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May 31st, 2012

Quotable: Viktor Orbán on the middle class

It’s like porn: It’s hard to define, but you definitely know it when you see it.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on what constitutes the middle class, at a conference Thursday reviewing the first two years of his government. [index.hu]
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  • wolfi

    Yeah, but the difference between them is:

    You’ll find a lot of porn in Hungary – but where is the middle class ?

    Or does he mean those super-rich Oligarchs with their Fidesz-affiliated companies ?

  • Aloof

    Well it’s not so hard to define, these are 2012 American stats but they can be pretty much applied to many countries especially EU including Hungary, 2011 was even scarier. So yeah I guess you can this political and economic elitist porn:

    #1 Today, only 55.3 percent of all Americans between the ages of 16 and 29 have jobs.
    #2 In the United States today, there are 240 million working age people. Only about 140 million of them are working.
    #3 According to CareerBuilder, only 23 percent of American companies plan to hire more employees in 2012.
    #4 Since the year 2000, the United States has lost 10% of its middle class jobs. In the year 2000 there were about 72 million middle class jobs in the United States but today there are only about 65 million middle class jobs.
    #5 According to the New York Times, approximately 100 million Americans are either living in poverty or in “the fretful zone just above it”.
    #6 According to that same article in the New York Times, 34 percent of all elderly Americans are living in poverty or “near poverty”, and 39 percent of all children in America are living in poverty or “near poverty”.
    #7 In 1984, the median net worth of households led by someone 65 or older was 10 times larger than the median net worth of households led by someone 35 or younger. Today, the median net worth of households led by someone 65 or older is 47 times larger than the median net worth of households led by someone 35 or younger.
    #8 Since the year 2000, incomes for U.S. households led by someone between the ages of 25 and 34 have fallen by about 12 percent after you adjust for inflation.
    #9 The total value of household real estate in the U.S. has declined from $22.7 trillion in 2006 to $16.2 trillion today. Most of that wealth has been lost by the middle class.
    #10 Many formerly great manufacturing cities are turning into ghost towns.
    #11 Since 1971, consumer debt in the United States has increased by a whopping 1700%.
    #12 The number of pages of federal tax rules and regulations has increased by 18,000% since 1913.
    #13 The number of Americans that fell into poverty (2.6 million) set a new all-time record last year and extreme poverty (6.7%) is at the highest level ever measured in the United States.
    #14 According to one study, between 1969 and 2009 the median wages earned by American men between the ages of 30 and 50 dropped by 27 percent after you account for inflation.
    #15 According to U.S. Representative Betty Sutton, America has lost an average of 15 manufacturing facilities a day over the last 10 years.
    #16 Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs. Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.
    #17 Most Americans are scratching and clawing and doing whatever they can to make a living these days. Half of all American workers now earn $505 or less per week.
    #18 Food prices continue to rise at a very brisk pace. The price of beef is up 9.8% over the past year, the price of eggs is up 10.2% over the past year and the price of potatoes is up 12% over the past year.
    #19 Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.
    #20 The average American household will have spent a staggering $4,155 on gasoline by the end of 2011.
    #21 If inflation was measured the exact same way that it was measured back in 1980, the rate of inflation in the United States would be well over 10 percent.
    #22 If the number of Americans considered to be “looking for work” was the same today as it was back in 2007, the “official” unemployment rate put out by the U.S. government would be up to 11 percent.
    #23 According to the Student Loan Debt Clock, total student loan debt in the United States will surpass the 1 trillion dollar mark at some point in 2012. Most of that debt is owed by members of the middle class.
    #24 Incredibly, more than one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps at this point.
    #25 Since Barack Obama took office, the number of Americans on food stamps has increased by 14.3 million.
    #26 In 2010, 42 percent of all single mothers in the United States were on food stamps.
    #27 In 1970, 65 percent of all Americans lived in “middle class neighborhoods”. By 2007, only 44 percent of all Americans lived in “middle class neighborhoods”.
    #28 According to a recent report produced by Pew Charitable Trusts, approximately one out of every three Americans that grew up in a middle class household has slipped down the income ladder.
    #29 In the United States today, the wealthiest one percent of all Americans have a greater net worth than the bottom 90 percent combined.
    #30 The poorest 50 percent of all Americans now collectively own just 2.5% of all the wealth in the United States.

