[Hume]

A middle class lifestyle is based upon the products that companies produce, not so much the jobs they provide. A house with a garden is within reach of the masses only if cars are affordable (ford model T ) a yearly holiday to a sunny location is only within reach of those same people if travel is affordable ( boeing 747 ).

The pressure put upon established jobs originates from technology at least as much as it does from outsourcing lower skilled labour to Asia or Latin America. The unemployment we are facing now is not the result of outsourcing but of the misallocation of resources. Besides, production follows consumption and much of the investment overseas is not in service to American consumers but aims to build up access to those markets.

Middle class Americans have access to more products and services than ever before, the biggest threat to a sustained middle class is a re-inflation of houseprices and a sustained political attack on free trade, not on the lack of foresight of the CEO's of mature organizations.