The American (and the global) economy has changed dramatically in the last 30 years, and the changes have led to significant changes in the distribution of the ways wealth is distributed. We cannot specifically pinpoint the causes of the change, but the two most likely sources of the change are the process of globalization and technology. The changes are also associated with the widening income inequality which has been evident in most economies throughout the planet. THis graph shows how the rewards of economic activity have moved toward the people who posses capital and away from those who can only offer labor to the market.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctor Without Borders) is on the ground in Syria, and it is reporting that about 3,600 people flooded into hospitals after the recent attacks and that about 10% of that number died. The organization cannot itself confirm the use of chemical agents, nor can it identify who used the alleged agents, but it does affirm that the symptoms of the sick were consistent with the use use of a neurotoxic agent. The UN is putting pressure on the Syrian government to allow inspectors into to the country to assess the charges of chemical weapons use. The Iranian government is asserting that the Syrian rebels used the Chemical weapons, not the Syrian government. The US is positioning a fourth cruise-missile armed warship to the Eastern Mediterranean suggesting that an armed attack on Syria is being actively considered. Plans are being formulated for a summit meeting on the Syrian crisis to be held in Jordan early this week.
The trial of Bo Xilai, one of Chinese highest ranking officials, is being widely followed by the Chinese people. The Chinese government is allowing unprecedented coverage of the trial which is unusual in the amount of information being disseminated. Quite clearly, the government wishes to expose the corruption of Mr. Bo, but the coverage runs the risk of inflaming a more general reaction to the issue of corruption within the government. It is difficult at this time to determine how the trial will play out, although there is no question about whether Mr. Bo will be found guilty as charged.
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I understand the concept of a shrinking middle class. Very few middle class citizens are upward mobile and many of course are slipping into the poverty level. I would guess the increase of time for unemployment benefits, the availability of social welfare from housing, fuel assistance, food stamps, Medicaid and a host of other welfare benefits can share the blame with a bad economy. Not all of us know of a person on welfare but we all know people that work “under the table.” Considering this, and mixed with millions of non-citizens competing with our middle class workers. Companies frightened of affordable health care (oxymoron) costs and cutting full time workers in favor of part time. I think the middle class does not have much of a chance of recovery and will certainly get a lot worse before it gets better.
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2013/08/19/work-or-welfare-what-pays-more/
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All the issues you raise are pertinent to the discussion. There is, however, a question concerning the the causal direction of the social welfare benefits and the decline in jobs. One side believes that people are not looking for jobs because the welfare benefits are so large. The other side believes that there are more people receiving these benefits because there are no jobs. That question, however, is not the issue raised by the graph. The graph suggests that workers are receiving a smaller part of economic growth than the owners of capital, a suggestion that is also reinforced by this slow creation of jobs in the US since the Great Recession began. Has the US stopped creating jobs because of the welfare benefits? Or have businesses stopped creating jobs because they don’t need workers? If the first explanation is valid, then one would expect corporate profits to have declined as well (because the costs of doing business have increased). But since corporate profits are at all all time high (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/04/business/economy/corporate-profits-soar-as-worker-income-limps.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0), then the second explanation is more persuasive. I know that businesses have argued that their costs are very high because of health care costs, increased regulation, and tax rates. But the profit levels belie that explanation.
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