Replies to post #5235 on In Zeev's Honor, Plan the Trade and Trade the Plan

[brightness]

"Middle class" or any class is not a living being. Human beings live as individuals. Social mobility is crucial in discovering individual talent, and in allocating limited resources to individual good ideas. You may not think much of the electronic cigarette (me either, frankly, as I do not smoke), but the millions of people who buy it think it's the best thing since sliced bread, and it certainly helps them getting over the fix without exposing themselves to the myriads of detriments of real smoking.

Without social mobility and new ideas bringing on unexpected productivity increase and unexpected improvement in living standards, economic rent seeking would take over the society and make it into a hellish place like many parts of the world.

[Newly2b]

Compared to the realities of life in many other countries, everyone in this country IS rich. Even the poorest of the poor here enjoy a lifestyle out of the reach of the poor who merely survive at subsistence level in many countries of the world. Why do you think so many people want to come to America, legally or illegally. . .

Newly

PS And BTW, "keeping up with the Joneses" is a statement about the values and goals of the American Middle Class, not those of the rich. . .