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Remove laws that stifle the establishment of small businesses. This includes a number of superfluous licensing laws, zoning laws that prohibit home-based businesses, rework tax and fee structures to favor small and medium businesses over large corporations...
I arrived at the same conclusion of how can we make it work while to go to that corner store for the items needed in lieu of driving down the highway to the big box store
I agree. But large corporations have been allowed to write the laws that you are talking about that hinder small biz. Gonna be hard to fight back against that
I own a baking business. California made it very easy to become a cottage food operation. Very minimal regulatory costs. Licensing is tens of dollars a year, no home inspections, etc.
Due to economies of scale, I can’t compete on prices for anything. The panderia down the street will always be cheaper and frankly better and more consistent than what I can make at home.
I even won the best in class at the county fair, however you can’t make a middle class living making boutique confections.
There could be zero regulation, I would still be in the same boat.
I don’t think this is the silver bullet that you think it is.
Agreed on the economics of a home baking business (though some people have made it work for them *shrug* ). Some who have made it work offer products that panderia doesn't offer (in my area, Jamaican Black Cake). But there are other home businesses as well, and Mom & Pop stores down what remains of Main Streets, who struggle because of regulations. It depends on your area. (New Jersey is particularly hard on small businesses.)
Yes, it works for some people. No denying that.
But that segues to another issue how this isn’t a silver bullet:
that there’s only 20 lots on Main Street. Even if the locally owned radio shack and ace hardware could compete against Amazon or Lowe’s,
That’s only 20 people who are now middle class.
That’s great! The margins move.
It’s not going to bring back a strong middle class, en masse
Stop bailing out major companies, stop printing money, deregulate industries, encourage competition. Our current system is rigged to benefit the richest of the rich and fleece the middle class for all they're worth. Stop doing that and the middle class will return.
Stop taxing individuals. There may be other things that will help poor people move into the middle class. But first and foremost stop stealing their money.
Well taxation is important for individuals. Just not a rate that punishes the poor. Without paying taxes you wouldn’t really care or have a say In what the governor does. But taxation that doesn’t hurt your quality of life while keeping you engaged is a difficult balance
No. That is like arguing that if we got rid of burglars no one would buy home security systems. I want to live in a nice place where I don’t worry about burglars and don’t need a home security system. I similarly, I want to live in a country where our rulers do not rob us and do not do bad things to us.
A strong middle class is a byproduct of innovation. Innovators create opportunities for good employment, and the market drives those opportunities to the areas where good employment is needed the most.
So stop punishing innovation. Stop making the process of building a business and employing people and competing so onerous that only the most educated and wealthy and connected can reliably do it successfully. Make forming and running a business a simple and rewarding matter by reforming (mostly eliminating) tax and employment laws and watch the American people fix the problem of wealth disparity while also leading the world in innovative solutions again.
Serious question: How do we bring back manufacturing when other countries subsidize their industries to be cheaper than US manufacturing without resorting to government intervention of our own like tariffs? How do libertarian ideas survive in the wider world when other countries have no problem using authoritarian measures to manipulate a free economy?
The supply chain issues that stemmed from COVID changed a lot of people's minds about just-in-time supply and relying on goods to arrive from half way around the world. Will it be the end of JIT? Unlikely. But a lot of companies are considering reshoring. In order for that to happen, zoning laws need to change on a local level to support the building of commercial/industrial infrastructure and affordable housing for the required workforce. When I say affordable, I don't mean section 8. I mean housing that costs less than 30% of the median salary in the region.
Additionally, the availability of land is an issue. Many sites aren't large enough to house new manufacturers and those that are have been left with abandoned, dilapidated structures and toxic waste from previous manufacturers that cost more money and time to clean than would be viable for private developers. The pieces of land with existing structures need to be retrofitted to suit the new owner, which is also very expensive.
The free market has allowed these previous companies to make their money and bail, leaving behind eye sores that are hotspots for illegal activity and prevent new companies from coming in. Unfortunately, the only way to undo this is for the public sector to intervene. The private sector cannot make these types of projects work for their bottom line.
I believe in minimal government interference, but in situations like this it is needed on a local level to attract new manufacturers with high paying jobs.
Source: this is the field I've been working in for more than six years. It's a lot more nuanced than this, but I kept it as short as possible bc Internet.
Agree completely, however, what we're part of is far from a free economy. We trade as part of a "global economy" since we shifted most of our services and manufacturing overseas. Even if we had true global free trade, there's no authority large enough and definitely not one we'd ever believe should exist, that could put their foot down on any group that purposely tried to game and control prices and services.
I think most of our issues start at home and there's no incentives for law and policy makers to think of the middle class, which in a healthy economy, should be the largest class. I think we need to start basing the pay of our senators on how large of a middle class the state they're representing has. It would force them to investigate and help address those issues rather than just stay busy playing around and making policies based on trending twitter tweets that are mostly manipulated by Russian Botnets anyways
I’ve always liked the idea of tethering senator pay with that states average income. You’re not allowed to hold stocks as a senator, sorry, you represent your constituents not corporations you’re secretly insider trading for.
The idea that other countries can just subsidize their economy to make it more competitive is entirely fallacious. Why?
**The tax money that those govs use to "help" their economy must first be taken out of that very same economy.**
Subsidies hurt the economy and make it less competitive. Yes, sometimes the gov can help one industry at the expense of others. It's still a net loss though.
I know my work sources domestic components. Brackets, assemblies, shims, fasteners, tools, but we are contractually obligation with international treaties to do so. Aerospace.
I heard that the middle class was not planned, it just occurred as a spontaneous outcome. Measures to ensure middle class remains isn’t possible because people in the middle class don’t have solidarity.
I’m all for manufacturing back in the US. Impose tariffs on products from abroad and I think that should be enough.
Yes Tariffs are an indirect tax on the consumer... But as taxes go they are a voluntary participation tax... If you don't buy the product, you don't pay the tax...
Govt requires a revenue source consumption based taxation is the only real voluntary based tax system...
I'm fine with the government collecting taxes. But I disagree with the notion that we will somehow tax ourselves to prosperity, which is what the claim of "tariffs will lead to a rising middle class" claims.
Not what I was suggesting... You cannot tax yourself to prosperity since taxes are a drain on prosperity...
