I had a chocolate bunny when I was growing up because my father belonged to a UNION and our family was solidly middle class. And because of the Union the whole town had a good library and the PUBLIC SCHOOLS were great and many parents could afford to send their children to Colleges. And I know for a fact that several became Medical Doctors........all owing great childhood and adult education and experience to the fact that UNIONS stood up to management and constantly got good benefits for the middle class workers.
.........And every healthy person had a job and was PROUD of their CONTRIBUTIONS to the American way of life. There were maybe one or two winos in town that for some mental problem or another did NOT work. They were totally the exception. It was a work first and hard and come home and enjoy life type of town.
..........But, about 1975 the tax laws began to change to screw the middle class and advantage the upper-class management types. They decided to OFF-SHORE the US middle class jobs. 1st to Mexico, then Vietnam, then China. So, CEOs like Jack Welsh made 300 million dollars per year, while the US middle class evaporated and Chinas middle class blossomed. Ironically, to destroy US unions the Industrial leaders PRODUCED a wealthy, strong China that has become our worst nightmare!
..........incidentally, Germany works fine......... with management and their workers COOPERATING for the good of their company and their nation. So, Unions can work fine if allowed to function in a country where the word.....socialism is NOT a swear word.
.........And imagine if there was a Villages equivalent in Germany, those retired German workers would have zero problems buying a house in that Village. AND they have NATIONAL HEALTH CARE !!!!!!!

Sorry to interrupt the union rant with the FACTS, but:

The Urban Institute defines middle class as an adult whose annual household income is 150% to 500% higher than the federal poverty level.4
For 2020, the federal poverty level was $21,720 for a three-person household.5 This meant you were considered middle class if your gross annual income was between $32,580 and $108,600 and you had a household size of three.

This makes 62% of the population middle class and 21% upper class.

Most people would say that the upper class is the TOP 10% in terms of wealth. But, I don't have a problem with labeling the top 21% as "upper class". But, the important thing about the middle class is that it began to cease to exist at around 1975 with as i said previously - outsourcing of manufacturing to Mexico, Vietnam, and eventually, China. So, unlike Germany, the US cut off its nose to spite its face..........by making China rich and increasing its technology in order to stop US unions from succeeding. Today......unions bad, China good.....how stupid is that?
.....Of course today it is harder than about 1975 for new residents to AFFORD TV Land because after 1975 UNIONS and therefore the US middle class was effectively strangled by changing tax laws to benefit the upper class 10%. Basically, the northern UNION retirement money started flowing into The Villages.....say around 1975 and put TV Land on the map......LITERALLY. Contrast that with today when UNIONS are DEAD and ONLY the upper 10% can afford to move to TV Land. That is how the whole US (and TV Land) has changed in about the last 50 years. So, now I make a value judgment and say that the last 50 years have ALL been BAD in the sense that the POWER in the US shifted from the large numbers of WORKERS to the much smaller numbers of management types. Try to imagine a US Army staffed by ALL UPPER-LEVEL MANAGEMENT TYPES. That would be laughable - they would lose every war. - they could never achieve consensus on ANYTHING......like an ALL-EGGHEAD Army.

Funny, my backyard neighbor is a retired Marine and then teacher, and his home is worth about double what mine is worth...

I doubt he was ever in the upper 10% of wage earners... Go figure...

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What a load of crap. As for all the drugs, there has always been drugs, you either take them or you don't. You are either smart enough to know they are going to kill you, or you are not. I have no pity for ANYONE who gets involved with drugs, in fact I am a great believer in letting them take their drugs and die, they are of no use to society, plus they cost the health care system thousands of dollars.

Anyway, this is a waste of my valuable time and I need to block your posts. May I suggest you get back on your space craft and return to your planet.

Most of us only see this poster's bs when there's a quote. Blocking is the best technique.