Slab, if we as a society continue on the route we are headed (globalization, outsourcing of jobs, anti labor legislation, a stagnant economy, letting big business run this country, etc.) then it wont be too much longer before nobody will even remember what a "middle class" household looks like...... There wont BE a middle class. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and over time the middle class shrinks, until one day, you wake up and notice that this countries economic spread consists of a 1% elite class and a 99% low/peasant class. I admit, it is a stretch, but there ARE countries, whose "hands off" economic policies have contributed to an Economic dynamic of similar proportions. Would it be so out of line to hope that our government does whatever is nesessary to help preserve the American middle class?