Its almost as if Jorr is measuring this by the eye test and feel rather than metrics again.

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Elections have consequences.

Because they exported all their bad one's to serve as our cops, judges and representatives

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

maybe in your America the middle class is great. Not in mine.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

Poor in the rest of the world make less than $1 per day and live in slums. You're doing just fine.

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I'm thinking that some of you have lost a definition of what "middle class" is. Do you think you should be vacationing in Europe twice a year? Should you have that third family car for just weekend cruising...possibly an off-lease Cayman S?

Get real. You work 40-50 hours, you own a home, you own a car, you're able to live comfortably and you have access to consistent entertainment options.

Grow up.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Standing Ovation.

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Elections have consequences.

Says the single renter with no children.

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No offense IMU, but the middle class was a much different thing in the 90s and early 00s... What's left of the middle class is for the most part not living comfortably. Especially in Illinois.

Sure compared to Haiti and Liberia the middle class lives like royalty.

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With a rent that surpasses some mortgages. With decision-making skills to not have children in a situation that wouldn't be the most comfortable for them or myself.

Bringing children into the world when you don't have the means to support them properly is not 'a right.'

Tell you what though...if I did have kids...I'd be fine. I wouldn't be able to go to 10 Cubs games a year probably...but...responsibility and all that jazz.


There are peaks and valleys...and also bubbles. The middle class is fine. Maybe there aren't as many that could be considered "upper middle class" but that would be getting into semantics.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Why does community policing sound familiar.....?

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I'm just saying that making a "middle class wage" is much different when you factor in having a family. You and I may make similar wages but your spending dollars go much further. So while we both may be middle class you may have a more comfortable position.

I also blame social media, it has accelerated the 'keeping up with the Jones' mentality. I have friends that do very well for themselves and post pics of vacations in Europe or Hawaii. People see that and think, why aren't I going there?!? Well its probably because hes a doctor and shes an EVP and they have no kids. Next question.

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asexual reproduction

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Keep in mind, you're speaking from an outlier position.

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What should the life of the middle class be like? As IMU pointed out, this needs to be figured out before any other discussion can happen.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

1 house
1 wife
3 kids
1 dog
1 car
1 husband who works full time
1 wife who manages the house and cares for the kids
1 yearly family vacation (to Aunt Ruth's place in Kenosha)

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With three kids in today's economy the mom would likely be working as well.

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I'm not sure a 1 income household should be a requirement for all of that any more.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Yeah...middle class has both the husband and wife working.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

That's why the country is in ruins.

There is no parent staying home to raise the kids.

Chus is a shining example of what is right with AMERICA.

We need to return to our core values!

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You said the wife manages the house and cares for the kids...

Chus instead is a crazy gender bending libtard!

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Semantics.

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HBO, Disneyworld trip at least once, and a Boat

Just saying, I personally saw families slide from upper middle class to borderline middle class, and middle class to struggling to get by when the recession hit.

There are plenty of parents staying home to raise kids. Just not as many as there used to be. This is nothing new for the inner cities of this country either.

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I blame the unacknowledged by most as taxes ("47% of the country pays NO tax"...right), horribly regressive FICA taxes. So when the other spouse enters the work-force, the couple doubles up on paying FICA taxes and still hamster wheels it in place.

FICA should start at $120K, not stop there.

President Elizabeth Warren for President in 2020

Middle class is an illusion. Look back at how you lived growing up and compare it to now. People have so much more now its ridiculous. Now whether we all should buy what we have or borrow for it is something different. There is some widening gap but the floor is not falling the top is rising. Also, many misinterpret the poor, very poor and indigent as some part of middle class. They are not and never will be (not personally but the class distinction).

Lastly, one reason nearly all have two people working, two cars and pay so much for housing is supply and demand. In the 60-70's when spouses entered the workforce en mass and later even more in the 80's families had a lot more money. Housing, cars and everything else jumped in price. Not that it would be a good thing but if spouses (whatever sex) did not work for extra income housing could not inflate as much. Less supply of dollars would sap house demand and would have kept prices down.

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Elections have consequences.

Where did this thread go?

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Eventually we will have to give huge tax breaks to stay home for one spouse but we don't need to yet.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I don't know what I would do in the Laquan McDonald situation. I have a hard time believing all the bosses and detective didn't review the video before making a statement. I don't know what went wrong there. It wasn't really that good of shoot. The video was eventually going to come out. So why they let it get out of control I do not know. I do know McCarthy immediately put him on desk duty. So someone obviously got it right.

I think it's great we can have this discussion. It's civilized, it's well thought out and well meaning. The "discussion" I keep hearing about on The Score is incredibly lopsided. They're arguing that people need to "come closer to the middle." When they're so far left, that they've blinded themselves. Every time I listen to Speigel and Goff or Bernstein I can hear them and how much they despise of the police. Goff spewing his reckless thoughts and just saying , "yeah, yeah, police brutality" and making jokes, "I saw police and thought I was going to be shot in the back 16 times." That shit is not funny, it's hurtful and disrespectful. Someone with the reach of an audience he has needs to be more careful with the things he says. Then you have Bernstein using the St Louis Rams "hands up don't shoot" narrative still when it was proven false in..THE COURT OF LAW -Bernstein's favorite place.

I do want a discussion about police. But it has to be meaningful and not 2 sides yelling at each other. That, and you can't blame the police for all your problems. You want to start somewhere, start with our government.

Also, I read this today. Really interesting

https://thinkprogress.org/who-killed-al ... .tz8p25z5m

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

The guy to the right of Daniel Day-Lewis kind of looks like Will Forte.