I was told that it takes 3 generations to become wealthy and one to lose it all.

It sure sucks to be poor, penniless—especially during the holiday season, as I am, envying others’ holiday meals and walking penniless past restaurants with warm and tantalizing aromas,

But most people ARE middle class. The middle class is alive and well, and is buying and hiring like hasn’t been done in decades. These are people who buy expensive gifts and go on expensive trips and are not exactly in want of material things. They make expensive donations, too, when a basket is passed around in a Sunday School class.

What makes you so insistent that the middle class is shrinking? Everyone I know is wealthier than I was even when I was doing okay. Even those who seem to be in the ‘permanent’ low income classes are living a standard they are comfortable with or used to,

I will say, however, that it sucks to be poor when everyone around you is middle class, And no one understands why you are out of money,

Uh because ,since the 1980’s wages have stagnated for the middle class, they have risen about 4%, while the top 10% and especially the top 1% have seen their income rise by 400% that is why I ask if Capitalism is broken for the bottom 90%.

Working as intended.

It depends on how long the democracy it has been in has been around.

No if I wanted to start a business, I could.

Well, maybe its just the holidays.

All I see are crowds of people purchasing gifts, gifts, gifts—shopping carts full of expensive food and sumptuous bounty. Groups of people chipping in to buy $200 appreciation gift cards for certain individuals to be spent on opulent dinner date nights. People with expensive data plans. That’s the middle class.

The wealthy live in big houses and associate with the academics and the arts communities and vote democrat. It sucks to be poor, but all my health care needs are met and although penniless somehow I get by. Many on government assistance live high on the hog when it comes to parties celebrations, birthdays, mothers day, etc etc with steak, ribs, alcohol, and inflatable bouncy playground parties.

In the 1980s, all classes prospered. Things were even good under Bill Clinton. I guess we had a few bad spells since the early 2000s but there is no suffering or dwindling of the middle class.

Most of them are Republican so why do you care? The wealthy and the poor vote Democrat, so if you think the middle class is shrinking, rejoice!

@Yellowdog exactly where are you seeing these “opulent crowds”? On TV? On the internet? Because I’m not seeing them.

Capitalism is alive and doing very well it is government that is broken and incapable or unwilling to control it.

@Dutchess_lll Go to the mall, or Walmart. If the 30 to 40 minute wait to check out doesn’t tell you, try to buy something at Fry’s, Best Buy or Target.

Capitalism is alive and well, in spite of the government attempt to intervene .Most businesses are privately owned, for profit, and they are free to make price and inventory changes as they choose.

Depends on how you define broken.

For the extremely wealthy, capitalism works to make them even more wealthy.

It also makes the most powerful corporations ever more powerful.

That’s not so great for the rest of the inhabitants of the planet.

The game of financial conquest was won long ago by a network of inter-owned banks who hold most of the wealth of the planet, and due to the nature of banking, will just become more and more wealthy and powerful until someone or something switches the game to something not just involving money.

And eventually, if corporations keep destroying the planet’s ecosystems, there won’t really be much left to own, or any people left to say they own it.

Capitalism is working, it’s making people money, and encouraging ingenuity. In its extreme form it can collapse on itself. You need money among the masses, so the masses can buy products and services.

In America our middle class is still very large, but parts of the middle class have less buying power than previously, and yes some have fallen to poverty levels.

Runaway capitalism is not ideal, a more controlled capitalism is more likely to create a happier and safer society. It can be controlled by various forces, government, unions, or good old fashioned integrity and ethics, but integrity seems lacking all too often.

A purely socialized system consistently collapses also, and creates a lot of misery. It seems to me the best is a combination, but almost always people think of one or the other for some reason.

@yellowdog Are you out of work? Or, just not being paid well at work?

Capitalism is like fire. It can be extremely useful, but can get out of control and cause havoc.

Capitalism is close to the perfect system on the small scale and government should encourage small startups and let them get on with it. If they grow into huge multi-billion dollar companies the situation is no longer the same. Government then has a responsibility to represent the interests of the country and of the people to extremely powerful organisations that are motivated solely by money. Big business has far too great an influence on politics. The influence should work in the opposite direction.

It’s working as intended.

“Marx argued that the capitalist bourgeoisie mercilessly exploited the proletariat. He recognised that the work carried out by the proletariat created great wealth for the capitalist. The products created in the factory (the material outcome of the workers’ labour) were sold for more than the value of the labour itself i.e. more than the workers’ wages. For instance, the factory worker may get paid £2 to produce a yard of cloth. The capitalist then sells the cloth for £5. In this way, the capitalist, who controls the process of production, makes a profit. But the worker does not benefit from this added value, and fails to benefit from the fruits of his/her own labour.” From.

The business class needs to exploit workers to reap a profit. They need to keep the majority of people relegated to lower & middle classes to maintain their wealth and status.

It’s not just exploitation. In America, greed conquers all. When lots of businesses reach a certain level of growth, they start outsourcing services. As many as possible, to other countries with cheaper workforces. So. The country benefits in the short term, by having the jobs and tax money. But as soon as they can, big businesses leave the country almost entirely. Then America loses all the jobs, all the tax revenue, and essentially it helps other countries. The businesses will try to do all their banking in other countries as well. Combine this with all of the tax relief that large businesses already enjoy, and you start to lose count of all of the ways capitalism hurts our nation.
Let’s not forget that the larger businesses kill smaller businesses too, taking even more from our citizens.

The answer varies of course with where you sit on the spectrum. Capitalism is based on the exploitation of labor and only appears successful in times of growing markets and profits.

@YARNLADY what? I’ve never waited 40 minutes to check out at Walmart. If the line looks overwhelming I go to self checkout.
Guess I missed your point.

^^^My point is the checkout lines are always very long because lots of people have money to spend.
(I never can get those self checkouts to work. Computers don’t like me. My husband doesn’t even like me to come on our computer room, and my son and grandsons ask me not to get too close to their computers.) (My own laptop is used to me.)

People go to Walmart, because they don’t have a lot of money.

BING-BING-BING^^^^^^ we have a winner!

Correct. The success of chains like Walmart, McDonald’s, Dollar Tree etc, are signs that Americans aren’t doing well.

Many are underemployed, or working 2–3 jobs. Despite what Trump claims about the economy, it is not doing well…