“We can go back to economic plans that are only designed to benefit the wealthiest among us, like Mitt Romney. Or we can keep moving forward with President Obama's vision for a growing economy that works for middle-class families in North Carolina and all across the country. For me, for North Carolina and for America, it's an easy choice.” CountryAmericaMovingChoicesEasyPresidentVisionClassEconomyGrowingPlansEconomicMiddleBenefitsMoving ForwardMiddle ClassPresident ObamaKeep MovingRomneyKeep Moving ForwardCarolinaNorth CarolinaMiddle Class FamilyGrowing Economy Author:Bev Perdue
“AS an economic historian, I appreciate what manufacturing has contributed to the United States. It was the engine of growth that allowed us to win two world wars and provided millions of families with a ticket to the middle class. But public policy needs to go beyond sentiment and history.” WorldNeedsTwoWarStatesWinningGrowthUnitedClassMillionsUnited StatesEconomicMiddlePolicyAppreciateWar Of The WorldsMiddle ClassSentimentsHistorianEnginesTicketsManufacturingPublic PolicyTwo Worlds Author:Christina Romer
“If you think about it, candidate Obama, Sen. Obama, was running on sort of long-run economic issues, like restoring prosperity to the middle class, dealing with the perennial problem of health care in the United States. He talked a lot about the budget deficit, about the need to transition to clean energy.” IfsThinkingNeedsLongStatesProblemCareRunningEnergyUnitedClassUnited StatesIssuesEconomicMiddleCleanProsperityHealth CareBudgetsCandidatesMiddle ClassTransitionLong RunsDeficitRestoringClean EnergyEconomic IssuesBudget Deficit Author:Christina Romer
“The free enterprise concept inherent in the economic model of capitalism should mean common people, or lower and middle class wage-earners, have greater potential to rise up and gain financial independence. In reality, however, free enterprise all too often leads to an almost total lack of government regulation that in turn allows the global elite to run amuck in Gordon Gecko-style financial coups.” PeopleShouldMeanRealityGovernmentRunningTurnsCommonClassGreaterEconomicMiddleStyleModelsConceptsCapitalismGainsIndependenceFinancialEnterpriseMiddle ClassElitesRegulationInherentFree EnterpriseCoupsGovernment RegulationFinancial IndependenceEconomic Models Author:James Morcan
“What makes a terrorist? Are the drivers primarily political or economic? Princeton economist Alan Krueger has made a great study of this question...What Makes a Terrorist lacks a question mark. That's because Krueger, marshaling persuasive statistics and analysis, comes down firmly on the side of politics, noting most terrorists are middle-class and well-educated.” WellsMadePoliticalSidesClassStudyEconomicMiddleMarkTerroristEducatedAnalysisMiddle ClassStatisticsDriversEconomistPersuasiveWell EducatedPrincetonQuestion Mark Author:Thomas P.M. Barnett
“I am not an economic determinist. If I were, I would throw up my hands; I just would not bother. I think it's wrong to be an economic determinist. I think it's wrong to simply say, "Well, inevitably, if you're poor, you're going to get a lousy education; if you're lower-middle class, the cards are going to be stacked against you, and you'll probably never get anywhere".” IfsThinkingWellsHandsPoorClassEconomicMiddleCardsBotherMiddle Class Author:Robert Reich
“A stronger middle class is not the consequence of economic growth. A stronger middle class is the cause of economic growth.” CausesGrowthClassEconomicMiddleConsequenceStrongerMiddle ClassEconomic Growth Author:Martin O'Malley
“Obviously, our most pressing need is subsistence for the most vulnerable victims of Katrina, but we should not overlook the fact that the victims of Katrina also include middle-class Americans who have saved and invested, but now face an economic crisis, .. They should be able to tap into their savings and meet this crisis without facing an unfair penalty.” NeedsShouldFactsAbleFacesClassEconomicMiddleCrisisVictimSavedVulnerableSavingMiddle ClassUnfairPenaltiesSavingsKatrinaEconomic CrisisSubsistence Author:Artur Davis
“I put forward a budget of what I called "middle-class economics" that continues to be fiscally prudent but makes necessary investments for us to continue the economic momentum and job growth.” JobsGrowthClassEconomicMiddleEconomicsInvestmentBudgetsMiddle ClassMomentumPrudentJob Growth Author:Barack Obama
