Editor's Comment: It just ain't what it used to be. The dollar has been stretched to the max, and most people have been stretched too thin. While many Americans have been out of work and discouraged from returning to the work force, many more people are holding on to what they've got, but finding that what they earn hardly qualifies for the standard of "middle class," especially when all the costs, taxes, penalties, accumulated debt and necessities are taken into account.

Let's hope someone does 'make America great again,' because where we're headed now is just a long, cold slide into oblivion as more and more find themselves on the margins, and in between the cracks. Who is it that put down the squeeze, again?

Honey, I Shrunk the Middle Class: Perhaps 1/3 of Households Qualify

by Charles Hugh Smith

If it takes more than $126,000 to fund a qualitatively defined middle class lifestyle, what sense does it even make to call this "middle"?

The Pew Research Center's recent report The American Middle Class Is Losing Ground: No longer the majority and falling behind financially made a media splash, as it reported that less than 50% of adults are members of the Great American Middle Class.