Magical Thinking and the Vanishing Middle Class

This current economic upheaval got me to thinking about how hard it's gotten to live a middle class life lately. As is often the case, one thought ties in with another, and this particular thought latched itself onto a ballot issue that Maryland residents will be voting on next Tuesday -- do we want the state to install thousands of slot machines to raise revenue for our schools, save the horse racing industry, and keep those gambling dollars in-state?

I'll explain. When I was growing up in the sixties, it was relatively easy to get a good solid job without an advanced degree, and to hold that job until you were ready to retire -- with a proper pension, of course. You didn't have to aspire to a six-figure salary or put in a 60-hour workweek just to keep the wolf away from the door. If you were the ambitious type, you could start out working in the company mailroom, work your way up the company ladder, and go as high as your talents and temperament would allow.

That doesn't seem to be the case any more. Many of the people I know are one pink slip or one medical crisis away from the edge. Many of my friends owe a year's salary or more for credit card bills, medical bills, car payments, you name it. And not all of them are out-of-control spenders. Employees are considered disposable commodities, and if the stock market tanks just when you were planning to retire, you can watch your 401(k) vanish before your very eyes.

Here's where the slot machines come in. My theory is that when people feel helpless and out of control, they turn to magical thinking. Maryland is in need of some serious tax money right now, and they are hoping to get it from folks who are hoping against all evidence that they are going to hit that one big win that is going to put them on easy street. Or at least pay off a few bills. When all your other options are in the dumpster, gambling starts to look pretty good.

You see a lot of magical thinking going on with all the "reality shows" on television. Contestants perform in talent contests, eat worms, bicycle across New Guinea, whatever, trying to win that million-dollar prize. Some of them are quite good, but others make you wonder what the heck they were thinking when they signed up. They all want that big chance at fame, that wad of money, whatever that one big thing is that will get them out of their humdrum everyday lives.

Magical thinking takes over when there's no clear path to lead you upward. That path has been slowly but surely erased over the last 30 years. Remember "rightsizing" and "flattening the organization" from the 1980s? The organizations didn't really flatten so much as they raised the top levels, lowered the bottom levels, and shaved the supporting pillars between the two levels until they were pencil-thin. With no middle levels, you either had to be born at the top, get incredibly lucky, or work like a maniac to make that one big leap. Don't even think about settling down in a nice mid-level job -- those jobs are a vanishing breed. Come to think of it, don't even think about settling, period. Because that pink slip may come at any time. When your whole future is looking like a crapshoot, buying those lottery tickets and playing those slot machines starts to look less and less irrational.

My hope is that once these financial castles in the air have finally crashed down to earth, we can all get busy and start building solid foundations again. Real people making real stuff and earning real incomes so that they can pay real money for the things they really need. Is this idea any more hopelessly naive than the idea of building an entire society on debts, derivatives, and slot machines?