Erosion of the middle class and the decline of the family

A post-mortem

by Alex Hutchins

During the decade of the 1950’s, more precisely, 1954 through 1959, I was 6 years old and had attended  grades 1^st through 6^th, and every day I would ride the school bus to school and ride the school bus back home again, Monday through Friday, and every day when I would walk through the door to enter my home, my mother would be there with a healthy snack and ask me how my day had gone.   Every Sunday, the family would attend Sunday school and the Church Service, even when we were on vacation we found a local church and attend the Church Service.  Throughout the year, I had chores that needed to be done both everyday and weekly and during the summers, I would also have outside chores to complete before playing with the neighborhood kids.  Christmas Holidays were the most fun because the community would organize Carol singing evenings and we would walk around the community singing to those families who could not participate because of illness.  The parents would also get together and buy the same presents for the male and female children so that we could play together with the same toy, mostly cowboy and Indian stuff.  I did not pay too much attention to what the girls got, but I would assume it was dolls.  Sometimes, we would visit relatives in a nearby State for a reunion which would involve 100 or more people.

Our family, if represented by a tree, would be large and full and healthy with strong roots well into the ground.

A community is composed of many family trees, so if we were to look at the tree of the community, it would something like the one below.

In the 1960’s, my parents relocated the family overseas, in Cairo, Egypt and our family togetherness started to deteriorate and erode.  My sister remained in the United States, and my brother and I endure the relocation, by losing friends and gaining new ones, but the transition, regardless of the age is always traumatic. 

My sister visited us for a year, and then a little later, I left to enter College.  There was no more afternoon snacks, no more chores, no more Carol sings, and no more community activities in which to keep our family and community together. 

As we got older, the separations became longer; divorce and re-marriage has occurred for me and my sister, and now several States separates us and continents separates me from my daughter in China. 

And, while our tree is still strong with large, powerful branches, its roots are exposed on top of the ground.  In fact, the divorce rate in America in 2011 is between 45-50% for first marriages.  The rate increases as the number of marriages increase.  In the South, where I am located, the Bible Belt, the divorce rate is higher.  

In fact, a recent study indicated that the divorce rate is higher among Southern Baptist than the national average, which is not something that one would expect.  In short, the traditional family is on the way out.    

Our family tree, now looks like our tree on the left.

What caused this to happen in our country?  Surely my parents had their “ups” and “downs,” especially living through the Great Depression and WWII.  My Dad worked long hours but my Mom was always there, mainly because she did not have to work.  So, part of the problem is the 1970’s was a decade that had both parents working in order to maintain the lifestyle that our parents maintain with only one parent working; consequently, more females entered the workforce and were able to open all sorts of doors that their mothers did not have the opportunity to open.  Families became more and more mobile as career relocations took them away the roots of family and community.

From the 1960’s through the 1980’s, America rode the crest of an economic tidal wave that created a backlash of greed, selfishness, and a lust for power and control.  The baby-boomers were too busy making money to be concerned with families, having children, or continuing the traditions of the past as they transformed themselves from long-haired, hippie freaks into smooth talking, have I got a deal for you, last man standing tycoons.  Television shows and the silver screen mirrored this metamorphosis.  The baby-boomers grand children have no idea what tradition is or its cultural importance, especially since globalization has eliminated the WASPs who settled this country and declared our independence at the risk of committing treason.

Retirement and Social Security are right around the corner for me, and if I were to blink my eyes, I would be enjoying both.  Now, the threat is not so much the dissolution of the family, but the dissolution of America.  China and India are knocking on our doors and will push them open even though they are locked.  Our middle class is dwindling as their middles classes are increasing.  Our debt increases as their incomes increase.

What amazes me more than anything else is that the wealthy and the poor do not work.  It is the middle class that works and if the middle class is gone, who is going to work for the rich so that the poor can tag along?  The only other middle class that is available is what’s available in China and India.  OPEC does not care, where the middle class is located as long as they purchase gasoline.

The United States is about ready to create a new tradition and it will not be an afternoon snack of milk and oreos with Mom.