The Permanent Middle Class

By Caryl Rivers, AlterNet. Posted October 25, 2006.

America has always welcomed and used cheap labor. But at least during the industrial economy, people hoped their kids could do better. Today, they're not so sure.

Toss in heaping tablespoons of the philosophy outlined in a leaked Wal-Mart memo, then add more than a pinch of globalization. Fold in a few teaspoons of American hyperindividualism, and you have a recipe for something that is both very old and very new in American life: the Permanent Proletariat.

On whose shoulders will this state of affairs rest most heavily? On those of the American family, especially children.