(Commentary/Editorial, Sarcastic? Moi?)

Back when Republicans thought society had an obligation to provide people with luxuries such as education and health care, and when Democrats didn't wet their pants every time someone raised their voice, there was something called the American "middle class."

The middle class existed roughly from 1940 to 1980. It was based on the idea that if people worked hard and were honest, they could move out of the lower class and afford a house and other items without taking on crippling levels of debt.

Luckily, over the past 30 years, we've come to see the folly of that kind of thinking.

Thanks to far-sighted individuals such as Alan Greenspan, we've drastically cut taxes on the wealthy, and paid for those cuts by eliminating needless frills such as public transit and schools for those parasites in the lower classes.

. . .

This has gotten us closer to the utopia envisioned by Ayn Rand and libertarians, where a privileged class of oligarchs --- who obviously are smarter and more talented than the rest of us, because after all, they're rich! --- make decisions from their luxurious enclaves, while everyone else fights for the remaining scraps.

Getting us to this libertarian wonderland are talented strivers such as the Koch brothers, who fund many of those commercials you see and hear ("call the liberals in Congress and tell them to stop eating kittens") through foundations with noble names like Americans for Prosperity.

. . .

Back in the dark ages, one of the leaders of the movement to create a so-called "middle class" grew up in the Mon-Yough area. He was an immigrant (and thus not a "real American," as Tom Tancredo and Sarah Palin would point out) who learned that the coal mine where he worked in North Huntingdon was cheating him, so he led a strike and took the rest of the miners off the job.

Westmoreland County's government intervened on the side of righteousness --- they arrested this miscreant and threw him out.

The miscreant --- Philip Murray, whose picture appears here --- went onto found the United Steelworkers union and become president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

. . .

You can read more about him by clicking on this link to Tube City Online's "Local History" section, where we've reproduced part of a Nov. 14, 1940 profile from the Pittsburgh Bulletin-Index.

All sarcasm aside, despite Philip Murray's role in creating the American middle class, you will not find a monument to to his memory anywhere, as far as I can tell. You'll find Philip Murray Road in West Mifflin, and another one east of Glasgow, Scotland; you'll find a Philip Murray Avenue near the General Motors factory in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, and Pittsburgh Murray Elementary School (formerly Philip Murray Elementary) near that city's St. Clair Village. And that's all.

You probably didn't read about him in American history or see a "Biography" of Phil Murray on A&E.

On the other hand, the noted humanitarian Henry Clay Frick is honored with a building at the University of Pittsburgh, the Frick Art and Historical Center in Point Breeze, the Frick Building in downtown Pittsburgh, and the Frick Museum in New York City, among other things.

. . .

Back to the sarcasm: It's too bad Phil Murray didn't grow up reading Ayn Rand. If he'd only spent more time oppressing the workers than helping them, he could have done something useful with his life, like managing a hedge fund or offering sub-prime mortgages, or maybe raiding American companies and selling their assets to China.

Hey: Happy Labor Day, fellow parasites!