yes. i mean the pope himself has recognized that he hasn t said very much about the middle class anywhere in the world. he talks a lot about very poor. but not the middle class. and what has happened is the global market has big capitalist market has basically raised many millions of people from abject poverty in to what might be called the lower middle class. this is particularly true in asia. and he has not really recognized that as a decline in poverty globally. i think he needs to, perhaps he ll learn when he s in the united states, that the united states was built on capitalism, and the fact that we do have a strong middle class is, even though some say it is sliding back yeah. numbers would show that would be
part of what happened in toronto is rob ford was stripped of his powers as mayor. the other thing that really bothers me about this story to be honest with you, had rob ford used cocaine would this have been a subject of endless mirth. there is a racial component to this story and in toronto, many of his supporters have been people from racial minorities. he comes from this very wealthy family but he s a guy who is seen as very connected to people from these outer suburb communities. people who are working class, lower middle class, and they feel these attacks on him are almost attacks against him? the fact that he used crack, that s laughable. people are missing that big part of the story, there are people who really feel as though he s one of them. and joe brought up a good point, there have been plenty of
lower middle class in contempt and distortion. that s exactly right. for example, victoria, congressman paul ryan still clings to an outdated view of who earns the minimum wage. let me play you what he said. the majority of these workers are younger people just getting in the workforce. i started on a mcdonald s on highway 14 and i-90 making minimum wage when i was a young person. you know, i waited tables for less than minimum wage. who would benefit from a minimum wage hike? average age, 35 years old. 28% have children. 44% have some college experience. so these aren t teenagers. they re adults with children and education and responsibilities, victoria. reverend, i m always puzzled by the opposition of the republican party to increasing the minimum wage. because if you let people earn
and it s a human tragedy. the next phase is the human dimension of this drama. and it s excruciating. speak to that, what do you mean? well, the people from china whose loved ones who are on this flight. they are not a sophisticated people. they re middle class, lower middle class people who have never been on a vacation. this is something that s new to them and all of a sudden it disappears. why did it disappear? the rumors about the pilot going rogue or an intervention, a hijacking, this drives people crazy. i would argue your level of sophistication or education may not matter that much when you re dealing with something that s so hair rowing, so terrible. i know plenty of people who are sophisticated and highly educated and they get very scared when they go on plains even though they know the statistics that the highway may
understand what s going on there right now. middle class americans an lower middle class americans in san francisco are angry at the wealthy techies in san francisco for pushing them out of the city. the wealthy people aren t exactly apologizing,ite? i think to ross s point, he is right. this has always been an issue in american politics. what has been so fantastic about this country is that you could always count on the fact that you could, by working hard and getting a good education and playing by the rules that you could think to do a lot better than what your parents did. the problem is, right now, the way the infrastructure has been set up and the way the government has been functioning for the last 20 or 30 years starting with triple down economics, is that that infrastructure or that promise of going away of making sure you could do better if you played by the rules is going away. this is what the obama administration has been talking about.