About 1980 or so, a new crop of leaders here in America, heirs to that unique and tremendously successful accomplishment that is the American middle class, ibegan to inherit the charge from their forbears to move forward with the New Global View (NGV).  They were of a more recent generation and, unfortunately, of a much smaller caliber of leadership.  Most of them had never been tested in the crucible of war or economic hardship.  They were found wanting in wisdom, if not lacking in the inherited influence and wealth to nevertheless play with the levers of power. 
 
It was becoming apparent to this new crop of leaders that the playing field was tilting more in favor of the American middle class rather than leveling off globally.  This was not according to plan.  The plan was that the rest of the world’s economies would over the decades float up to the American level.  That wasn’t happening as the productivity of the American middle class increased and the demand for goods and services fueled the economy.  And it was about that time that the American citizen was replaced by the “Consumer”.    
 
And the gap would not be closing from the bottom up.  The American middle class consumed something like 35% of the worlds resources, and polluted about the same percentage or a little more, depending upon estimates.  With a U.S. population of 5% of the world’s people, it would take 1000% of the globe’s resources for China, India, Japan, Europe, South America, etc. to achieve the American middle class’ “standard of living”.  If you do the arithmetic, it turns out that the “American dream” becomes a global nightmare.
 
Hence the sharp turn by our elite leaders away from the idea of bringing the world up to the American middle class’ standard of living and toward the idea of pauperizing the American middle class to level its side of the playing field at the more sustainable second world, or even third world, elevation.  That lowering of the standard of living of course did not include the power elite who were at the helm as they turned the ship of state into much darker waters.
 
To be continued …
 
References:
The Rise and Fall of the American Middle Class: The Big Idea. 
The Rise and Fall of the American Middle Class: A Faulty Foundation.
The Rise and Fall of the American Middle Class: The Seeds of Destruction.  
 
 
The Confidence Game - Part 1