“The black middle-class in America is a prosperous community that is now larger in absolute terms than the black underclass. Does its existence not suggest that economic adversity is the result of failures of individual character rather than the lingering after-effects of racial discrimination and a slave system that ceased to exist well over a century ago?” WellsDoeCharacterAmericaIndividualBlackTermCommunityResultsExistenceClassEconomicMiddleEffectsCenturyAbsolutesAdversitySlaveDiscriminationMiddle ClassProsperousLingeringRacial Discrimination Author:David Horowitz
“One of the most insidious consequences of the present burden of personal income tax is that it strips many middle class families of financial reserves & seems to lend support to campaigns for socialized medicine, socialized housing, socialized food, socialized every thing. The personal income tax has made the individual vastly more dependent on the State & more avid for state hand-outs. It has shifted the balance in America from an individual-centered to a State-centered economic & social system.” MadeStatesHandsSeemsAmericaIndividualSocialClassSupportEconomicMiddleBalanceTaxesConsequenceMedicineFinancialBurdenCampaignsIncomeDependentMiddle ClassReservesHousingIncome TaxInsidiousSocial SystemsAvidMiddle Class FamilySocialized Medicine Author:William Henry Chamberlin
“I think it's time we had a President who will provide the only real economic security: good jobs. A President who will provide middle class payroll tax relief to get money in the pockets of workers who will spend it, not more tax giveaways for those at the top to stimulate the economy in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. A President who will index the minimum wage to inflation and raise it from a 30 year low, not increase the tax burden on the middle class and those struggling to join it.” ThinkingYearsRealJobsPresidentClassStruggleEconomyEconomicMiddleSecurityTaxesLowsIncreaseRaisesWorkersBurdenIslandsReliefMiddle ClassPocketsMinimumGood JobInflationMinimum WageGet MoneyPayrollEconomic SecurityPayroll TaxTax BurdenBermudaCayman Islands Author:John F. Kerry
“The people who are filing for bankruptcy in increasing numbers every year, it's not the poorest. It's not the people at the economic fringes. It's people who worked hard and played by the rules.” PeopleYearsHardMoneyNumbersEconomicMiddle ClassFringePoorestBankruptcyFiling Author:Elizabeth Warren
“There's no question that the black middle class has benefited greatly by the civil rights movement. But there is a large black underclass that does not have access to jobs. If there's no clear road to income and status except crime, we should expect social problems. You can't solve this problem without addressing the economic issues, and the same is true with gender.” IfsShouldDoeProblemJobsSocialBlackClassIssuesClearRightsEconomicMiddleCrimeMovementGenderSolveAccessIncomeCivil RightsMiddle ClassCivil Rights MovementSocial ProblemsEconomic Issues Author:Betty Friedan
“We choose forward. We choose inclusion. We choose growing together. We choose American economic might and muscle, standing strong on the bedrock of the American ideal: a strong, empowered and ever-growing middle class.” MightTogetherStrongClassGrowingEconomicMiddleIdealsStandingMusclesMiddle ClassInclusionEmpoweredBedrockStand StrongGrowing Together Author:Cory Booker
“Prior to 1940, the affluent and the middle class began to converge, but after 1979, the economic gap between the middle class and affluent widened significantly.” ClassEconomicMiddleMiddle ClassGapsAffluent Author:William Julius Wilson
“If in the earlier part of the century, middle-class children suffered from overattentive mothers, from being "mother's only accomplishment," today's children may suffer from an underestimation of their needs. Our idea of what a child needs in each case reflects what parents need. The child's needs are thus a cultural football in an economic and marital game.” IfsNeedsMayChildrenIdeasTodayMotherSufferingGamesParentClassCasesEconomicMiddleCenturyFootballAccomplishmentMiddle Class Author:Arlie Russell Hochschild
