>>There are multiple ways to hit the middle class and lower-middle class hard. Some more obvious and more publicized (and on the other hand, some denied) than others.
AFAIK you're affluent middle class. For the 1% in your town to start sucking away your standard of living would be incredibly stupid- but that's where they're going. Can they not perceive that a band of desperate poor may trash Main Street and mill around until the troops arrive, but put a Goff in charge and it'll be organized and the troops will defect to fight the good fight and now there's another revolution in Pennsylvania. ;-)
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