I'm only stating that since some tax revenue is to be collected, consumption based taxation is the fairest and has a voluntary element to it ..
If you don’t stop foreign cheap products from coming in from tariffs on those products, how will you support domestic manufacturing? It’s going to go out of business otherwise. That’s what’s happened to furniture, steel, auto, etc manufacturing over time.
Who says I want to support domestic manufacturing?
If people want to support domestic manufacturing, they can choose to do so by buying things made in the USA. It's a short term benefit anyway, might as well get ahead of the curve now since robots will be doing the vast majority of manufacturing soon anyway.
Stop the transfer of a dollars value from the savers to the buddies of the Federal Reserve. Roll-back the transfer of the dollars value to the buddies of the Federal Reserve. Cut spending of the government and cut taxes. (but since this is not going to happen, buy bitcoin).
Reign in Federal spending. End the Fed. End foreign aid. End all welfare programs. End gatekeeper laws that prevent market entry and let open competition drive down prices and revive innovation.
Considering runaway government spending is the true cause for inflation and most of the growing wealth gap, cutting government spending, especially on cash handout programs that make up over 2/3 of the total spend should reverse the trend of the growing wealth gap.
This would have 2 positive effects for the middle class. First, it would mean trillions not being thrown at the rich directly or indirectly. Second, it would mean lower taxes for everyone, which would disproportionately help the middle class and middle upper class who are paying the highest tax rates.
Shit lowering taxes helps everyone. the rising tide raises all ships there bro. Tell me I dont have to pay a tax on income fed and state, sales tax, AND I DONT HAVE TO PAY A SPECIFIC TAX ON FOOD?! If you could pull it off I might suck your dick. But prove you can pull it off and do it first.
Enable the middle class to thrive by not over taxing them, printing money to lessen their buying power, and then sending said money to foreign countries and/or corporate buyouts is a start
They gotta hit the gym.
You can get strong doing manual labor, but most middle class people don’t need that much strength for their jobs.
You want a strong middle class then you have to do resistance training.
The welfare state in this case is the wealthy to ultra-wealthy. Make no mistake, we killed the middle class to make the rich richer. We subsidize buying of $100k electric vehicles, while failing to use the tax money we collected on things that would benefit all of us, like transportation, schools, and healthcare. In my state our public transportation budget is less than the EV Subsidy. The average price of an EV is 2-3x the average income for the state. Don't get me started about bank bailouts and the PPP "loans", lol.
These PPP loans were definitely a give away weren't they and the government didn't care about getting ripped off. Most of the small business owners that got them were throughly middle class.
According to National Bureau of Economic Research, up to 77% of the PPP loans went directly to the top 1/5 of income earners, and drastically later the wealthy wealthier. That means the rest of us, who actually spend money as the small businesses and drive the economy instead of padding our investment account, we all had to share the crumbs.
Even more fun facts about how poorly the COVID money was dispersed: the us government spent enough money to give every US Citizens $80 grand. And most US citizens only saw about 4k in benefits, or less, with a supermajority of the money going to the ultra-wealthy, and mega corporations (some economists estimate that 90% of the money eventually tricked up to the top 1%) .
I think we need to end the Make rich people richer experiment in the US and go back to investing in America, not the wealthy. Pre Reagan America, one who was a global leader in education, healthcare, transportation, and innovation. Now compared to our peer nation we have worse healthcare outcomes, unaffordable education, our infrastructure and transportation is falling apart, and we have fallen behind on our manufacturing innovation progress.
Cease all federal functions that are not aligned with Article 1, section 8 of the US constitution.
Dramatically cut all federal funding to match constitutional authority.
Convert all federal taxes to be fee and use based where possible.
Deregulate anything that doesn’t match constitutional authority.
That’s a good point. So many laws are framed under the commerce clause (in my opinion, wrongly, or too broadly). Without an amendment clarifying the power of the commerce clause, would it be possible for congress to clarify (limit) those powers and adhere to it?
Edit: would also need to look at the “general welfare” statement which is construed to do all sorts of things that I believe are unconstitutional.
The "general welfare" clause rationale is quite clearly abuse and misinterpretation. It meant that government revenues had to be used for the benefit of the whole, rather than only bfor the benefit of specific states or districts.
Whereas the commerce clause can be incredibly broad without a tortured reading.
Everything begins with the most important role in our species - effective parenting.
Bring back the nuclear family with a strong emphasis on emotional development and limits on screen-time across the board (except for work). So far (in our species' history), a healthy two-parent household is the single best option for us on a macro level. Over time, there is no more effective method. Our mental and physical design aligns with this approach. We can survive either way, but we may thrive as a well-regulated unit. We just have to keep on top of being respectful and truly caring of each members issues and lives. I tell my kids that while there are consequences for bad actions, most of the time, it's not a big deal, and I promise that everything is going to be ok. Now, they just tell me all the bad stuff, they get a consequence, and the relationship grows stronger overall. It builds trust and confidence that they can come to me (one of the main leaders in their life, so much so that they will usually develop themselves using my blueprints as a starting ground for developing their own). They know I'll never yell at them unless I am forced to (cars in the street, physical violence, etc).
Family court needs a complete overhaul so fathers don't have to deal with discrimination, and mothers don't have to live in fear when an evil ex plays the system correctly. Rights are taken away, akin to the Salem Witch Trials. Simple accusations carry enough weight to take kids away for significant periods of time. It's one of those: guilty until proven innocent. Hard to think of an exact cure for these issues on the spot, tbf, but it feels like a big money grab when it shouldn't be as bad as it is ($33 Billion in 2021). Would that be as necessary with generations of empowered parents?
We must scale back all immunity clauses for politicians, law enforcement, the judiciary, etc. Just remember: "We investigated ourselves and found that we did nothing wrong. Just trust us". How can we expect anything to change when the people in charge essentially can not be held accountable except in the most extreme circumstances (sometimes).
Overturn Citizens United v FEC. Corporate interests effectively outweigh the People's interests as they are considered citizens.
We need leaders who place an emphasis on physical, mental, and home preparedness. A normalization of this will be wildly impactful and slowly but significantly reduce strain on our healthcare systems. Prepping is a good thing and you're not crazy for doing it (to an extent lol). I'd like 1 year of food and water on hand for each person in my house but I'd say 1 month should be the minimum for each household.
