My parents live in Delmar now, so I've been there a few times lately. It's a real Disneyland/Pleasantville kind of place these days. But the real Pleasantville, where I went to high school [mumble] years ago, used to have an "other side of the tracks" too. So I can relate to this post, but boy, Delmar . . . there's no there there any more.

"Hope for what?"

Two words: damage control.

@Bluecatt

1. Biden bores me. I'm a PUMA, and not a republican troll. Hillary or bust.

2. The middle class - if there is such a thing - does not control the US. Look at the 700bn bailout. Tax payers get stuck with the bill, get their houses forclosed, and then have to pay to save the CEO's on wallstreet. The idea of Middle Class is an illusion. There are some very interesting studies about this.

3. the american dream is dead. Yes, your family may have started with nothing. But the problem is where do you go after you already have something? NO WHERE.

4. The American dream is to keep growing. Expand. Get richer. Conquer new wilderness. So if you are poor and uneducated, you can become middle class. But after than, youre stuck. And there is no where else to go unless you are the right person, at the right time, with the right amount of luck. ie bill gates.

As I said before, all my grandparents when to college. Gee. You'd think I'd be President already. But I'm worse off than they are. The economy is crashing. The US is drowning in debt. The newsmedia is crazy. And the world sucks. It's hard to make it on your own. Bills to pay. People screwing you over. I'd be better off to go crawling back to my parents and take over the family company. And worse above all, two political parties that are the same. There is no difference between the Democrats and the Republicans.

So that is my main beef with Obama. Hope for what? Like he is going to wave a magic wand and make things go away. There is no middle class, the dream is a lie or at least dead, and we're all going to be trapped in these cubicles for the rest of our life so that we can pay the rent!!!!

Maybe the poor can make something of themselves and turn middle class. But there is very little you can do to escape the enslavement that middle class brings. And its a drug. Once your middle class, the cheap thrills you can sometimes afford are worse than crack. Its the true elites and ultrarich that are laughing. They are going to get a new 700bn bailout at our expense. Sure, the system would crash if there is no bailout and we get screwed more. So now we are being held hostage!!!!!

SO what is this dream you talk about. I've heard about your grandparents dream. But where does that leave you?

Mr. Schaller,

You hit this one out of the park. It's a terrific, interesting observation, not least because it could have been written from a number of perspectives--much as I love it, isn't Salon the undisputed champion of "ask the pop psychologist" speculation fluff piece?--and because you explain, even while flinching a little, both your bias and your reason for making this argument.

It reminded me a little of Jon Krakauer's take on Christopher McCandless and why Krakauer was qualified to write about him in Into the Wild: because he sees more than a little something of himself in his subject.

Thanks for bringing your bona fides to the table and for a tight piece of copy.

As a working-class kid finishing my PhD at an Ivy League school I find a great deal of truth in the article. Too bad it won't be mentioned since class is pretty much the third rail that can't be touched in America.

My editor takes extend vacations as well. #1 I am really depressed that the American Dream is gone (so you say). I agree it has grown much more difficult. However, from my standpoint, I am living the American Dream. None of my grandparents had more than a 6th grade education. My parents graduated high school, and my father worked in a factory all of his life (in management) & my mother was a housewife. My siblings and I all graduated college, have good lives, and are not hurting for money. You see, I believe the middle class rules the United States, not the rich. Maybe I am a fool.

#3 Yeah, more people should say what they think...Doesn't that make you like Biden though? He says what he's feeling, often mistakenly, but still it's a good thing that he has the ability to do so. I though McCain was like that, until about a year ago. Palin has yet to say anything she thinks. It is all scripted. She does not need an editor.

#6 & #7 The internet allows us to pretend to be someone we are not because all of this is mostly anonymous. And yeah that is a great deal of fun. But let your editor earn his money. Wake that bastard up.

Bluecatt

Can we put tommy and joey in a house for six months together? They can talk endlessly about their navels, get drunk, hug and cry.

Does salon have any idea what's actually going on in the world?

No.

@Bluecatt

My editor is always out to lunch.

1. I think the American dream is long gone. And a joke they sell to middle class people to make them think their hard work will at least pay off.

2. I only pretend to be rich out of my own middle class upbringing. But I'd rather trick myself into thinking I was elite than hearlding a normal, middle class upbringing. Its more fun.

3. Sometimes editors prevent us from saying what we really think. And the only way the country is ever going to get over its ingrained problems is if people can speak their minds. At least if we say what we think, we can hear how crazy it comes out. And then maybe adjust our thoughts. But by not being able to say anything, these crazy thoughts only grow in our minds.

4. My posts are not meant to be racial. So sorry if they see that way. Not my intent.

5. I was mainly making fun of Tom in my post. I used to love Salon, but they've had Palin on the cover for a month now, and I'm bored. I like Political News. From both sides. Not a rant about Tom's [common] middle class upbringing and his psycho review of Biden's personality.

6. As to old vs new vs no money. Some people can jump class. But it doesnt happen 99% of the time because there really is no American dream. The best most of us, like me, can do is to pretend that we are elite and then get back to work!!!!! But I'd rather live in my dream world than cry about poor little middle class me!

7. Its the internet! People say crazy things!