The Middle Class is dead.

And there won’t be a funeral because no one can afford the casket.

Photo by Matt Botsford Unsplash

I remember being about 10 years old, while driving to LA with my dad, he yammered on and on about how in twenty to thirty years, the middle class would be dead. The American dream no longer filled with apple pie and backyard cook outs. People wouldn’t be able to afford backyards or the apples.

It was depressing and dire and my dad was usually the optimist in the family, he gifted me with the same rose colored glasses…well, most of the time. On this day, he was dark.

I didn’t understand what he was talking about then, I was ten and he had a Ph.D in Economics, so I figured he knew his stuff on the subject, and it didn’t matter to me, because I was ten.

Well, it matters to me now, thirty years later. Because once I was middle class and now I am considered low income and I generally make between $95 thousand to $110 thousand dollars a year. By myself. Because in addition to being “low income”, I am also a single mother who fully supports her kids on one income.

And now I can add almost homeless to my trifecta of undesirables. Because not only is the middle class dead, greed, power and capitalism has eaten the souls of the workers still barely alive doing its bidding.

It’s easy to blame the big bad corporations for all of our woes, but those corporations are managed by people, actual humans who chose daily to continue to wreak havoc upon those who are slightly less fortunate than they are, for now anyway.

While perhaps not as demonic, it reminds me of those who may not have filled the gas chambers, but stood by and watched, or drove the delivery truck because they “didn’t have a choice”.

Do we not have choices anymore? Are we doomed to be the pawns in our keepers wars without any ability to stand up and say “No!”?

I am being evicted from my over priced corporate owned property because I had an accident, on said property, and I lost work and paid one months rent late. That’s it. I was out of work for three months, scrambling to pay my bills and I paid my rent late, extra late because my payment was stolen when the very expensive, fancy, theft proof mailboxes were robbed on the said corporate owned property. They refused to wait five extra days so I could get my check re-issued.

Evicting me was more expensive than what I owed, but that’s ok because they get to sue for me for all of their expenses anyway, instead of stepping back and saying “Wait a minute, this person is a good tenant. They are having a short term crises, we can work with them” No, that’s not corporate policy and the human who preceded with the eviction was just following policy.

They were not interested in being a part of the solution to the housing problem corporate owned properties are causing. 1 in 4 properties in the U.S. are corporate owned. And during the pandemic and beyond, their profits have been rising, while rents have been rising and as you would expect, wages haven’t been rising and cost of food and other goods is rising. I’m not an economist, but I’m gonna venture to guess that this isn’t good for the regular folks.

I am just a number to the corporation that owns the apartment I live in. One of 2700 units they own in a fifty mile radius by the way. The corporate entity that not only received all of their rent payments during the pandemic, but also received a $5 million dollar PPP loan to boot! So, I guess its ok to ask for help when they are in a “crisis”.

But I better not pay my rent late because it causes them “irreparable harm”.

It wasn’t some intangible omnipotent being that evicted me. It was a person, who had the ability to look at the situation and make a choice, or at least make an effort to intercede. They didn’t. This person has made other choices like this, so it isn’t just a one off. And others in this corporation have made similarly wicked, morally and ethically wrong choices in favor of their overlord.

Do they know its awful what they are doing and they do it anyway? Has the feeling of power they have over other peoples lives corrupted their once compassionate and kind hearted ways? Absolute power corrupts after all.

Are they simply protecting their own and be damned the rest of us? Do they realize that the middle class was once one of them and when we ran out of poor people to plunder and enslave, we needed to make more and so we began eating our own and they are soon to be on the menu?

As I sat in the court room waiting my turn at the guillotine, I watched as fifteen other families, elders and regular folks faced their own slaughter. This was just the morning session by the way. No chance to plead their case, because “Unlawful detainer” court is a shame. The each had a unique story, one that could be easily resolved if the “Landlord” was willing to profit just a little bit less this year.

What?! Profit less and help a family get back on their feet! That’s not what corporations do! That’s what the state does with all those tax dollars! Ironic that these corporations don’t really pay taxes, it’s the people they are evicting that do.

Meanwhile a lawyer got paid $450 an hour and a property manager got paid to sit there, answer a few questions and ruin a life. That’s there job in a nutshell.

There by the grace of God go I…right?

Some things to note:

·       Eviction filings have risen 50% from pre-pandemic numbers.

·       My property owners revenues are around $17.7 million a year – they are considered small.

·       1 in 4 properties in the U.S. is corporate owned – this includes private residences.

·       In California a person making $104,000.00 per year or under is considered low income.

·       In most cases in order to rent a dwelling one must prove 3x’s their monthly rent as income and have a credit score of 750 or higher.

·        Average credit score is 704 and declining.

What is the solution? Is there a solution? Will people start saying “No?” Or will we just continue the status quo until is our own young we are devouring.

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