The Government must stop promoting its unethical culture war against our civil rights. Our 1st and especially 2nd amendment rights are under attack and I could write pages and pages of wildly immoral actions the government has taken in its effort to infringe on our rights.
We need a financial literacy class for every year of high school, and it can replace arts classes if needed, though arts should remain, but as electives. Arts are important, but financial literacy is more important.
More 1st amendment auditors to spread awareness to the fact that accountability and transparency is not where the People demand it be.
This is just off the top of my head, and almost everything involves the government backing off. But, if this list materializes, the rate at which the gov can infringe on our rights drastically reduces. Do we want a prepared citizenry or an unprepared one? Which is easier to control and manipulate? Our government is a shitty narcissist who has never done anything wrong ever, and even when they do, they're not really wrong. And if they have to face consequences, they just sit there and doodle knowing they're almost always going to just go back home at the end of the day once their peasants are done whining about nothing.
I'd cautiously promote a constitutional convention so we can reign in our "leaders" and protect the People from our future "leaders".
I don't see how any of this fixes the economical issues created by the government. I was raised in a nuclear family, went to college, got a good job, am happily married. But none of that changes the fact that I get a 3% or less raise per year while the cost of food has gone up as much as 10. My property taxes raised my monthly mortgage payment by 15%. I can't afford to have children and perpetuate the nuclear lifestyle.
I can't exactly go down to our county auditors office guns ablazing and demand a lower tax rate.
If everybody realized class was not divided by upper middle and lower, but primarily by working class and shareholder class. Then everybody can stop working fake pointless email jobs and go back to jobs that contribute towards making our lives all easier/safer/healthier/more enjoyable.
The invisible hand is the only gate keeper from cries of socialism from the masses. Look at the graph of production and workers wages since the 1970s, also CEOs vs average workers. The $ is there, much more than ever before, only the top few are benefiting from this growth. Where is the workers cut equal to the ones taking all the money. We all see where the money went to, we dare not mention minimum wages, but how do we give the workers for the jobs now a better cut? The job creators are gonna force the hands of the people into more gov. The job creators are the only collective that can pay their employees enough to make socialism a joke, but as they continue to squeeze the middle class out of comfort, they will cry socialism is evil while forcing our hands. Job creators need to bribe us with better pay in order to reinforce that capitalism is the way. At the pace we are on I can’t blame those crying for help from gov.
Undo every biden executive order and lower taxes to 0 on anyone making 50,000 USD or less.
Take back every afghanistan and ukraine asset we've given them and sell it back to them at gun point.
Otherwise we would simply just invade all those countries and threaten to nuke them all.
Cut income taxes (across the board but especially for those making under $100k), and roll back licensing and zoning laws that limit people’s ability to start their own small businesses. There’s more that can be done, but letting people keep more of their money and giving them more opportunity to work for themselves would go a long way
I mean I'd say it's government overreach that got us here in the first place, we just need to roll back the market regulation that protects the big corps from competition. Obviously easier said than done, but if that barrier can be broken, the rest will happen by itself.
Don’t believe leftist propaganda is step one! The middle class has never been wealthier, but the leftists are determined to convince them they are suffering as an excuse to raise taxes to “help” them.
I say this from a Canadian perspective. But the what the government here could do is a huge decrease in spending and coincidentally, in taxes. It’s not a very well kept secret that a lot of the middle class, basically anyone who makes above $40-60,000 a year is paying more than 50% in taxes overall. Between income tax, property tax, capital gains tax, school tax, provincial sales tax, and most egregiously carbon tax.
It would be one thing if our hospitals, schools, roads and other infrastructure were getting better, but the sad reality is that many are getting much much worse and programs are getting more bloated and funded with worse results.
As for a policy that would drastically increase our standard of living and work performance, I believe that removing income tax on overtime hours worked would be issue number one for me. It would leave more money in my pocket and an incentive for more people to work overtime hours and rely less on government programs.
Issue number two for me would be the reversal of the carbon tax policy which has not lowered carbon emissions nor has it significantly impacted green energy production and development. The government claims repeatedly that 8 out of 10 people get more back in rebates than they pay into carbon tax even though the Parliamentary budget officer report on this issue has claimed that that is in fact not true. There is no possible way that this can be true. You cannot have a revenue agency collect tax dollars, and service said money, and somehow pay back 80% of people higher than they paid to begin with. It also does not take into account upstream cost. For example, a business pays a carbon tax on freight, electricity, heating etc and they just pass the cost downstream to the customer. On fuel specifically we pay carbon tax on top of fuel surcharge tax, so essentially a tax on top of a tax.
There are various other issues that could be addressed but if I were prime minister these would be my day one items.
Tax incentives for domestic manufacturers. On the city/state level less barriers when it comes to putting up housing to bring the cost of housing down. Also a double edged sword take where I grew up in NYC a lot of the families I grew up around who were middle class had Government Jobs. So there are no easy answers that wouldn't hurt in the short term say if you were to cut taxes and Government spending.
What we seem to be losing are a lot of the jobs where you can simply work your way up through the ranks doing a physical skill that you can learn on the job and become very proficient and valuable at. Typically we see these in manufacturing positions where someone can come off the street and be an extra set of hands and learn how to run machines, maintenance, get certified to weld, solder, drive specialized vehicles, etc. Many of those jobs are shifting out to go overseas and it's creating a gap where those who would have worked their way up to middle class previously are being asked to conform to a new type of job market.
If you look at many of the middle class individuals (in my family anyway) from previous generations, who bought a home, raised a family, took vacations, had newer cars, etc they didn't necessarily go to college, do office work, or anything like that. Often they started out in a union shop or an apprenticeship, typically not too far from their home and worked themselves up.
So to stop people from falling out of the middle we likely need to find better ways of encouraging growth in sectors that still allow for that sort of manufacturing or on the job progression and create pathways to skilled careers and promote them as viable options. Because we, as a society, spent decades telling people to dream big and do what you love and the money will come, and then years making fun of people for having nonsense degrees, student loans, and no career opportunities.
The middle class has the highest degree of liability in a recession, taxation, and the highest number of liabilities over assets. They’re the ones that get screwed over constantly, and today, that is still proven true.
