<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12pt"><div style="RIGHT: auto"><SPAN style="RIGHT: auto">There are very few living in used cars. The folks I've seen seem to have mostly kept their homes or been downsized to a flat. (Oh, the horror! Living in a flat! I've never owned a house and don't find living in flats to being relegated to a social netherworld.)</SPAN></div>
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<div style="RIGHT: auto"><SPAN style="RIGHT: auto">I'm not saying the middle class, whatever that means, doesn't suffer under statism or state capitalism. But many in that class seem to get a cut and seem to be part of the system. And many government programs -- like the ones I've mentinoed (or did light rail systems and public higher education cease when the housing market slumped?) -- seem geared to buying or keeping middle class support. The state stays in place because it can offer things like this. (Of course, at a price, but most folks ignore the price, especially when others are paying it.)</SPAN></div>
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<div style="RIGHT: auto"><SPAN style="RIGHT: auto">Regards,</SPAN></div>
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<div style="RIGHT: auto"><SPAN style="RIGHT: auto">Dan</SPAN></div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto"><SPAN style="RIGHT: auto">Overthrow all governments!<VAR id=yui-ie-cursor></VAR></SPAN></div>
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<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt" class=ms__id5685><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</SPAN></B> BillK <pharos@gmail.com><BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</SPAN></B> ExI chat list <extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org><BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</SPAN></B> Friday, July 15, 2011 10:19 AM<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</SPAN></B> Re: [ExI] rugged individualists<BR></FONT><BR>2011/7/15 Dan wrote:<BR>> If you're playing at the level, you not only get dodges, but big fat<BR>> subsidies and should you be really big the government will adjust the<BR>> macroeconomics (Fed policy) to suit your needs.<BR>><BR>> But it's not just the fabulously wealthy who benefit here. The poor often<BR>> pay more in taxes to support all sorts of middle class stuff. E.g., public<BR>> colleges. Really poor people don't go to college or go as often, as a
group.<BR>> Middle class people do. Sure, they get taxed, but so does the poor slob. So,<BR>> the middle class person's kid goes to a public college with a government<BR>> loan to become the manager of a company where the poor person's kid cleans<BR>> the toilet. Yes, the middle class is being destroyed...<BR></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt" class=ms__id5685>Your comment about the middle class is a few years out of date.<BR>The housing slump and unemployment has hit the middle class really hard.<BR><BR>Most of those now living in cars used to be middle class.<BR><BR>BillK</DIV></DIV></div></body></html>