With the walloping Republicans gave Democrats in the midterm elections, the GOP stands one Louisiana Senate runoff away […]

Having grown up in the 1950s and 60s I am very much entrenched in the idea of a middle class society. That is where the average working person got a share of the prosperity of the times. But in looking back at history it now seems apparent to me that the “middle class”, at least as we knew it then  probably an anomaly of our times.

The middle class is a result of the Ford model for the economy. That is where the workers are paid a living wage and they would then build a community where they could afford to buy the products they make. We have much to thank Henry Ford for those times. Ford came upon the scenes shortly after the age of the “Robber Barrons”. The barons were Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Carniege, JP Morgan, and Fisk.  These guys were mostly consumed by their desire for wealth and ruthlessly destroying their competition. They had little respect for the workers they employed.  They were a mere tool for their greed for ever increasing wealth. Their employees generally worked six to seven days a week for twelve hours a day. They often got a little than a dollar a day. If you got sick you lost your job. If you died because of an industrial accident your family was pretty much on their own. We learned that this is what you get with unbridled capitalism.

  For those of you who aren’t up on your U.S. history lessons, John Sherman was the Congressman […]

During the 1960s and 70s there was a growing middle class in the U.S.  This was due to […]