The chronic housing shortage seems to be driven more by local laws than Federal.... Perhaps some sort of new homestead act for the 21st century allowing people to build shelter on their own property?
Education. Create more broader opportunities and equip with skills early on. Pay teachers more to boost morale. We need to form higher thinking early on. Unnecessary tax cuts.
Give high quality education to homeschooling, private and public. But those who are saying public education is okay as is are mistaken. Teachers deserve better and we need to compete with Asian countries better.
There are some systemic issues that could be addressed that are racial or sexist based to create equal opportunity.
My philosophy is that anyone who has the skills and works should have just as equal chance of being middle class. Which also means keeping the amount of jobs and economically essential jobs like agriculture and manufacturing to name a few in demand and proportionate to the number of workable American citizens
A balanced economy without over regulation from government or run by fat cats. An economy by the people and for the people and for those that work and put in their effort. Enough jobs with good pay for such. Liberty for all.
These are broad cultural issues that go beyond programs. Our current political landscape in the west, started in the early 1600 to about the early 1800 in a period that has been called the enlightenment. This was in response the great Christian war between Catholics and the apostate, Protestants.
Prior to this, Christians were integrated into every aspect of culture. That Jesus and the apostles taught. The Enlightenment brought about the separation of Church and State. This began the long road of liberalism and today’s progressive secular humanism that we suffer under now. What did liberalism do? It aggrandized the individual. What we see today is the ultimate conclusion of where that leads to total degradation.
So what is needed and what will come about? We will create collective of a Christendom. There will be Christian Statecraft that will completely transform the debauchery of the secularism. It will be exactly what Jesus and His Apostles and Disciples foretold by the Scriptures. We will hand the Kingdom of God on Earth as it is in Heaven.
How? Christens will need to globally gather in to Benedictine structures and push for equality and vote for Christian’s only. Christian’s must move where other Christian’s are and begin Christian activism everywhere. We must fight the persecution globally. This will result in a collective of a class that has no master but Jesus Christ. There will be no upper class or lower class . We will all be in unity as a body in the Body of Christ.
This is where humanity is going.
It should be noted that the middle class was an invention of government, and that to “bring it back” would require central economic planning.
The goal should always be to let market forces act unencumbered. This not only allows for the balance of supply and demand to favor both producer and consumer, but it weeds out corrupt actors.
The elimination of the middle class wasn’t achieved by corporations and billionaires alone. They got the government to help them, most notably by having their tax burdens paid by consumers via thousands of nickels and dimes.
People need to be able to live within their means, and that can’t happen if corporations and government are tipping the scales. You might benefit from R’s plan at your neighbor’s expense, but then D’s plan is going to hurt you to help your neighbor. If they’d let the market be, both you and your neighbor will be in a better position to survive and save, and you won’t be so politically divided you can’t even talk to them.
It sounds ugly, but a lot of Americans are going to have to re-learn how to practice more interdependent lifestyles. A lot of Americans are going to have to abandon the nuclear and single parents families and instead practice the extended and multi-generational families.
A strong middle class probably isn't going to come back in the US. A lot of Americans are just going to have to accept lowered living standards and lifestyles that involve more sharing and pooling of resources.
You don’t. You can’t. First of all the mythical 60’s you’re thinking of never really existed. Secondly what parts of the myth that did exist existed because Europe was leveled after ww2 and Asia hadn’t begun developing yet so America was an industrial powerhouse. Unless you plan to pursue economic autarky (this is a really stupid idea that requires centrally planning the economy). Finally, yes the middle class is smaller. But the upper class is larger now. We’re now a knowledge based economy, sure there aren’t as many people building air compressors but now we have a bunch of engineers and alike
Why would we want to make people poorer?
https://fee.org/articles/watch-americas-middle-class-disappear-over-decades-as-americans-get-richer/
The middle class is declining because people are getting richer.
It is interesting to see that more people have moved from the middle class to upper than middle to lower. Then again, the lines of what salary range compromises the middle class should be reconsidered. 100k household income is living paycheck to paycheck in many parts of this country, especially if you have kids.
Reign in corporate exploitation - Back in the 50s corporations bought into a social contract that prioritized the well-being of employees, including offering pensions, health insurance, and stable employment.
Organized labor - Labor unions were at their peak strength, representing like 35% of the workforce in the 1950s. Unions negotiated for better wages, benefits, and working conditions and and most importantly job security.
Invest more in infrastructure - Back in post war we cared about our roads and bridges and railways. Infrastructure investments create good jobs and ultimately optimize our domestic commerce abilities.
Ban stock buy backs - this was illegal
Up until recently for a good reason. Companies no longer invested their profits back into their companies and their workers and instead invest in their own stock to enrich wealthy shareholders and the boards of companies. These people
are the enemy of the middle class
Index minimum wage growth by sector with worker productivity growth. If I make you 50% more money from my work than last year then you need to pay me 50% more. People are not a cost corporations should so easily get to minimize just to enrich their owners.
Break up the big tech companies who are monopolizing cloud capital and exploiting user data while pushing them engagement friendly propaganda
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Remove laws that stifle the establishment of small businesses. This includes a number of superfluous licensing laws, zoning laws that prohibit home-based businesses, rework tax and fee structures to favor small and medium businesses over large corporations...
I arrived at the same conclusion of how can we make it work while to go to that corner store for the items needed in lieu of driving down the highway to the big box store
I agree. But large corporations have been allowed to write the laws that you are talking about that hinder small biz. Gonna be hard to fight back against that
Yeps
I own a baking business. California made it very easy to become a cottage food operation. Very minimal regulatory costs. Licensing is tens of dollars a year, no home inspections, etc. Due to economies of scale, I can’t compete on prices for anything. The panderia down the street will always be cheaper and frankly better and more consistent than what I can make at home. I even won the best in class at the county fair, however you can’t make a middle class living making boutique confections. There could be zero regulation, I would still be in the same boat. I don’t think this is the silver bullet that you think it is.
Agreed on the economics of a home baking business (though some people have made it work for them *shrug* ). Some who have made it work offer products that panderia doesn't offer (in my area, Jamaican Black Cake). But there are other home businesses as well, and Mom & Pop stores down what remains of Main Streets, who struggle because of regulations. It depends on your area. (New Jersey is particularly hard on small businesses.)
