's simply Not True, Yet Another Liberal Myth.
There has always been a Middle Class, It has gotten Stronger but it was always there.
Despite you Delusional Liberals constantly trying to lay claim to single Handedly Creating it.
The term
Middle Class did not emerge with distinct and substantive meaning until the late 1940s when a significant segment of the formerly designated
Working Class began owning rather than renting homes, buying cars, attending college and merging into "white collar" occupations and social situations.
But in keeping with your almost-correct statement that there always has been a segment of the population hovering between what was a small, exceptionally wealthy
Upper class and a vast, exceptionally poor
Lower class. This group of anointed managers, exalted toadies and bureaucrats was not big enough to be considered a
class and was socially positioned much too close to their rich benefactors to be thought of as anywhere near a
middle.
The influence of FDR's
New Deal brought about such a radical change in distribution of the Nation's wealth that the upper class shrank in its vertical holdings (volume) but expanded horizontally in distribution and number, and the lower class radically declined in number as its members expanded and moved closer to the rapidly emerging
middle.
Although my father had a telephone in his locksmith shop I can recall the day (late 40s) we got our first home telephone. I believe that was the day our family was presumptively accepted into the American Middle Class -- all thanks to the
New Deal, the union movement and the successful redistribution of our Nation's wealth.
What we are seeing today are the results of a long-range effort on the part of the corporatocracy to reverse the effects of the
New Deal, eliminate the unions and ultimately destroy the social element responsible for the rise of America's world dominance. It's Middle Class.
While a case can be made that there always has been three levels in American society, it is not true there always has been a Middle Class. But unless you are among the wealthy Upper Class you'd better hope the Middle Class retains and fully restores its status. Otherwise be prepared for a radical decline in your living standard.
So don't allow your obvious contempt for "Liberals" to operate in opposition to your own best interests. Todays (neo) Conservatives are definitely not on your side.
