Middle Class

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Watch CNN almost any time lately and one is inundated with scenes of the lethal riots in the Capitol. And in an era when every man or woman is their own video journalist new and often terrifying footage is released on a continuing basis. Along with footage […]

Health Care

Can Trump’s Plan to Steal your Social Security, Medicare be Stopped?

F. Douglas Stephenson

Gainesville, Florida (Special to Informed Comment) – President Donald Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans promoting the backlash against the federal government seek to return to an earlier, supposedly golden era in American history. By privatizing Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid while further lowering taxes on the top 1 percent income bracket, […]

Inequality

Top 8 Ways the Massive Trump Tax Cut Made the Super-Rich Super-Richer and Failed Working Families

Inequality.org

By Frank Clemente | – In the two years since Congress passed the Republican tax law, the richest 1 percent have been the big winners. Republicans repeatedly promised in 2017 that their proposed tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations would increase jobs, pay for themselves, give every family a big raise and would really […]

Inequality

The Reality for the Middle Classes behind the supposedly “Surging” U.S. Economy

Inequality.org

The black unemployment rate remains more than twice as high as the rate for whites and it has increased from 6.5% in April 2018

Democracy

Health, Poverty, Conflict in Charts: Is the World Better off Today than ever before in History?

The Conversation

By Julius Probst | – Swedish academic Hans Rosling has identified a worrying trend: not only do many people across advanced economies have no idea that the world is becoming a much better place, but they actually even think the opposite. This is no wonder, when the news focuses on reporting catastrophes, terrorist attacks, wars […]

Economy

The Rise and Fall of America’s Middle Class

contributors

By Jim Hightower | (Otherwords.org) | – – The middle class was built by movements — and can be rebuilt by movements. Ever since 1776, the “common yeoman” — America’s middle class — has been hailed as the virtuous heart and backbone of our nation. How ironic, since it took 150 years before we actually […]

Inequality

Will Americans finally start fighting back against tax cuts for the rich?

contributors

Stephanie Leiser | (The Conversation) | – – The 60 percent of Americans who believe that the GOP tax package will mostly help the wealthiest among us are right, according to an analysis by the Tax Policy Center. But will widespread disapproval translate into political costs or electoral losses for Republicans? Will Americans decide they […]

Inequality

GOP tax plan doubles down on policies that are crushing the middle class

contributors

Steven Pressman | (The Conversation) | – – The U.S. middle class has always had a special mystique. It is the heart of the American dream. A decent income and home, doing better than one’s parents, and retiring in comfort are all hallmarks of a middle-class lifestyle. Contrary to what some may think, however, the […]

Featured

Yes, America, there is a Class War, and you Just Lost It

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Republican Party did not just overhaul the tax code and they did not cut “your” taxes. They engineered a coup against the middle and working classes and they threw enormous amounts of public money to private billionaires and multi-millionaires. Americans do not understand this sort […]