The Jetsons, technology, and the fading middle class.

They say the middle class is shrinking. They say, in a matter of time, it might even cease to exist. That is, if we continue on our current path. The rich will get richer, and the poor will continue to slip into poverty. Nearly a billion people in this world live on under a dollar a day. How can the poor get any poorer? Well, it's happening.

I imagine that most anyone reading this little memo considers themselves a firm member of the middle class. A few might be in the upper class, and a few less considered "poor." To those in the middle class, don't get too comfortable. How do you plan on keeping up?

How can any of us without a huge amount of disposable income keep up with this rapidly changing world? Technology advances, evolves, and changes at incredibly high speeds. The new technology is always the most expensive technology, and these days, it's all new technology. It'll get faster, slicker, more beautiful, and, of course, more expensive. How do you plan on keeping up?

I thought of that great old cartoon The Jetsons the other day. I remembered how they lived in the clouds. Their homes and office buildings seemed to be miles up off the ground, maybe somehow connected to the Earth below. They had flying cars. They had talking robot housemaids. They had television phones. And I wondered how many millions of poor people were still living in the mud on the Earth's surface below. You never heard about them. Did they have talking robot housemaids? Doubtful. Did they have floating treadmills and fancy designer future clothes? Probably not.

They lingered below, without the great new technology, living on less than a dollar a day. Because as the Jetsons got richer, the poor got poorer. Does anyone remember seeing a minority on the Jetsons? I'm sure there were at least a couple, but I don't remember any of them.

Do you think there was a middle class? While Sub-Saharan Africa was still suffering from AIDS and other diseases, while Indonesian nations were dreaming of someday rising into the clouds, do you think somehwhere in between , floating halfway between the clouds and Earth, was a middle class with older model talking robots? Converted flying Corrolas? Second hand Cogswell Cogs? We never heard about them. That's because in the future, while the Jetsons are taking their dogs out for automatic walks, the poor have become too poor to be remembered. They have been forgotten, and the middle class has ceased to exist.

Harbor your ipods now middle class. Enjoy the Dells while they last. Because pretty soon, you won't be able to afford any of it. Buy hey, there's still one little ray of sunshine. While the likes of the Jetsons are puttering around in their flying cars and talking on their television phones, they won't be worried about today's technology. They'll have moved onto new things to get bored with. And maybe, after they've used it all up, they will just dump it over the side wall of their houses in the clouds, and little gifts will float down to the poor from a discarding heaven.

The middle class is shrinking, and that doesn't mean everyone is getting rich. It doesn't mean that you can be okay with it because you got your college degree. Don't plan on living life in the clouds, but if you do end up there, I hope one thing: that the screams of terror from hell below will be loud enough to reach up to you in your sleep (Wow. That's intense). Billions of people are forgotten everyday, and you are one of the blessed. Houses in the clouds make one hell of a gated community. Don't forget your brothers below.