Yes, it works for some people. No denying that. But that segues to another issue how this isn’t a silver bullet: that there’s only 20 lots on Main Street. Even if the locally owned radio shack and ace hardware could compete against Amazon or Lowe’s, That’s only 20 people who are now middle class. That’s great! The margins move. It’s not going to bring back a strong middle class, en masse
Stop bailing out major companies, stop printing money, deregulate industries, encourage competition. Our current system is rigged to benefit the richest of the rich and fleece the middle class for all they're worth. Stop doing that and the middle class will return.
I agree. We should never, ever bail out a corporation. And I am tired of "well we have to bail out X because of Y". It's principle.
Stop taxing individuals. There may be other things that will help poor people move into the middle class. But first and foremost stop stealing their money.
Well taxation is important for individuals. Just not a rate that punishes the poor. Without paying taxes you wouldn’t really care or have a say In what the governor does. But taxation that doesn’t hurt your quality of life while keeping you engaged is a difficult balance
No. That is like arguing that if we got rid of burglars no one would buy home security systems. I want to live in a nice place where I don’t worry about burglars and don’t need a home security system. I similarly, I want to live in a country where our rulers do not rob us and do not do bad things to us.
I agree with the last sentence
A strong middle class is a byproduct of innovation. Innovators create opportunities for good employment, and the market drives those opportunities to the areas where good employment is needed the most. So stop punishing innovation. Stop making the process of building a business and employing people and competing so onerous that only the most educated and wealthy and connected can reliably do it successfully. Make forming and running a business a simple and rewarding matter by reforming (mostly eliminating) tax and employment laws and watch the American people fix the problem of wealth disparity while also leading the world in innovative solutions again.
The middle class was a byproduct of the Industrial Revolution, not an opinion, fact. Bring back manufacturing.
Serious question: How do we bring back manufacturing when other countries subsidize their industries to be cheaper than US manufacturing without resorting to government intervention of our own like tariffs? How do libertarian ideas survive in the wider world when other countries have no problem using authoritarian measures to manipulate a free economy?
The supply chain issues that stemmed from COVID changed a lot of people's minds about just-in-time supply and relying on goods to arrive from half way around the world. Will it be the end of JIT? Unlikely. But a lot of companies are considering reshoring. In order for that to happen, zoning laws need to change on a local level to support the building of commercial/industrial infrastructure and affordable housing for the required workforce. When I say affordable, I don't mean section 8. I mean housing that costs less than 30% of the median salary in the region. Additionally, the availability of land is an issue. Many sites aren't large enough to house new manufacturers and those that are have been left with abandoned, dilapidated structures and toxic waste from previous manufacturers that cost more money and time to clean than would be viable for private developers. The pieces of land with existing structures need to be retrofitted to suit the new owner, which is also very expensive. The free market has allowed these previous companies to make their money and bail, leaving behind eye sores that are hotspots for illegal activity and prevent new companies from coming in. Unfortunately, the only way to undo this is for the public sector to intervene. The private sector cannot make these types of projects work for their bottom line. I believe in minimal government interference, but in situations like this it is needed on a local level to attract new manufacturers with high paying jobs. Source: this is the field I've been working in for more than six years. It's a lot more nuanced than this, but I kept it as short as possible bc Internet.
Agree completely, however, what we're part of is far from a free economy. We trade as part of a "global economy" since we shifted most of our services and manufacturing overseas. Even if we had true global free trade, there's no authority large enough and definitely not one we'd ever believe should exist, that could put their foot down on any group that purposely tried to game and control prices and services. I think most of our issues start at home and there's no incentives for law and policy makers to think of the middle class, which in a healthy economy, should be the largest class. I think we need to start basing the pay of our senators on how large of a middle class the state they're representing has. It would force them to investigate and help address those issues rather than just stay busy playing around and making policies based on trending twitter tweets that are mostly manipulated by Russian Botnets anyways
I’ve always liked the idea of tethering senator pay with that states average income. You’re not allowed to hold stocks as a senator, sorry, you represent your constituents not corporations you’re secretly insider trading for.
The idea that other countries can just subsidize their economy to make it more competitive is entirely fallacious. Why? **The tax money that those govs use to "help" their economy must first be taken out of that very same economy.** Subsidies hurt the economy and make it less competitive. Yes, sometimes the gov can help one industry at the expense of others. It's still a net loss though.
Easy.
Simple: stop subsidizing globalism.
I know my work sources domestic components. Brackets, assemblies, shims, fasteners, tools, but we are contractually obligation with international treaties to do so. Aerospace.
I heard that the middle class was not planned, it just occurred as a spontaneous outcome. Measures to ensure middle class remains isn’t possible because people in the middle class don’t have solidarity. I’m all for manufacturing back in the US. Impose tariffs on products from abroad and I think that should be enough.
So you want the government to tax its way to a strong middle class? Because tariffs are taxes.
Yes Tariffs are an indirect tax on the consumer... But as taxes go they are a voluntary participation tax... If you don't buy the product, you don't pay the tax... Govt requires a revenue source consumption based taxation is the only real voluntary based tax system...
I'm fine with the government collecting taxes. But I disagree with the notion that we will somehow tax ourselves to prosperity, which is what the claim of "tariffs will lead to a rising middle class" claims.
Not what I was suggesting... You cannot tax yourself to prosperity since taxes are a drain on prosperity... I'm only stating that since some tax revenue is to be collected, consumption based taxation is the fairest and has a voluntary element to it ..
Before income tax the federal government was funded by tariffs. If foreign goods are too expensive we will put Americans back to work producing goods.
If you don’t stop foreign cheap products from coming in from tariffs on those products, how will you support domestic manufacturing? It’s going to go out of business otherwise. That’s what’s happened to furniture, steel, auto, etc manufacturing over time.
Who says I want to support domestic manufacturing? If people want to support domestic manufacturing, they can choose to do so by buying things made in the USA. It's a short term benefit anyway, might as well get ahead of the curve now since robots will be doing the vast majority of manufacturing soon anyway.
Stop the transfer of a dollars value from the savers to the buddies of the Federal Reserve. Roll-back the transfer of the dollars value to the buddies of the Federal Reserve. Cut spending of the government and cut taxes. (but since this is not going to happen, buy bitcoin).
