NEWS ALERT – Middle Class has been Killed!

While recently on vacation, I almost forgot about the recession and economic hardships faced by hard working Americans.  I almost forgot about my own business and the recent cutbacks I had to make.  And, I almost forgot about our federal government and how incredibly incapable and inept its representatives seem to be.   While sitting in a cabin at the top of the Great Smoky Mountains with no TV, newspapers, magazines or internet, I almost forgot and I almost didn’t care.

Against my better judgement and contrary to my sincere desire to disappear, I ventured back out into the real world.  Back at sea level, the sites, sounds and emotions of reality were almost overwhelming.  I saw, in places that once housed thriving businesses, vacant buildings and lots.  A once popular tourist destination was still a destination, yet not quite as popular.  Tourists milled about, casually visiting shops, but with no real desire to buy anything.  Shop owners sat helplessly, knowing full well that they probably wouldn’t be able to pay the rent . . . rent that has been past due for two months. While talking with a waitress about her loss of tip revenue, I took a call from my office, “hello, yes I’m having a great time, must be bad news for you to be calling me . . . oh, I see.  Ok, well tell Judy that she will have to cut back her hours to part time and tell Frank to sell one of our company cars”.  Sorry, another one of our accounts just had to file bankruptcy and could no longer afford our services.   So I return to my conversation with the waitress who tells me she once pulled in nearly $500 a week in tips, but now only makes about $300 on a good week.  As I finish my lunch, I walk to a new business that recently moved into a vacant office suite.  To my surprise, they sell vacation packages with great destinations like Spain, Hawaii and Japan.  But, as I learned from an obnoxious lady who had obviously never been in a sales before, I could save hundreds of dollars by booking my vacation today.  Needless to say, in three days I saw no one booking their vacation. Yet another business will soon close!

So, I arrive home at 2:00am with an incredible urge to watch Fox News.  To my utter dismay (not really cause I fully expected it), AIG pays out $165 million in bonus money, after receiving $170 billion of our tax money.  First, if a business is $170 billion in the hole, how can it justify giving anyone a bonus?  Second, why are we bailing out AIG anyway?  This same scenario has and will continue to play itself out time and time again as politicans continue to think that a bailout is the right answer.  The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.  Think about it and think long and hard.  As members of the middle class, we are making less money today than we did in years past.  Soon, we will be paying more in taxes than in years past.  What happens to our tax money, the tax money that we really can’t afford, it’s given to wealthy people as a bonus for a job poorly done.  This is happening all across the United States.  Big businesses and politicians are raking in money by taken from the middle class, who are suffering and scraping together their loose change to buy food and clothing.    Conversely, if you’re poor or just don’t feel like working, you will get all the assistance you need to live a comfortable life.  Sure, you won’t have some of the luxuries we used to have in the middle class, but the government will support you, no questions asked.  So what about the middle class?  If Obama and his team of bandits continue to rob from the middle class, and this plays out like many of us think it will, the middle class as we know it will become extinct.  We will cease to exist and the United States will be relegated to third world status, with the very wealthy controlling everything and the very poor with nothing.

Socialism, distribution of wealth, bailouts, handouts, higher tax rates, pre-kindergaten for all and government controlled health care is not the answer.  Why will the government not listen to NakedGator.com?  I’ve said it before and I will say it again.

• Reduce spending
• Eliminate pork barrel spending
• Reduce taxes for small businesses
• Reduce taxes for the middle and lower classes
• Restructure the welfare system
• Reduce the amount of financial aid to foreign countries

In addition, the Supreme Court must create a list of lawsuits that can be heard by local and federal courts.  Too many frivolous lawsuits have driven the cost of health care to a point that many of us can not afford.  If lawsuits aren’t being filed every minute of every day against doctors and pharmaceutical companies, over time the cost of their services will drop dramatically.

Obviously much more needs to be done to save the middle class.  But, as I see no plans in place to do what needs to be done to save this vital economic class, think of where you will be in ten years.  Will you find yourself in the upper class or the lower class?