As our society changes and advances, I sometimes question if what we truly have is advancement or not.
One thing that caught my eye was the vanishing middle class and how they seem to be screwed out of everything. It seems that if you are poor, you can find aid in the areas of health care and legal support. If you are rich, the same can be said. But if you are in the middle class, well that plain old is not true.
What brought this up was the issue going on where the city is planning on destroying our yard for reasons that keep changing, each one making less and less sense. As part of the group of homeowners, we looked into legal action to challenge the need for this work. What we were told staggered us.
We met with a lawyer who listened to our problems and then gave us a guesstimate of what it would cost to make this challenge. This included such intangibles as being lucky enough to get a judge that actually cares and does not just follow the party line, something that seemed to be a crapshoot. It would include hiring an engineer to look over the plans to see if there was something not right. The bottom line came out to be a cost of $40,000. That's right, 40k.
I looked into a local law school finding our plight interesting, but they can only offer legal aid to the indigent. OK, so what is a normal working person supposed to do? It seems the only option is to let the city do what they want as we don't have 40k to spend on a crapshoot. Hell, we don't have 40k to spend on anything.
The same seems true for healthcare as a friend was telling me. She and her husband own their own business. Not being part of some larger company, and not working for someone else, they don't have healthcare. You see, they can purchase healthcare insurance as a small business, but the monthly cost is outrageous. So, they are hoping they do not get sick. In times when a minor operation is several thousands of dollars, it literally is a big chance.
I see the same thing. Where my wife was covering me with her insurance from her job, that has gone away with her job. In my teaching job, I will be getting healthcare that will cover both of us, but it is costing dearly against what I bring home. I don't make a lot, and get paid every two weeks. After taxes my income has been cut by more than one-seventh. But by the time they take out for healthcare, well, let's say I'm bringing home less than $500 each pay. That does not cover the mortgage.
So, unless you work for someone else that can cover your healthcare insurance, you can't afford to have it. Of course, if you are indigent, you can get worked on at any hospital. And if you're rich, well I guess you don't have to worry.
So what happens if the middle class disappears? One of the things that happened when people started moving to America, we didn't just have the rich and the poor anymore, we had a third class of people that consisted of the majority. It seems that we are moving back to just the rich and the poor. What happens when basic things become unaffordable?
Unfortunately, I don't have any answers, just questions. But I will keep on asking them.