She's certainly not thinking about them more than she did Ernest Dymond, the police officer who was run over by her driver at Westchester County Airport shortly after 9/11, when she ordered her Secret Service driver to ignore a security checkpoint. [The linked article does not mention that when the Secret Service came back to the checkpoint to check on the injured officer, they apologized that the former first "lady" had ordered them to run the checkpoint to get to her private jet.]
But I digress.
In order to help the "middle class", you have to do a couple things, and it doesn't matter if you are Hillary Clinton or an actual caring human being. First, you need to define what the middle class actually is. Then, you have to decide what they have sufficiently in common, that you can determine a "need" to decide to address.
There is, of course, no right answer on what "middle class" means. I think we are middle class, but whether we are, or not, pretty much depends on what the next defined level down or up is. "Poor"? "Working Poor"? ""Comfortable"? "Filthy Rich"? "Whatever the Clintons Are"? I don't know.
I do know that however most people think of "middle class" without actually, you know, defining it, it could encompass an inordinate variety of people. And no matter how you define them, they will have both an inordinate variety of situations and an inordinate variety of opinions on how much fixing they actually want. I think a piece I wrote last September covers that part pretty well.
You probably want to start by defining "middle class" in terms of income, and I can't say that I blame you. But gee, if you're making, say, $50,000 a year and live in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, your lifestyle is one heck of a lot different from your twin sister making $50,000 and living in Manhattan.
Hint: the above picture is of an actual four-bed, three-bath house under ten years old, on 1/3 acre, that is for sale in Coeur d'Alene for $284,900. The same $284,900 in Manhattan will get you a steak dinner with champagne, but no side dishes. And the champagne will be domestic. Mortgages not available.
You get the idea. We all would "feel" like the buyer of that house -- which a $50,000 income would let you get a mortgage for -- is "middle class", right? I know I do. I also know that the 208-square-foot apartment that you could get for the same price, in Manhattan, also comes with a $9,000 annual condo fee that would take it out of affordability, period.
So no, there's no dollar threshold for "middle class." Perhaps we replace it with "the range between what a trash collector would make and what an accountant would make" wherever you happen to live, or some other range of professions -- a geographically neutral concept.
But then, you get into problem #2, which is -- OK, this is #2a -- that however you slice that range, and however narrowly you bound it, it will end up with a middle class without consistent needs.
Some will feel that educating their kids is a priority, so they will pay for private schools rather than set loose their heirs in schools taught by NEA types. Some will be overwhelmingly focused on saving for retirement and have no kids. Some want to maximize their home size; others are committed to public service. None of that innately pushes you out of the middle class, nor defines you as being in it. Their needs are different, which means the solutions are different. No one size fits all.
Then there is #2b -- the middle class, however defined, includes the very conservative, the very liberal, and everything in between. Whatever "solution" you come up with, not only will it help some and hurt others, but a healthy chunk of them will oppose, on principle, any solution or policy meant to help the middle class as defined by Hillary, or whomever. In other words, they will not want what Government is trying to do for some part of the group they're supposed to be in!
In the simplest case, if Obama decided to borrow $300 billion from China to give a thousand to every U.S. citizen to "help the middle class", I would scream "NO!!!!" even though I could use the money. It might be good for my best gal and me, but it would sure be bad for the USA.
If I am middle class, and I don't know what else I am, I will forgo a lot if what Government may do in the name of helping people like me, if it is in the name of a balanced budget. That is important to me. If you took away my mortgage interest deduction in the name of a flat income tax, I will happily wave it bye-bye. My neighbor, of comparable middlehood, may scream bloody murder. Get it?
So here's what I want, as a voter and a taxpayer.
If you are running for President, and you even mention that you want to help the middle class, then I ask that you start your entreaty to that middle class with these sentences, all of them:
(1) I, [candidate name], believe that the middle class is defined as: ..............................
(2) I, [candidate name], believe that the most pressing need of the middle class is: ....................
(3) I, [candidate name], believe that the solution to that most pressing need is: .....................
(4) And I, [candidate name], believe that the reason that solution to the most pressing need of the middle class will work is because [describe where it actually has worked in a real-life situation].
Now, I actually send links to these essays to many of the presidential candidates on the vague chance that someone in their entourages will actually read them and start thinking. I think I'll add Hillary Clinton to the list for this one.
She'll appreciate the help, I'm sure, as long as she doesn't have her own hands on the steering wheel.
Copyright 2015 by Robert Sutton
Like what you read here? There's a new post from Bob at www.uberthoughtsUSA.com at 10am Eastern time, every weekday, giving new meaning to "prolific essayist."
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