Pittsburgh_Patrika_October_2016

The Pittsburgh Patrika, Vol, 22, No. 1 , October 2016
mills, fossil fuel industries, and mining/metal industries, but lived comfortably,
with all the accoutrements of a good life — two-car garages, boats,
vacations... ... Globalization and Free Trade wiped out these jobs, and
the less educated working class bore the brunt of this brutal transition.
In the 2012 election cycle both the GOP and the Democratic candidates
were vying with each other to offer tax cuts for the “middle
class.” When pressed to define middle class, they said it was families
with an annual income under $250,000! In the US, only around 6% of
households have annual income more than $200,000. See below (Source:
US Census, 2014):
That is, political candidates saw themselves as “Middle Class,” even
though in terms of their income, net worth, and other intangible assets
like access to resources and their wide social and political network, they
are the Ruling Elite. With this bizarre definition of middle class, people
making between $60,000 and $100,000 can call themselves the “working
poor,” while the American median family income is around $55,000.
No wonder, the upper echelons of the GOP establishment was outof-sync
from the problems of the white working class, the base of the
GOP. In the primaries, these Republican voters, in disgust, opted for a
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