As the economy stumbles on without making great strides toward improvement, the middle class in the United States find it harder to pay their bills every month. Over the last 12 months, the Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers has increased in all vital areas. The price of grocery purchased food has risen 2.1 percent, the price for energy has swelled to 7.3 percent, and gasoline is still on the rise (due to the revolutions in the Middle East), but has already mounted to a high over the last year of 13.4 percent. The definition of the working poor are those who find themselves living paycheck to paycheck to meet basic living expenses like mortgage or rent, utilities, food, clothing and gas. Because of the mushrooming cost of living in the United States, it is safe to say that people who have a middle range income are feeling the crunch.
After the decline of industrial jobs in Indiana, the middle class is now represented by people who have acquired a degree and work in service oriented positions. Degrees earned range from Associate to Masters Degrees, depending on the area of expertise. The average salary in Indiana for teachers is between $42K and $46K, the same range applies to firefighters, policeman, and nurses. Social workers with a Masters Degree make $36K if they are lucky and without a Masters, they are looking at only $20K to $25K. All of these people are necessary for a functioning society, yet they are paid the least and now some of their livelihoods are coming under fire by irresponsible legislation.
America’s capitalist democracy performed well in the days of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, and the middle class thrived through the years of industrialization, nonetheless, the age of computer technology has changed the economic landscape. Technology does not translate into equal opportunities for everyone in a society. Wealthy people have more resources to purchase the newest technological paraphernalia and therefore better prospects to proliferate that wealth. Technology has left the poor poorer and the rich richer and has led to greater social economic division. Laboring jobs that require no special skills are now outsourced to foreign countries. Without specific attention paid to those essential workers who are the American middle class, this social economic division may become a devastating chasm that generates two classes - a poor and wealthy order of citizens where a middle is nowhere to be found.
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