Letter to the Editor, Columbus Dispatch: Demise of middle class will drag down nation

The article below was printed in today's Columbus Dispatch. Mr. Speakman, in my opinion, pretty well sums up our current situation. (John Curry)

Demise of middle class will drag down nation

Thursday, November 17, 2005

I respond to Andrew Oldenquist’s Nov. 9 Forum column, "Public education’s failures are a threat to the nation."

It will not be the failure of public education that fuels the drive toward Third World status, it will be the destruction of the middle-class workers of America.

For all practical purposes, this is already in action, and it has nothing to do with the poor or racism, as the good professor suggests.

Not only is the middle class under assault, but, if I understand the economic news reports correctly, those with educational backgrounds that helped put them into jobs within the Silicon Valley lifestyle also are losing their positions to the overseas labor force.

I expect that at the end of Oldenquist’s 25 years, there will be three groups of economic classes: the wealthy, the politicians and then the rest of society, which will be working for Third World wages via the Wal-Mart types of companies.

DON SPEAKMAN
Mansfield