ONE PICTURE IS WORTH ... ETC.

by Bob Walsh

I saw an interesting map on the news a day or two ago. It was an economic map of the city of Chicago, at one time the #2 economic engine in the whole country. It compares 1970 with 2017. In 1970 over 1/2 of the city population was middle-class working-class people. In 2017 that group had virtually disappeared from the city and what there is is probably mostly civil service who for some reason or other have to live in the city. Upper class has grown significantly and is still mostly in enclaves near the lack. Lower class has grown by a HUGE amount as far as geographical coverage within city limits. Mostly people who know jack about how things work will tell you that it is the middle class that holds a city and a society together.

Large cities are moving more and more towards a feudal system with lords (rich people) and serfs (poor people) and a very small middle class made up of artisans and technicians of one sort of another. The interesting thing is that, in the current model, the political masters are not pissing on the peons, they are pissing on the middle class. At some point the middle class may get sick of it and do something about it. It's hard to say what that something will be but it is likely to be meaningful.