Bread and circuses, anyone?

In my own lifetime, and I’m not quite 60 yet, I watched the American working-class lifestyle disintegrate. When I was a little kid, my dad bought a house that cost the same as his annual factory salary. We had two cars and went on summer vacations. We saw the doctor whenever we needed to, and it wasn’t a big expense.

Our neighbors in our little working-class city in Ohio lived the same lifestyle. People graduated from high school, for the most part got good jobs right out of school, and pursued a prosperous if not luxurious life.

And they mostly did it on one salary, not two.

That’s gone. Utterly shattered. The small city where I was born is a ghost of its former self. Even people who go to college can barely make ends meet with two salaries in a family. Buying a home has become a rare dream. Neighborhoods are falling apart and houses are falling down.

Healthcare is as expensive with insurance as it used to be without insurance. Meaning a lot of people can’t afford to take their kids to the doctor when they need to. Or if they can, they can’t afford medicine.

But people don’t see it, because it’s like the boiled frog syndrome. They don’t recognize the greed that has forced wealth disparity.

And they latch on to whatever scapegoat du jour Republican politicians throw at them.