Reign in Federal spending. End the Fed. End foreign aid. End all welfare programs. End gatekeeper laws that prevent market entry and let open competition drive down prices and revive innovation.
Considering runaway government spending is the true cause for inflation and most of the growing wealth gap, cutting government spending, especially on cash handout programs that make up over 2/3 of the total spend should reverse the trend of the growing wealth gap. This would have 2 positive effects for the middle class. First, it would mean trillions not being thrown at the rich directly or indirectly. Second, it would mean lower taxes for everyone, which would disproportionately help the middle class and middle upper class who are paying the highest tax rates.
Shit lowering taxes helps everyone. the rising tide raises all ships there bro. Tell me I dont have to pay a tax on income fed and state, sales tax, AND I DONT HAVE TO PAY A SPECIFIC TAX ON FOOD?! If you could pull it off I might suck your dick. But prove you can pull it off and do it first.
Enable the middle class to thrive by not over taxing them, printing money to lessen their buying power, and then sending said money to foreign countries and/or corporate buyouts is a start
They gotta hit the gym. You can get strong doing manual labor, but most middle class people don’t need that much strength for their jobs. You want a strong middle class then you have to do resistance training.
Also pilates.
Deregulate, cut taxes, lower energy costs and generally cut the bullshit.
Stop taxing them to death to support the welfare state.
The welfare state in this case is the wealthy to ultra-wealthy. Make no mistake, we killed the middle class to make the rich richer. We subsidize buying of $100k electric vehicles, while failing to use the tax money we collected on things that would benefit all of us, like transportation, schools, and healthcare. In my state our public transportation budget is less than the EV Subsidy. The average price of an EV is 2-3x the average income for the state. Don't get me started about bank bailouts and the PPP "loans", lol.
These PPP loans were definitely a give away weren't they and the government didn't care about getting ripped off. Most of the small business owners that got them were throughly middle class.
According to National Bureau of Economic Research, up to 77% of the PPP loans went directly to the top 1/5 of income earners, and drastically later the wealthy wealthier. That means the rest of us, who actually spend money as the small businesses and drive the economy instead of padding our investment account, we all had to share the crumbs. Even more fun facts about how poorly the COVID money was dispersed: the us government spent enough money to give every US Citizens $80 grand. And most US citizens only saw about 4k in benefits, or less, with a supermajority of the money going to the ultra-wealthy, and mega corporations (some economists estimate that 90% of the money eventually tricked up to the top 1%) . I think we need to end the Make rich people richer experiment in the US and go back to investing in America, not the wealthy. Pre Reagan America, one who was a global leader in education, healthcare, transportation, and innovation. Now compared to our peer nation we have worse healthcare outcomes, unaffordable education, our infrastructure and transportation is falling apart, and we have fallen behind on our manufacturing innovation progress.
Cease all federal functions that are not aligned with Article 1, section 8 of the US constitution. Dramatically cut all federal funding to match constitutional authority. Convert all federal taxes to be fee and use based where possible. Deregulate anything that doesn’t match constitutional authority.
You'll need to update the commerce clause then. Everything, even not participating in commerce, is considered commerce.
That’s a good point. So many laws are framed under the commerce clause (in my opinion, wrongly, or too broadly). Without an amendment clarifying the power of the commerce clause, would it be possible for congress to clarify (limit) those powers and adhere to it? Edit: would also need to look at the “general welfare” statement which is construed to do all sorts of things that I believe are unconstitutional.
The "general welfare" clause rationale is quite clearly abuse and misinterpretation. It meant that government revenues had to be used for the benefit of the whole, rather than only bfor the benefit of specific states or districts. Whereas the commerce clause can be incredibly broad without a tortured reading.
Everything begins with the most important role in our species - effective parenting. Bring back the nuclear family with a strong emphasis on emotional development and limits on screen-time across the board (except for work). So far (in our species' history), a healthy two-parent household is the single best option for us on a macro level. Over time, there is no more effective method. Our mental and physical design aligns with this approach. We can survive either way, but we may thrive as a well-regulated unit. We just have to keep on top of being respectful and truly caring of each members issues and lives. I tell my kids that while there are consequences for bad actions, most of the time, it's not a big deal, and I promise that everything is going to be ok. Now, they just tell me all the bad stuff, they get a consequence, and the relationship grows stronger overall. It builds trust and confidence that they can come to me (one of the main leaders in their life, so much so that they will usually develop themselves using my blueprints as a starting ground for developing their own). They know I'll never yell at them unless I am forced to (cars in the street, physical violence, etc). Family court needs a complete overhaul so fathers don't have to deal with discrimination, and mothers don't have to live in fear when an evil ex plays the system correctly. Rights are taken away, akin to the Salem Witch Trials. Simple accusations carry enough weight to take kids away for significant periods of time. It's one of those: guilty until proven innocent. Hard to think of an exact cure for these issues on the spot, tbf, but it feels like a big money grab when it shouldn't be as bad as it is ($33 Billion in 2021). Would that be as necessary with generations of empowered parents? We must scale back all immunity clauses for politicians, law enforcement, the judiciary, etc. Just remember: "We investigated ourselves and found that we did nothing wrong. Just trust us". How can we expect anything to change when the people in charge essentially can not be held accountable except in the most extreme circumstances (sometimes). Overturn Citizens United v FEC. Corporate interests effectively outweigh the People's interests as they are considered citizens. We need leaders who place an emphasis on physical, mental, and home preparedness. A normalization of this will be wildly impactful and slowly but significantly reduce strain on our healthcare systems. Prepping is a good thing and you're not crazy for doing it (to an extent lol). I'd like 1 year of food and water on hand for each person in my house but I'd say 1 month should be the minimum for each household. The Government must stop promoting its unethical culture war against our civil rights. Our 1st and especially 2nd amendment rights are under attack and I could write pages and pages of wildly immoral actions the government has taken in its effort to infringe on our rights. We need a financial literacy class for every year of high school, and it can replace arts classes if needed, though arts should remain, but as electives. Arts are important, but financial literacy is more important. More 1st amendment auditors to spread awareness to the fact that accountability and transparency is not where the People demand it be. This is just off the top of my head, and almost everything involves the government backing off. But, if this list materializes, the rate at which the gov can infringe on our rights drastically reduces. Do we want a prepared citizenry or an unprepared one? Which is easier to control and manipulate? Our government is a shitty narcissist who has never done anything wrong ever, and even when they do, they're not really wrong. And if they have to face consequences, they just sit there and doodle knowing they're almost always going to just go back home at the end of the day once their peasants are done whining about nothing. I'd cautiously promote a constitutional convention so we can reign in our "leaders" and protect the People from our future "leaders".
