Watch The Middle Class Disappear

[roo_ster]

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/04/03/amazing-graphic-shows-chicagos-middle-class-disappear-before-your-eyes/

The graphic that you are about to see is sobering, perhaps depressing, and you can’t take your eyes off it.

We have the exhaustive work of Daniel Kay Hertz, a masters student at the University Of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy, to thank for that.

At the risk of sounding like an old carnival barker, step right up and watch the middle class of Chicago vanish before your eyes.

However, this is no side-show.

It shows the demise of the foundation of an American city.

Watch as the grey squares, which illustrate the middle class that dominated the most of the city’s neighborhoods in 1970s, quickly vanish over 40 years.

The poor, represented by the orange and red colors, explode across the map.

And watch what happens in the green areas representing the upper middle class and wealthy. Not surprisingly, it spreads from downtown to the north side, but not with the same ferocity as the reds and oranges.

I suspect similar graphics could be made of LA and other American cities.  It is the third-worldization of our country, where the broad middle class is displaced and replaced with a huge underclass and a thicker upper class.  Tyler Cowen has advice for us all, though: eat more beans.
http://vdare.com/posts/tyler-cowen-90-of-americans-will-and-should-have-a-more-bean-centric-mexican-lifestyle

[RevDisk]

It's generally a bad idea to have that kind of a disconnect. Ideally, you want a diamond distribution of assets. Tiny lower socioeconomic class, tiny high socioeconomic class, extremely large middle class. Tends to be a sign of a very healthy country. When you get a huge under class and a shrinking middle class, it means your economic system is screwed up.

Political issues tend to crop up shortly thereafter.

Last time this was a big political problem, we got FDR and a slew of socialist programs. Problem is, we already have some socialist programs, as well as a matching ballooning debt issue. Toss in inflation, wage stagnation, increased automation in manufacturing, etc. I suspect there will be political problems from this in the near term.

[Brad Johnson]

The middle class in Chicago didn't disappear, they moved to places with jobs and a future.  Smart people are kinda like that.

Brad

[Ron]

Many of them moved into the surrounding counties.

Dupage County used to be rock ribbed conservative and Republican country, at least as far as Illinois goes.

The last decade has seen a great erosion in just how Republican or conservative the county votes. In large part I suspect it is due to the Cook County folks escaping the nest they fouled and now trying to make the same mess here.

 

[AJ Dual]

It would be nice if there were some mechanism to force people who vote Leftist/Collectivist/Progressive to have to STAY AND LIVE with the results of what they have wrought.