A heady day. Hmm. Such a heady day, in a good way, that I think I’ll take some headache medication because adjusting to good news can be taxing, too – especially because the flurry of activity that surrounds publishing a book is a lot of activity. Rats. I already buried the lede. Welcome to the publication of Muddling By, A Rollercoaster Ride Through America’s Wealth Classes. It is one person’s view (me) of what it’s like to be middle class, a millionaire, and muddling by in America. Pardon any missteps, but I wanted to get it done and available while we still have an America, or at least a USA.

As the description on Amazon says;
“Muddling By explores about two dozen topics seen from his roller coaster ride through middle class, millionaire, and muddling by.
…
Each topic looks different from each class, but all are valid.
Most of us are just trying to get by, living inside the implicit confines of our community.
Few are oligarchs. Few are criminals.

We made up money and wealth. We’ve decided to permit poverty.”

Here begins the next challenge for any writer, trying to concisely describe what they’ve written. 

(pardon the long introspective pause that readers don’t get to see)

Our culture in the US has devolved into an internal Us versus Them. It’s not a surprise. Our culture grew, particularly when the Them was external and a real threat. Regular readers know I’ve gone from middle class to millionaire to muddling by. From the media narrative, each of those has been a Them to someone else. For me, each was always just me. I’ve come to realize that there is no true Them until you get into the realms of the oligarchs who purposely distance themselves from Us. This story, this book, is about two dozen-ish topics seen from the various perspectives: middle class, millionaire, and muddling by. This book is about those generalities, which I contrast with my realities. 

Most people are simply trying to get by with what they have, where they are, within the community that accepts them. Each ‘wealth class’ is legal and valid, mostly. I have met people who break the law, and that’s been true in every community. The greater majority are people who live valid and legal lives without more than a normal amount of human compassion and occasional disgruntlement. 

The media, the pundits, and the politicians thrive off the disgruntlement. 

Conventional writing wisdom is to emphasize the disgruntlement. Writers are advised to find the conflict and the drama.

What I’ve witnessed is that everyone I know has some battle, regardless of wealth. Granted, one person’s wealth could resolve another person’s problem, but that distribution has its own problems, and simply redistributing all of the wealth instantaneously is impractical. We invented wealth and poverty, and I’m not surprised that we haven’t figured it out yet. We are a young civilization, and our growing pains are real, not abstractions.

Many books and articles I encounter treat wealth classes as Us versus Them, as if they are a rigid caste system. We’re messier than that. Articles and books are easier to write for one particular Us. The world isn’t that narrow.

In 2008, I published by request, Dream. Live. Invest., basically a book about personal finance for frugal folk. I’d retired at 38. People wanted to read that story. Ironies happen. The book became available just as the Great Recession (the Second Great Depression) began. My portfolio and I survived it. Then, I was hit by My Triple Whammy. Mostly because of two sets of white collar criminals, my portfolio fell 80% within a few months. I couldn’t get a job and couldn’t sell my house, so I gutted my investments while I scrounged for work. My net worth dropped 98%. Through lots of gigs and a few very generous benefactors, my house and I survived. Recently, I got rid of all of my debt by selling my home. Being debt-free has been a great benefit. I realized it was time to compile my various perspectives into a book that is almost but not really a sequel.

Muddling By is part of my attempts to show how we differ and how we’re similar. I include messy details of the Us versus Them dynamic because that is part of our reality. There are differences between the classes, but it’s become apparent to me that we invented wealth, and poverty, and the mess we’ve made as we try to make an economy work. The media, pundits, and politicians will emphasize the differences and disgruntlements as if there was some Them to blame, but that is a narrative based on short-term gains instead of long-term sustainability. 

Most people commenting on wealth in America comment from a singular perspective. Class mobility is not as common as it could be, so commentaries easily devolve into opinions about Us and Them. Entire media networks, careers, and political parties are based on the assumption of rigid boundaries that can be assaulted or defended. With mobility so low, it is easy to reinforce the notion of those borders.

It is counter to convention, but I decided to chronicle how various topics are not just perceived but actually lived with from a variety of wealth-based perspectives. As a writer of several books, I have no grand notion that Muddling By will be a best-seller, but as a person, I knew I wanted to express my perspective that has been based on personal experience and shared insights. It may not be as dramatic or as inflammatory, but I hope there’s an interest in recognizing our commonalities. Maybe we can turn a bit more to respecting and helping each other and our society, rather than dividing and shattering the things we have going for us. 

Did I bury the lede? Probably. A person can only develop a limited set of skills. Ledes, headlines, and online descriptions are elements of marketing. Marketing is a skill that, at least for me, is under development.

But, if you want to learn more about various perspectives of America’s wealth classes from someone who has crossed much of that landscape, well, here’s my book about that. I hope it helps.

Muddling By – A Rollercoaster Ride Through America’s Wealth Classes