Does anyone else feel as if the middle class in the united States is essentially between a rock and a hard place? In other words, the wealthy keep us down, while the competitive poor are always nipping at our heels, forcing us to scramble ever more to maintain our position in life.
I have a feeling that these things will balance out. Because of economic success in the US in the last century our goods have increased in price to the point that they are no longer competitive. When the rest of the world catches up (e.g. China) our goods will be competitive again and drive the economy.
For example, when the dollar was stroger than the yen it made more sense to completely build cars in Japan and pay the tariff. Now that the Japanese economy has surpassed our own it is cheaper to ship incomplete assemblies for the cheaper tariff and have cheaper labor complete the assembly in the US.