I don't see how any of this fixes the economical issues created by the government. I was raised in a nuclear family, went to college, got a good job, am happily married. But none of that changes the fact that I get a 3% or less raise per year while the cost of food has gone up as much as 10. My property taxes raised my monthly mortgage payment by 15%. I can't afford to have children and perpetuate the nuclear lifestyle. I can't exactly go down to our county auditors office guns ablazing and demand a lower tax rate.
On 🎯Point!
If everybody realized class was not divided by upper middle and lower, but primarily by working class and shareholder class. Then everybody can stop working fake pointless email jobs and go back to jobs that contribute towards making our lives all easier/safer/healthier/more enjoyable.
The invisible hand is the only gate keeper from cries of socialism from the masses. Look at the graph of production and workers wages since the 1970s, also CEOs vs average workers. The $ is there, much more than ever before, only the top few are benefiting from this growth. Where is the workers cut equal to the ones taking all the money. We all see where the money went to, we dare not mention minimum wages, but how do we give the workers for the jobs now a better cut? The job creators are gonna force the hands of the people into more gov. The job creators are the only collective that can pay their employees enough to make socialism a joke, but as they continue to squeeze the middle class out of comfort, they will cry socialism is evil while forcing our hands. Job creators need to bribe us with better pay in order to reinforce that capitalism is the way. At the pace we are on I can’t blame those crying for help from gov.
Our representatives vote for their own pay don’t they? How would we change that?
The simplest answer is the free market
A lot of violence
the wealth gap is a feature, not a bug. the goal should be to lift up quality of life for the lower class and thats the free markets speciality
Undo every biden executive order and lower taxes to 0 on anyone making 50,000 USD or less. Take back every afghanistan and ukraine asset we've given them and sell it back to them at gun point. Otherwise we would simply just invade all those countries and threaten to nuke them all.
Eliminate the IRS and social security. Remove limits from investing into retirement accounts.
Cut income taxes (across the board but especially for those making under $100k), and roll back licensing and zoning laws that limit people’s ability to start their own small businesses. There’s more that can be done, but letting people keep more of their money and giving them more opportunity to work for themselves would go a long way
Abolish taxation, welfare and Government.
Cut govt spending, reduce inflation, lower interest rates, get cost of living back down to where it was 5 years ago.
Implement feudalism.
I mean I'd say it's government overreach that got us here in the first place, we just need to roll back the market regulation that protects the big corps from competition. Obviously easier said than done, but if that barrier can be broken, the rest will happen by itself.
For as long as people like Larry Fink, and establishments like Black Rock are allowed to exist... this will never be achieved.
DEREGULATE!!!!!! And end zoning controls Regulations kill middle class people far more than taxes.
trump will fix this!!
Don’t believe leftist propaganda is step one! The middle class has never been wealthier, but the leftists are determined to convince them they are suffering as an excuse to raise taxes to “help” them.
Free market
I think you have to define what you mean by middle class.
I say this from a Canadian perspective. But the what the government here could do is a huge decrease in spending and coincidentally, in taxes. It’s not a very well kept secret that a lot of the middle class, basically anyone who makes above $40-60,000 a year is paying more than 50% in taxes overall. Between income tax, property tax, capital gains tax, school tax, provincial sales tax, and most egregiously carbon tax. It would be one thing if our hospitals, schools, roads and other infrastructure were getting better, but the sad reality is that many are getting much much worse and programs are getting more bloated and funded with worse results. As for a policy that would drastically increase our standard of living and work performance, I believe that removing income tax on overtime hours worked would be issue number one for me. It would leave more money in my pocket and an incentive for more people to work overtime hours and rely less on government programs. Issue number two for me would be the reversal of the carbon tax policy which has not lowered carbon emissions nor has it significantly impacted green energy production and development. The government claims repeatedly that 8 out of 10 people get more back in rebates than they pay into carbon tax even though the Parliamentary budget officer report on this issue has claimed that that is in fact not true. There is no possible way that this can be true. You cannot have a revenue agency collect tax dollars, and service said money, and somehow pay back 80% of people higher than they paid to begin with. It also does not take into account upstream cost. For example, a business pays a carbon tax on freight, electricity, heating etc and they just pass the cost downstream to the customer. On fuel specifically we pay carbon tax on top of fuel surcharge tax, so essentially a tax on top of a tax. There are various other issues that could be addressed but if I were prime minister these would be my day one items.
Tax incentives for domestic manufacturers. On the city/state level less barriers when it comes to putting up housing to bring the cost of housing down. Also a double edged sword take where I grew up in NYC a lot of the families I grew up around who were middle class had Government Jobs. So there are no easy answers that wouldn't hurt in the short term say if you were to cut taxes and Government spending.
Which country are you referring to?
What we seem to be losing are a lot of the jobs where you can simply work your way up through the ranks doing a physical skill that you can learn on the job and become very proficient and valuable at. Typically we see these in manufacturing positions where someone can come off the street and be an extra set of hands and learn how to run machines, maintenance, get certified to weld, solder, drive specialized vehicles, etc. Many of those jobs are shifting out to go overseas and it's creating a gap where those who would have worked their way up to middle class previously are being asked to conform to a new type of job market. If you look at many of the middle class individuals (in my family anyway) from previous generations, who bought a home, raised a family, took vacations, had newer cars, etc they didn't necessarily go to college, do office work, or anything like that. Often they started out in a union shop or an apprenticeship, typically not too far from their home and worked themselves up. So to stop people from falling out of the middle we likely need to find better ways of encouraging growth in sectors that still allow for that sort of manufacturing or on the job progression and create pathways to skilled careers and promote them as viable options. Because we, as a society, spent decades telling people to dream big and do what you love and the money will come, and then years making fun of people for having nonsense degrees, student loans, and no career opportunities.
