To be middle class in a "1st world nation" you have to make a lot of money. Not money to spend, but money to maintain your life. And the worst part is, you cannot fall below this line, there is no cutting back. There is only delaying the crash.
In order to be part of the middle class, you need to have a house/apartment to sleep in, a car to drive to work, and a good job. You have to afford and maintain these, and because everyone else finances them, you have to finance them too.
Many people call this the rat race. And, you can't not do it.
The price of being a middle class person is very high. It didn't have to be this way, by sleazy car salesmen and greedy bankers have preyed on those who could not wait to save up enough to afford those things. The people who had the ability to postpone gratification did better, but they got sucked in, because you cannot compete in price with people who print money.
So, here you are, a slave, but you do not have the benefit of having a slave master who at least, minimally takes care of you.
Bidding with other people's money
The only way tuition costs so much today is because of loans.
The only way cars costs so much today is because of loans.
The only way houses cost so much today is because of loans.
And not just loans, but loans created out of thin air (stealing a penny from everyone around).
When you can just print more money, you can outbid everyone else.
The sad thing is, people, the average person, believes this is all, just normal.
The average person only cares about the monthly payment.
They have no idea what the loan means to their future life, to the city's future, to the economy, and the time bomb they have created. They have no idea that they just sold their soul, made a deal with the devil, and today, have only temporarily secured a place to sleep.
This should really be verboten in our society.
The race to inflate needed item prices to the very edge of what people and society can afford.
Crashing
More and bigger only work in a growing and booming economy.
If the economy stagnates. If the population growth stagnates, then the whole economy + banking system + housing prices + asset prices crash.
When you create debt based fiat currency, you have to create more of it EVERY year. More than the principal + interest that has to be paid that year. Or the money just disappears. And, that is what is happening now.
Go to a bank and try to withdraw a lot of money. (paper dollars) They will do everything within their power to block you from doing so. A check from a bank to another bank is just a transfer of digits. Digits can be made up on the fly. Dollars cannot. Dollars actually leave the banking system. Literally, leave a hole in the bank, that the bank has to desperately try to fill.
The debt based fiat currency system is crashing.
Thus, the people, the middle class people are crashing as they aren't making enough to stay above the "middle class line".
We are about at that point where the airplane goes from flying, to falling out of the sky. (from above stall speed, to below)
Another way
What if, we did things in a different way?
In our boomer world (i know, not all boomers, but it is a stereotype) where we kicked the kids out of the house at 18 to go make their own way in the world. We set up the least able, the people with the least resources and the least skills, to go and OUTBID all people before them for a house.
In an Amish community (also a stereotype) the older men get together and build a house/barn for the young men who are at the age where they should manage their own farm/business. The men with more resources and more skills, pitch in to build a dwelling. So, the youth starts off with the needs met, and without a huge debt.
We need to do something similar.
Either we have buildings for child-rearing, another for young adults, another for older members, and we have a community that owns/builds all that, or we have a community that sets aside land, and helps build a house for each of the new generation.
We, as a community, even if it is a large community like a nation, have to make sure there is a place for the youth to go. We must make jobs for them, and we must make housing for them (and cars if needed).
How can we ask a kid just out of highschool to compete with a professional who has been through college and is 10 years in his field? In our current system that is exactly what we do. So, do we start building 105% housing (more than enough, so something is always empty), or do we just build the new kids houses?
We should focus on making our needs as inexpensive as possible. A house should cost about 1 man year. Not 30 years of someone's life. (yes, our current bankster system sucks 29 years of someone's life away)
We should not be playing bidding wars with needs.
We are playing a bankster game.
We have accepted words, and have never been taught that they have been changed on us.
A "loan" is very different today than it used to be.
- a loan from a friend means getting money that he earned through hard work. He loses access to his money, you gain access. And it is important to pay this back.
- a loan today means the bankster creates currency out of thin air, and then "lends" it to you. Actually, the bank is given a house, a promissory note equal to the house, and an agreement to pay for 30 years (also equal to the house), and the bank gives out thin air. It is only important to keep the currency flowing.
Going bankrupt is part of the system. There is not enough money in the system to pay for all the loans. The slowest goes bankrupt.
This crash is inevitable.
We cannot afford to pay 29x for needs.
The way out is for us to understand that we should never be bidding on needs. This also requires us to make room for the next generation. Banksters should not be allowed a place in our society. (real money will help, but money changers have always been praying on the less monetary fluent. Just like lotteries are a tax on the poor)
A huge change in thinking is what is necessary.
And that is coming. Sorry banksters.