  • http://www.allhungary.hu Erik D’Amato

    Let’s be fair in conceding that here OV is absolutely correct: “middle class” in reality isn’t about particular economic figures and so forth, rather mostly a collection of cultural and behavioral traits. Unfortunately, I’d argue that his government isn’t actually promoting these cultural and behavioral traits. Still, it’s both a snappy line and 100% true.

    • Aloof

      Then I’d love to see your line for the elite class. Hope it’s snappy…

    • Paul

      snappy????
      Sounds happy…nothing happy about what is going on in Hungary these days…not funny…not a joke at all.

      • Leto

        Well, it seems you’re becoming more and more moronic… and that’s not a joke at all.
        So when were you here in Hungary last time?

        • Paul

          What the heck…I will answer….Nine months ago….we only go there for our family. All together I lived two years in Hungary. Not exactly a holiday. It used to be happy to be there….but Hungary, becomes more and more depressing because of this government. My wife will be Dutch in a few weeks. We are happy. She voted Fidesz once….and because of the antidemocratic tendencies of this government will definitely not repeat this. Some left-overs…..no I do not like what I see in Amsterdam and Rotterdam either. There is more mutual ground than you think.

          • Paul

            Oh and….we have a design company……in a happy town
            my wife is very welcome in our town and happy to get away
            from the Hungarian mess.

  • wolfi

    @Aloof, your list is impressive!

    Since I’ve been on holiday to the USA almost every year I’ve seen some of those things – “White Trash” living in their mobile homes amongst piles of rubbish …

    My wife ( who hasn’t had much experience in intercontinental travelling before we met …) once remarked:

    These dwellings look like gypsies’ – at the end of a Hungarian village, the only difference seems to be that the cars are much bigger …

    On our way from Atlanta to Charleston we also passed through a black neighbourhood (I took the wrong exit) where complete families sat on their porch just looking at their garbage heaps …

    Two miles later we passed a sign: Don’t pick up hitchhikers – and then the “correctional facility” as these are now euphemistically called.

    That concentration of wealth in less and less hands seems to be universal (compare the Russian and Chinese Oligarchs) and now we see the same in Hungary – really sad …

    • Aloof

      Yeah the USA I grew up in was truly a special time and a special place. It’s pretty much gone now. Of course there were pockets of poverty especially black but nothing on the scale we have today. When you have a naked guy on the shoulder of a Miami highway eating the face off another guy (who survived) grunting like an animal when anyone approached him, you know things are kinda going downhill. In true American fashion the cops shot the guy dead but there are others who wish he could have been studied. With the cops on that one…

      Liberal PC America (everyone gets a trophy), greedy corporate bankers, politicians, companies, businessmen, crime, drugs, illegal immigrants, erosion of educational standards, competitive standards (affirmative action), outsourcing, NWO, and I could go on. For the first time in our history minorities outnumber whites. I guess we’re the new minority. I want my rights!

    • I love Hungary

      “Since I have been on holiday to the USA almost every year….”

      Being the operative of this uselss post.

  • A Modest Proposal

    Aloof – you belong in Hungary

    • Aloof

      Why?

  • Anonymous

    Yeah, like porn….corrupt, disgusting, exploitative, unreal, rule breaking and funded by the poor. That’s our middle class Viktor, the middle class you have so proudly created.

  • Viking

    …but can you really jerk off to the “Hungarian Middle Class”?
    A Dirty Mind?
    Tells a bit about The Supreme Leader’s thinking…

    • spectator

      Clearly a bigoted moron, do doubt.
      Particularly idiotic if you count in, that the “Hungarian Middle Class” is his fictitious brainchild and as that got compared to pornography.
      Let (mildly) put: special mindset what the the Supreme Leader own…

  • I love Hungary

    The middle class gives Orban a hard-on? Not sure what KDNP will say about that!

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