“The president is eager to get to work and looks forward to working with the new Congress on policies that will make sure middle-class Americans are sharing in the economic recovery, but the president is clear that he will not let this Congress undo important protections gained -- particularly in areas of health care, Wall Street reform and the environment.” LooksImportantCarePresidentClassClearEnvironmentEconomicStreetsMiddlePolicyHealthWallAreasCongressProtectionRecoveryReformHealth CareMiddle ClassEconomic Recovery Author:Barack Obama
“Actually we've had a black bourgeoisie or the makings of a black bourgeoisie for many more decades.In a sense the quest for the emancipation of black people in the US has always been a quest for economic liberation which means to a certain extent that the rise of black middle class would be inevitable. What I think is different today is the lack of political connection between the black middle class and the increasing numbers of black people who are more impoverished than ever before.” PeopleThinkingMeanDifferentWould BeTodayPoliticalCertainBlackNumbersClassEconomicMiddleConnectionsDecadesInevitableLiberationMiddle ClassBlack PeopleQuestsEmancipationBourgeoisie Author:Angela Davis
“There's a wider agenda that speaks to what the Democratic Party has historically stood for, which are economic rights for those who are struggling in the middle class, concern for the poor, for economic justice for those who are marginalized in our society.” SpeakJusticePoorPartyClassStruggleRightsEconomicMiddleConcernDemocraticMiddle ClassOur SocietyAgendasDemocratic PartyMarginalizedEconomic Justice Author:Mike McCurry
“It is our generation's task, then, to reignite the true engine of America's economic growth - a rising, thriving middle class.” AmericaGrowthClassGenerationsEconomicMiddleTasksRisingMiddle ClassEnginesEconomic GrowthOur Generation Author:Barack Obama
“The American people must make a fundamental decision. Do we continue the 40-year decline of our middle class and the growing gap between the very rich and everyone else, or do we fight for a progressive economic agenda that creates jobs, raises wages, protects the environment and provides health care for all?” PeopleYearsCareJobsFightingDecisionClassRichEnvironmentGrowingEconomicMiddleProtectRaisesFundamentalsHealth CareMiddle ClassAgendasGapsProgressiveDeclineWagesProtect The Environment Author:Bernie Sanders
“The biggest roadblock to middle-class economic advancement is that governments confiscate more than a third of all family income. Each year the average American taxpayer works 127 days - from January 1 until May 7 - just to pay taxes.” YearsMayGovernmentPayClassEconomicMiddleTaxesThirdsAverageIncomeMiddle ClassAdvancementTaxpayersJanuaryRoadblockJanuary 1 Author:Thomas DiLorenzo
“Capitalism in the 19th century did not doom the worker to a life of perpetual poverty. Instead, they kept creating new and better-paying employments as the decades went by. They produced the wealth and rising income that resulted in the emergence of a phenomenon completely new to human history: a self-supporting and educated middle class that grew more and more as they lower classes bettered their economic well-being.” HumansWellsSelfWealthClassPovertyEconomicMiddleCenturyGrewCreatingCapitalismWorkersDecadesIncomeEducatedEmploymentWell BeingRisingMiddle ClassPhenomenonPerpetualHuman HistoryDoom19th CenturyEmergenceLower Class Author:Richard Ebeling
“I think what Donald Trump is saying to people is that America has way more leverage at the negotiating table than America has used in the past. And whether you like it or not, the government and trade representatives have made the decision not to use that leverage. And it has had an economic impact on the lower and middle class.” PeopleThinkingWayMadeUseGovernmentAmericaPastUsedDecisionClassEconomicMiddleTrumpTablesTradeImpactMiddle ClassRepresentativesYou Like ItNegotiating Author:Anthony Scaramucci
“This is a very important issue that the corporate media chooses not to talk about a whole lot, that we have an economic system which is rigged, which means that at the same time as the middle class of this country is disappearing, almost all of the new income and wealth in America is going to the top 1 percent. You have the top one-tenth of 1 percent owning almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent - 58 percent of all new income is going to the top 1 percent.” MeanImportantCountryWholeAmericaWealthClassIssuesEconomicMiddleMediaPercentBottomDisappearIncomeCorporateMiddle ClassEconomic SystemsImportant IssuesRigged Author:Bernie Sanders