Middle Class « Anne Michaud

Archive for the ‘Middle Class’ Category

Reasons to shoo away the humbuggers

Thursday, December 27th, 2012

It’s been a Scrooge of a year, wouldn’t you say? Ebenezer Scrooge – whom I caught on television the other night looking a lot like the actor George C. Scott – was a man who refused to share any of his wealth with the world around him. The year 2012 bears a resemblance.

This year, we endured a divisive battle for the presidency, which was fought at times as though the only thing that mattered was how much money either side could raise. That’s a sad statement for a country that stands for democracy.

Thousands were wiped out financially and emotionally by superstorm Sandy. Many innocents were lost to deranged gunmen in Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn.

The economy refused to rebound, and Washington wouldn’t come to agreement over anything.

And so the year 2012 was stingy like Scrooge. But in “A Christmas Carol,” Charles Dickens thankfully gives us examples of two people who don’t lose faith in the old miser: his long-suffering clerk Bob Cratchit and his nephew, Fred. (more…)

Tags: banking meltdown, Barack Obama, Budget, foreclosure, job loss, Middle Class, parenting, Politics, social effects, Unemployment
Posted in Budget, Consumer Confidence, Economy, Family, Globalization, Mental illness, Middle Class, Politics, President, Public Health, Social problems, Supreme court, Unemployment, Unemployment rate | Comments Off

Democrats should make good on campaign hints to upper-middle class

Thursday, November 29th, 2012

It seems likely that we will be hearing about the tortuous dramas of the “fiscal cliff” until the calendar closes on 2012. The president took his case to business leaders this week and will speak tomorrow to workers at a Pennsylvania toy factory, in an effort to ratchet up pressure on Republicans in Congress.

Meanwhile, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), is threatening to push the country into default unless there are drastic spending cuts. And so the wrestling match continues, teetering as close to the Jan. 1 “cliff” edge as possible.

Many Long Islanders, I suspect, will be watching how the debate settles over who is wealthy and who is middle class. President Barack Obama has drawn the line at earnings of $200,000 for an individual, and $250,000 for a household. He wants to extend tax cuts for everyone below those annual incomes.

However, this income cutoff is unfair to high-cost areas like Long Island, as some Democrats have acknowledged. In 2010, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) floated the idea of raising taxes only on $1-million-plus incomes. A year earlier, Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington) was one of eight co-sponsors of a bill, the Tax Equity Act, that would have adjusted federal income tax brackets to account for regional differences in the cost of living. (more…)

Tags: Barack Obama, Budget, Middle Class, New York, suburbs
Posted in Budget, Consumer Confidence, Economy, Long Island life, Middle Class, Politics, President | Comments Off

Embracing the new normal

Thursday, November 22nd, 2012

There’s nothing like a life-shaking storm to make people appreciate normal. Usually, normal is ho-hum. But when life is turned upside down, normal is the most welcome feeling.

Normal didn’t return for me, after superstorm Sandy, when we got our power back or refilled the refrigerator. It was when I saw faces I hadn’t seen since before the storm – about two weeks after it knocked our Island around. There we were, smiling, most of us showered, and whole. Normal returned when I realized that people in my community were, for the most part, going to be OK.

That’s not the same as saying life will be the same as it was before the storm, or before this long recession. Instead, we’re living with a “new normal” – a sense that we must permanently lower our material expectations. Maybe the new normal will define our moment in history.

Some day, years from now, we may think of these times the way people recall the Great Depression. People who lived through it went on to stash away money – sometimes in places far away from banks they no longer trusted. They hoarded food; waste became a sin. Our recollections of 2012 may be that this was the year we acknowledged how much we depend on each other. (more…)

Tags: Barack Obama, Family, Middle Class, social effects, suburbs, Unemployment, Work-life balance, Youth
Posted in Consumer Confidence, Culture, Economy, Family, Globalization, Middle Class, Politics, President, Youth | Comments Off

Focus on pay equity for women misses a host of other important family issues

Thursday, October 25th, 2012

It’s dismaying that pay equity for women is the family issue that emerged most loudly from the recent round of presidential debates. Pay equity by itself is a simplistic measure that obscures more complex and urgent public policy reforms.

Judging how fair our workplaces are by whether men and women are paid equally is like judging a teenager based on an SAT score. That single number doesn’t tell you anything about the kid’s study habits — not to mention character or passions.

Similarly, the oft-repeated assertion that women earn 77 cents to a man’s dollar says very little. The number is an average of full-time workers, rather than a comparison of men and women in the same jobs with the same experience. A 2009 study by the economics consulting firm CONSAD Research Corporation showed that when the wage gap is analyzed by occupations, regional markets, job titles and more, women make about 94 percent of what men make. (more…)

Tags: Barack Obama, Education, Family, Middle Class, parenting, Politics, Unemployment, Work-life balance
Posted in Children, Consumer Confidence, Economy, Education, Family, Middle Class, President, Unemployment, women's rights | Comments Off