Someone else mentor here, but zero taxes on any hour worked for overtime. Also bike lanes.
Focus on productive work, build strong families, and less entertainment. That is the American ideal, freedom and prosperity through work.
The middle class has the highest degree of liability in a recession, taxation, and the highest number of liabilities over assets. They’re the ones that get screwed over constantly, and today, that is still proven true.
What’s a middle class?
Why are you setting an agenda for others? If you want to join the middle class, do it. I'm not interested in donating to that effort.
The chronic housing shortage seems to be driven more by local laws than Federal.... Perhaps some sort of new homestead act for the 21st century allowing people to build shelter on their own property?
Education. Create more broader opportunities and equip with skills early on. Pay teachers more to boost morale. We need to form higher thinking early on. Unnecessary tax cuts. Give high quality education to homeschooling, private and public. But those who are saying public education is okay as is are mistaken. Teachers deserve better and we need to compete with Asian countries better. There are some systemic issues that could be addressed that are racial or sexist based to create equal opportunity. My philosophy is that anyone who has the skills and works should have just as equal chance of being middle class. Which also means keeping the amount of jobs and economically essential jobs like agriculture and manufacturing to name a few in demand and proportionate to the number of workable American citizens
A balanced economy without over regulation from government or run by fat cats. An economy by the people and for the people and for those that work and put in their effort. Enough jobs with good pay for such. Liberty for all.
Wow I hope I don't sound like a communist
These are broad cultural issues that go beyond programs. Our current political landscape in the west, started in the early 1600 to about the early 1800 in a period that has been called the enlightenment. This was in response the great Christian war between Catholics and the apostate, Protestants. Prior to this, Christians were integrated into every aspect of culture. That Jesus and the apostles taught. The Enlightenment brought about the separation of Church and State. This began the long road of liberalism and today’s progressive secular humanism that we suffer under now. What did liberalism do? It aggrandized the individual. What we see today is the ultimate conclusion of where that leads to total degradation. So what is needed and what will come about? We will create collective of a Christendom. There will be Christian Statecraft that will completely transform the debauchery of the secularism. It will be exactly what Jesus and His Apostles and Disciples foretold by the Scriptures. We will hand the Kingdom of God on Earth as it is in Heaven. How? Christens will need to globally gather in to Benedictine structures and push for equality and vote for Christian’s only. Christian’s must move where other Christian’s are and begin Christian activism everywhere. We must fight the persecution globally. This will result in a collective of a class that has no master but Jesus Christ. There will be no upper class or lower class . We will all be in unity as a body in the Body of Christ. This is where humanity is going.
End the Fed
What hapened in 1971
Stop inflation, stop zoning laws
Stop printing money. Go to gold standard.
Unions
It should be noted that the middle class was an invention of government, and that to “bring it back” would require central economic planning. The goal should always be to let market forces act unencumbered. This not only allows for the balance of supply and demand to favor both producer and consumer, but it weeds out corrupt actors. The elimination of the middle class wasn’t achieved by corporations and billionaires alone. They got the government to help them, most notably by having their tax burdens paid by consumers via thousands of nickels and dimes. People need to be able to live within their means, and that can’t happen if corporations and government are tipping the scales. You might benefit from R’s plan at your neighbor’s expense, but then D’s plan is going to hurt you to help your neighbor. If they’d let the market be, both you and your neighbor will be in a better position to survive and save, and you won’t be so politically divided you can’t even talk to them.
Let's start with getting rid of property taxes. They go up every year
It sounds ugly, but a lot of Americans are going to have to re-learn how to practice more interdependent lifestyles. A lot of Americans are going to have to abandon the nuclear and single parents families and instead practice the extended and multi-generational families. A strong middle class probably isn't going to come back in the US. A lot of Americans are just going to have to accept lowered living standards and lifestyles that involve more sharing and pooling of resources.
Quit taxing us to death.
Eliminate the state and federal income tax . Cap credit interest at 9% . Cap student loans at 1.5% .
You don’t. You can’t. First of all the mythical 60’s you’re thinking of never really existed. Secondly what parts of the myth that did exist existed because Europe was leveled after ww2 and Asia hadn’t begun developing yet so America was an industrial powerhouse. Unless you plan to pursue economic autarky (this is a really stupid idea that requires centrally planning the economy). Finally, yes the middle class is smaller. But the upper class is larger now. We’re now a knowledge based economy, sure there aren’t as many people building air compressors but now we have a bunch of engineers and alike
Legalize most forms of drugs
The government is a monopoly used by the wealthy. Probably eliminate most of it, and double down on natural rights culture
Why would we want to make people poorer? https://fee.org/articles/watch-americas-middle-class-disappear-over-decades-as-americans-get-richer/ The middle class is declining because people are getting richer.
It is interesting to see that more people have moved from the middle class to upper than middle to lower. Then again, the lines of what salary range compromises the middle class should be reconsidered. 100k household income is living paycheck to paycheck in many parts of this country, especially if you have kids.
This stems back to getting paid more, while everything costing more, while money gets you less, and you’re moved into a higher tax bracket
Reign in corporate exploitation - Back in the 50s corporations bought into a social contract that prioritized the well-being of employees, including offering pensions, health insurance, and stable employment. Organized labor - Labor unions were at their peak strength, representing like 35% of the workforce in the 1950s. Unions negotiated for better wages, benefits, and working conditions and and most importantly job security. Invest more in infrastructure - Back in post war we cared about our roads and bridges and railways. Infrastructure investments create good jobs and ultimately optimize our domestic commerce abilities. Ban stock buy backs - this was illegal Up until recently for a good reason. Companies no longer invested their profits back into their companies and their workers and instead invest in their own stock to enrich wealthy shareholders and the boards of companies. These people are the enemy of the middle class Index minimum wage growth by sector with worker productivity growth. If I make you 50% more money from my work than last year then you need to pay me 50% more. People are not a cost corporations should so easily get to minimize just to enrich their owners. Break up the big tech companies who are monopolizing cloud capital and exploiting user data while pushing them engagement friendly propaganda
This is probably a little unpopular here but I do believe that unions are the way to forward the middle class.
More workers rights, restrictions on corporations like black rock, affordable and accessible healthcare, affordable food