<p>All due respect to another thread under the political subforum “The formerly middle class”, the present economic environment have moved many with lower income but dependent job into a new middle class, agree ? Many middle managers are laid off and now jobless , in its void up come a new middle class. They can now afford things they couldn’t have before because things are cheaper and easier to get now. Their formerly meager resources are suddenly more attractive as the buying power increases. </p>
<p>Your thoughts on this new societal phonomena ?</p>
<p>Paid $1.88 for Unlead regular last night. It was pushing $4/gal not long ago.
Bought 2 high quality cotton men’s shirts for $60, usu $50 each
Grocery pricing have stopped rising or slowed down a lot
New laptop fully equipped for $650, before was $1300-1500
Biggest of all, houses are marked at least 20%
Car deals are aplenty</p>
Who is this new middle class? when the rich individuals and companies retrench, a lot of folks get hurt. The NYT has an article today about companies cutting down on end of the year celebrations. So, the managers may no longer feast on caviar and expensive champagne. But the people who really hurt are the caterers (and their cooks), waiters, florists, as well as the employees of the shops where the caterers got their supplies, and so on. </p>
<p>I am saying the new middle class is a subgroup of yesterday’s lower class (hope not offending anyone here). In that subgroup maybe bus drivers, nurses, electricians, road workers, roofers…who jobs are always needed therefore less vulnerable to laid-off.</p>
<p>The rich will always be rich. Buffet lost 90% of his wealth is still a billionaire.</p>
<p>I know <em>we</em> don’t have any extra money to take advantage of low prices right now…</p>
<p>I can personally vouch for the fact that the construction industry is also being hit pretty hard, so you can scratch electricians, road workers, and roofers off your list of people who aren’t getting laid off. vvv</p>
<p>Sigh! I forgot we have the lowest housing-start in 20 years. Would you say bus driver’s job is pretty safe ? I mean if you are driving big municiple buses. If you are a farmer (not organic farmer) isn’t your product always in demand ?</p>
<p>Can anyone think of jobs that are safe? I am not talking about glamorus but safe from laid-off.</p>
<p>Nurses are still in short supply due to the educational bottlenecks - the current programs do not have enough qualified instructors to accept more students. However, other education related jobs are not safe. UW announced that they have to deal with the $600M budget shortfall and rising student enrollment, and they will be laying off instructors.
I’m in a field related to biotech, and it is either feast or famine. We weathered the dreadful post-genomics bust while everyone else had it reasonably OK. When VC’s wallets close shut, it is a bust, when VCs are feeling generous, things are doing great. Right now VCs want to cherry-pick who gets funding, but they still invest. In this field, you have to be craetive and design your own job.
Bus drivers in Seattle can make $100K/yr with overtime. As long as there are passengers, they will be OK.</p>
<p>Right. More people maybe riding the bus too. I envy bus drivers now. $100k will benefits and the king of your coach sounds pretty good to me. Of course there are job hazards. You may get gang routes. I think nurses job not so secure either because more people will prolong period between doctor visits if at all. Inner city high school music and arts teacher’s got to be nervous too.</p>
<p>Oh how about being a cop ? I would think more cops are needed in big cities to quell the riots. Prison guards ? I always say farmers are safe. If anything you can live off your own land. Fast-food workers ? They get free meals.</p>
<p>Having ridden some of the Seattle city routes, I don’t think I’d want that job. Drunks, gangbangers(or similar), vomit, and other bodily effluents were all too common. The local weekly has regular items of gross things seen on the bus. Not pretty.</p>
<p>“Can you be middle class earning minimum wage?”</p>
<p>I’m hoping that we don’t get to find out. I have heard zero about layoffs where I work and we have projects going out two years but I think that the strongest large companies will have to lay off people if the economy continues to shrink at this pace or even accelerates.</p>
<p>I would consider asking my wife to work (she’s never been in the workforce since we’ve been married) and she might even enjoy the working world.</p>
<p>You’d have to be one senior bus driver to have $100 K including benefits! I used to work in Seattle OMB. Maybe I need to come back! Anyway, it’s not an easy job, as one poster noted.</p>
<p>Long time tenured professors at financially solid institutions are pretty safe … although they may experience some buffeting of income if traditional grant sources get dry, and their working life may get tougher if their assistants (instructors, TA’s, etc) are cut.</p>